ESSAYS ON LIBERTY VOLUME IV THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 1958 EDITOR~S NOTE The study of freedom and presentation of the find­ ings in a manner helpful to anyone who is in­ terested is the objective of the staff and the friends of the Foundation for Economic Education. The studies are distributed, as completed, in the form of separate releases and as articles in The Free­ man, a monthly study journal. This is the fourth volume of essays on liberty, all of the selections in it having previously ap­ peared as articles in The Freeman between Jan­ uary 1956 and March 1957. Volumes I, II, and III of Essays on Liberty, published in 1952, 1954, and 1958 respectively, are still available. Volume V also is being published in 1958. Permission is hereby granted to reprint these essays in whole or in part, except the following: The Gamers Nose under the School Tent by Roger A. Freeman Facts about the "Industrial Revolution" by Ludwig von Mises The Literature of Freedom by Henry Hazlitt Ponzi Was a· Piker by Clarence E. Manion World Invisible by Diogenes Published September 1958 Copyright 1958, by The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. PRINTED IN U.S.A. CONTENTS Page The Literature of Freedom Henry Hazlitt . 9 Why Pay for Things? F. A. Harper 14 The Perfect Price Benjamin F. Fairless 18 The Humanity of Trade Frank Chodorov 27 The First Law of Economics Anthony M. Reinach 38 The Case for the Private School George S. Schuyler 42 The Case for Church Schools August W. Brustat . 47 Two Directions at Once Leonard E. Read 55 Ponzi Was a Piker Clarence E. Manion 65 The Longer We Live Allen W. Rucker 68 Two Points of View Edmund A. Opitz . 76 A Clergyman's Security Francis E. Mahaffy 86 Philosophy Through the Bars F. A. Harper 93 To Gain Respect Spruille Braden 103 Page Foreign Aid Fiasco Charles Hull Wolfe 109 The Risk Within Douglas MacArthur 124 Welfare States at War Hans F. Sennholz . 127 Removing Our Trade Barriers W. M. Curtiss . 137 Wheat and World Trade Paul de Hevesy 142 Labor's True CCMagna Charta" Guaranty Survey . 150 Facts about the c'Industrial Revolution" Ludwig von Mises . 158 A Duty of Management Ben Moreell 171 Looking Out for Yourself Leonard E. Read . 172 Government in Business Murray N. Rothbard . 183 Government Lending Hoover Commission 188 The Great Swindle Henry Hazlitt . 200 The Power To Destroy William Henry Chamberlin 203 How Are You Doing Paywise? F. A. Harper . 216 Executive Incentive Crawford H. Greenewalt • 222 Page The Real Revolution and You Ivan R. Bierly. 227 Democracy Army definitions 239 The Camel's Nose under the School Tent Roger A. Freeman . 240 High School Economics Thomas J. Shelly . 247 The Use of Books Edmund A. Opitz . 251 Self Help Samuel Smiles . 259 Our Nation's Water Resources John Chamberlain. 262 Economic Ends and Means Guaranty Survey . 26B Tidings from the Lord Leonard E. Read . 277 Serving Others Benjamin F. Fairless . 281 Most Important Victor Jacobson 293 The Price of Free Medicine Calm Brogan . 296 Free Market Farming W. M. Curtiss . 304 Formula for Discovery Charles F. Kettering . 316 The Graduated Gadinkus Tax F. A. Harper . 319 Page Our Principles of Freedom Must Stand E. Smythe Gambrell . 326 Unemployment by Legal Decree Bettina Bien 335 Some Mistakes of Marx William Henry Chamberlin 340 Flies in the Sugar Bowl Paul L. Poirot . 352 Despotism in Democratic Nations Alexis de Tocqueville . 358 The Voluntary Basis of Trade Unionism Samuel Gompers . 367 Peace and World Government Edmund A. Opitz . 369 The Plague We Spread Indianapolis Star . 383 Forgotten Commandment Charles Hull Wolfe 386 A Fair Wage C. W. Anderson 398 Of Bread and Circuses Ben Moreell 402 A Case of Corruption Frank Chodorov 409 To Find a Way Out Hanford Henderson 418 A Seeming Paradox about Inflation F. A. Harper . 428 World Invisible D'wgenes 437 Index. 443 THE LITERATURE OF FREEDOM THE Free Man's Library is a descriptive and critical bibli­ ography of works on the philosophy of individualism­ "individualism" in a broad sense. The bibliography in­ cludes works which explain the workings and advantages of free trade, free enterprise, and free markets; which recognize the evils of excessive state power; and which champion the cause of individual freedom of worship, speech, and thought. Such a compilation seemed to me to be increasingly urgent because so few writers and speakers on public questions today reveal any idea of the wealth, depth, and breadth of the literature of freedom. What threatens us today is not merely the outright totalitarian philosophies of fascism and communism, but the increasing drift of Mr. Hazlitt, author of Economics in One Lesson and other liber­ tarian works, is a contributing editor of Newsweek. This article is from the introduction to his book, The Free Man's Library (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. $3.50. Also available through the Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on­ Hudson, N. Y.) This descriptive listing of more than 540 outstand­ ing contributions to the literature of freedom begins with the early seventeenth century and carries through to our own time. [ 9] thought in the totalitarian direction. Many people today who complacently think of themselves as "middle-of-the­ roaders" have no conception of the extent to which they have already taken over statist, socialist, and collectivist assumptions-assumptions which, if logically followed out, must inevitably carry us further and further down the totalitarian road. One of the crowning ironies of the present era is that it is precisely the people who flatteringly refer to· them­ selves as "liberals" who have forgotten or repudiated the essence of the true liberal tradition. The typical butts of their ridicule are such writers as Adam Smith, Bastiat, Cobden ("the Manchester SchooI'll), and Herbert Spencer. Whatever errors any of these writers may have been guilty of individually, they were among the chief architects of true liberalism. Yet our modern "progres­ sives ll' now refer to this whole philosophy contemptuously as laissez taite. Lack of Consistency Many of todaylls writers who are most eloquent in their arguments for liberty in fact preach philosophies that would destroy it. It seems to be typical of the books of our intelligentsia to praise one kind of liberty incessantly while disparaging or ridiculing another kind. The liberty that they so rightly praise is the liberty of thought and expression. But the liberty that they so foolishly denounce is economic liberty. Unfortunately the authors who have fallen into this [10 ] practice include some of the nnest minds of our genera­ tion. (I think particularly of Bertrand Russell and the late Morris Cohen.) Such writers seem to me to be at least in part reflecting an occupational bias. Being writers and thinkers, they are acutely aware of the importance of liberty of writing and thinking. But they seem to attach scant value to economic liberty because they think of it not as applying to themselves but to businessmen. Such a judgment may be uncharitable; but it is cer­ tainly fair to say that they misprize economic liberty· be­ cause, in spite of their brilliance in some directions, they lack the knowledge or understanding to recognize that when economic liberties are abridged or destroyed, all other liberties are abridged or destroyed with them. O:O:Power over a man?s subsistence/? as Alexander Hamil­ ton reminded us, O:O:is power over his will." And if we wish a more modem authority, we can quote no less a one than Leon Trotsky, the colleague of Lenin, who in 1937, in a moment of candor, pointed out clearly that: O:O:In a country where the sale employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation: The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat." Changing Historical Patterns Liberty is a whole, and to deny economic liberty is finally to destroy all liberty. Socialism is irreconcilable with freedom. This is the lesson that most of our modern philosophers and litterateurs have yet to learn. [ 11 ] I-Iistorically, the liberals fought against governmental tyranny; against governmental abridgment of freedom of speech and action; against governmental restrictions on agriculture, manufacture, and trade; against constant detailed governmental regulation, interference, and the harassment at a hundred points; against (to use the phrases of the Declaration of Independence)· "a multi­ tude of new offices" and "swarms of officers"; against con­ centration of governmental power, particularly in the person of one man; against government by whim and favoritism. Historic liberalism called, on the other hand, for the Rule of Law and for equality before the law. The older conservatives opposed many or most of these liberal demands because they believed in existing govern­ mental interferences and sweeping governmental powers; or because they wished to retain their own special privi­ leges and prerogatives; or simply because they were tempermentally fearful of altering the status quo, what­ ever it happened to be. Old Words with New Meanings Those who flatteringly call themselves cCliberals" today, and to whom confused opponents allow or even assign the name, are for nearly everything that the old liberals opposed. Most self-styled present-day c'liberals," par­ ticularly in America, are urging the constant extension of governmental power, of governmental intervention, of governmental "planning." They constantly press for a greater concentration of governmental power, whether in [ 12] the central government at the expense of the states and localities or in the hands of a one-man executive at the expense of any check, limitation, or even investigation by a legislature.