The Freeman 1971 - Foundation for Economic Education · 198 THE FREEMAN April • Evolutionism,...

the

FreemanVOL. 22, NO.4. APRIL 1971

Some Thoughts on Violence Edmund A. Opitz 195A diagnosis of today's cult of violence and an appeal for a return to reason - thedivine spark in man.

Uneven Inflation George Hagedorn 200The uneven response of various prices and incomes introduces distortions and in-equities into the economy.

The Worrycrats Leonard E. Read 203A special breed of bureaucratic worriers for whom all citizens are compelled to pay.

"Thou Shalt Not Drink" Mary Bennett Peterson 208The story of Prohibition and Repeal and its lesson for modern regulators.

The Voucher System - Trap for the Unwary Robert Patton 211Not a way out, but more of the same government regulation and control of thelearning process.

Poor ReHef in Ancient Rome Henry Hazlitt 215Another example of the way in which relief programs get out of hand and destroythe economy, including the intended beneficiaries.

Education for Privacy Marten ten Hoor 220A plea for education for privacy when so many are occupied with the improvementof others.

Revenue SharingA new name for inflation.

Paul L Poirot 235

The Biology of Behavior Roger J. Williams 239Our biological differences should convince us that uniformity is not a rule of life.

Property James Madison 248Property embraces everything to which a man may attach a value and have a right,and which leaves to everyone else the like advantage.

Book Reviews:"Christianity and the Class Struggle" by Harold O. J. Brown"The Theory of Money and Credit" by ludwig von Mises

Anyone wishing to communicate with authors may sendfirst-class mail in care of THE FREEMAN for forwarding.

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the

FreemanA MONTHLY JOURNAL OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY

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LEONARD E. READ

PAUL L. POIROT

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Managing Editor

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with appropriate credit, except" 'Thou Shalt Not Drink,' " "Poor Relief

in Ancient Rome, 'I "Education for Privacy," and "The Biology of Behavior."

SOME THOUGHTS ON

EDMUND A. OPITZ

MOST HUMAN differences are settled peacefully. Collisions of interest occur sporadically, but whenintelligence and good-will combine we work out a modus vivendi. Conflicting opinions areresolved by an appeal to reason;patience and persuasion ease thefrictions arising out of personalencounters. Thus it is in mostareas; we carve out survival patterns and get along with eachother. But there are periods ofhistory more violent than otherswhen arbitration works poorlyand conflict intensifies; we areliving through one such.

Warfare of unusual ferocityhas plagued the West for· morethan half a century - despite lipservice to peace in the form ofnominal pacifism and humanitari-

The Reverend Mr. Opitz is a member of thestaff of the Foundation for Economic Education. This article, slightly abridged, appearedin The Lutheran Scholar, October, 1970.

anism. But international strife isnot the only plague; domestic tensions break out of bounds withincreasing frequency; riots, demonstrations, assault, kidnappings,bombings, strikes, and acts ofsabotage barely make the frontpages, so commonplace have theybecome. Out of the woodworkcome spellbinders to lecture university audiences on gunbarrelpolitics, revolution for its ownsake, and the beauties of violence.Professors of philosophy are invoked to provide a specious rationale for destructionism. A cult ofviolence and systematic terrorcomes into being. There's nolonger time to take thought, weare told; men must act. Incessantand strident calls to action aredirected toward the base emotionsof hatred and fear, drowning outquiet appeals to the mind. Thedemand that we do something re-

195

196 THE FREEMAN April

suIts in thoughtless action, andmindless violence breeds more ofthe same.

Violence Displaces Reason

What has brought about thisstate of affairs? How shall we account for the increased violencethat mars our land? It is obviousthat violence and the cult of violence expands as faith in reasondeclines - only when people areconvinced that differences cannotbe worked out intelligently do theyresort to force. The restoration ofreason to its proper role in humanaffairs is essential if we wouldlive in peace, but first we musttry to understand what has causedmen of the modern era to distrustreason.

History is not simply what Gibbon called it, a catalogue of "thecrimes, follies, and misfortunes ofmankind"; but the human recordis spotty and there has been violence in every era. People differ,and occasional conflict is thus abuilt-in feature of human action.The species could not have survived, of course, were there not apreponderance of cooperation andmutual aid in human affairs, buttraces of friction remain even under the best of co'i1ditions. Abrasive contacts between men may beeased by good will plus a disposition to argue it out rather thanfight it out, but when all strata-

gems fail and flight is impossiblehuman beings do resort to force.Violence, in other words, is ancient in human experience - butas a last resort. It is today's cultof violence that needs diagnosing.

A collision of interests develops between two evenly rnatchedmen. Before any blows are struckone man says to his adversary,"Come let us reason together," orwords to that effect. If this offeris accepted it is because both menhold certain assumptions in common. Each man takes it for grantedthat he is a finite and falliblehuman being; he entertains a setof convictions on grounds he deemsreasonable, but he has no immediate access to Universal Reason which might assure certitude.It is assumed that men are giftedwith a divine spark, reason - avalid instrument for getting atthe truth when used properly,that is, with due regard for logicand in good faith. Finally, it isassumed that the universe is rationally structured, in the main,so that there is a correspondencebet,veen correct reasoning andthe nature of things, enablingmen who start from differentplaces to think their way throughto common ground.

The human reason, employedwithin these rules, may thus reduce tensions and resolve conflict.It may firm up one's own convic-

1971 SOME THOUGHTS ON VIOLENCE 197

tions, enhance appreciation of theopponent's views, and persuade aman to ponder the rich diversityof mankind. Admittedly, even under the best of conditions menmay not find a reasonable modusvivendi,. words may lead to blows.But violence, if it occurs, is atany rate postponed to the laststage. It is not condoned.

Imagine another encounter. Theantagonists this time do notshare a common faith in the efficacy of reason. Skeptical of reason as a useful means for thrashing out differences of opinionthey are prepared to accept thealternative that differences can besettled only by the forced imposition of one man's or one party'swill over the other. Everythingthat denies or diminishes Mind,everything that downgrades reason, transforms a point of viewwhich is reasonable or amenableto reason - into a nonnegotiabledemand for submission to superior force. Men have a conditionrather than an opinion; two statesof mind confront each other.

Slogans to live By

The True Believer does not entertain conclusions arrived at bymarshalling the relevant evidenceand drawing from it the correctinferences; to the contrary, he hasbeen programmed with a set ofarmed doctrines picked up ready

to use from the nearest intellectual arsenal- newspaper, TV, liberal journal, college, or whatever.Instead of ideas which might enlighten, there are slogans, catchwords, and labels - a new setevery few years - that nerve bothsides for combat. When the prevailing ideology deters men fromventilating their differences reasonably they fight about theirdifferences, hence the depressingincrease of violence in our time.And the proceedings are rationalized; hence the cult of violence.

Faith in reason is at a low ebbin modern man; Mind is boggeddown in the snarled ideologicalskein of the twentieth century.The low estate of things mental isthe consequence of a trend whichhas brought several sets of ideastogether.• Philosophical materialism andmechanism assumes that the ultimate reality is nonmental; onlybits of matter or electricalcharges or whatever are, in thefinal analysis, rea1. If so, thenthought is but a. reflex of neuralevents. "Our mental conditions,"wrote T. H. Huxley, "are simplythe symbols in consciousness ofthe changes which take place automatically in the organism." Farewell to free will, if "the brainsecretes thought as the liver secretes bile," as one materialist putit.


• Evolutionism, popularly understood, conveys the idea that livingthings began as a. stirring in theprimeval ooze and became whatthey are now by random interaction with the physicochemicalenvironment, moved by no purpose, aiming at no goal. "Darwinbanished Mind from the universe," cried Samuel Butler. Man,wrote Bertrand Russell, is "butthe outcome of accidental collocations of atoms."• From popular psychology comesthe notion that reason is but rationalization, that conscious mental processes are but a gloss forprimitive and irrational impulseserupting from the unconsciousmind. Psychoanalysis discreditsmind by subordinating intellect tothe Id.• From Marxism comes the notion that class interest dictates aman's thinking. There is one logicfor the proletariat and another forthe bourgeoisie, and the mode ofproduction governs the philosophical systems men erect, and theirlife goals as well. The unfortunately placed middle class forevergropes in darkness, unable toshare the light revealed to Marxand his votaries.

These are some of the battlelines where men must fight tovindicate themselves as reasoningbeings, possessed of free will, capable of guiding their lives with

intelligence and idealism. TheMind must be restored to itsrightful place in the total schemeof things, and that place is centralfor, if the Mind be deemed untrustworthy, who can then trustany conclusion? The centrality ofMind must be the keystone of anyphilosophy worth the allegianceof rational creatures, and this isthe battle line behind all theothers.• Overarching all other causesfor the flight from reason is thedecline of theism - an interpretation of the cosmos which finds amental or spiritual principle beyond nature. If there is no Godthe cosmos is only, in the finalanalysis, brute fact, and a man'sthoughts are reduced to a· bodilyfunction. The thinking part of aman is validated ultimately by itskinship with the Divine Mind.

Theism contends, as a. minimum, that a Conscious Intelligence sustains all things, workingout its purposes through man, nature, and society. This is to saythat the universe is rationallystructured, and this is why correct reasoning pans a few precious nuggets of truth. Restoration of faith in the efficacy of reason and a revival of theism gohand in hand. But this is not all.

Acceptance of the Creator reminds men of their own finitude;no man can believe in his own om-

1971 SOME THOUGHTS ON VIOLENCE 199

nipotence who has any sense ofGod's power. And finite men,aware of their limited vision, havea strong inducement to enrichtheir own outlook by cross fertilization from other points of view.

A revival of theism, in the thirdplace, will curb utopianism. Menvainly dream that some combina-

Civil Disobedient:e

tion of political and scientific expertise will usher in a heaven onearth, and they use this futurepossibility as an excuse for present tyranny. Under theism, theymodestly seek to improve themselves and their grasp of truth,thus making the human situationmore tolerable, confident that thefinal issue is in God's hands. I

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

WHILE THE IDEA of civil disobedience may evoke sympathy wherethe claim is made that the cause is just, once we accept such adoubtful doctrine we legitimatize it for other causes which wemight reject. We must be even more careful in the sympatheticcase because, in effect, that sets the standard of conduct whichthen becomes acceptable for cases not as appealing or for groupsnot as responsible. Thus, we substitute pressure for persuasionand squander the carefully nurtured value of self-restraint andjeopardize the system of law....

The plain fact of human nature is that the organized disobedience of masses stirs up the primitive. This has been true of asoccer crowd and a lynch mob. Psychologically and psychiatricallyit is very clear that no man - no matter how well intentionedcan keep group passions in control.

MORRIS I. LEIBMAN

UNEVEN

INFLATION

GEORGE HAGEDORN

IF, as of midnight on a certaindate, every dollar were to count astwo dollars, and every. price, wagerate, etc. were doubled, the resulting "inflation" would make absolutely no. difference to anybody.The only problem might be to adjust our financial arithmetic.

In practice, inflation does not,and cannot, ever happen that way.It occurs as a process spread outover time. And it affects incomes,prices, and the value of assetsunevenly over the time scale. Atany given stage of the process,some people are ahead of the gameand some are behind. Even whenthe process is all over, some willstill be behind and others stillahead.

This is an elementary and per-

Mr. Hagedorn is Vice-President and ChiefEconomist of the National Association ofManufacturers. This column appeared inNAM Reports, January 11, 1971.

200

haps a rather pedantic line ofthought. But it is often ignoredin practice. Inflation is discussedas though its chief evil lay in thegeneral rise in prices and incomes.

The real evil of inflation lies inthe fact that it is not generalenough. The uneven response ofvarious prices and incomes introduces distortions and inequitiesinto the economy. The position ofvarious sectors of the economyrelative to each other is changed.As the process proceeds the relative position of the goods sectorvs. the service sector, of employers vs. employees, of organizedlabor vs. unorganized labor, ofborrowers vs. lenders, of pensioners vs. active workers, etc., etc.,keeps changing.

Naturally, as this goes on, itprovokes strong feelings amongthose affected. The groups that

1971 UNEVEN INFLATION 201

fall behind, relatively, are embittered. But those who havegained ground are not likely tofeel especially favored - they aremore likely to conclude simply thatat last they have got their due.Thus, the balance between satisfaction and dissatisfaction withthe inflationary developments isnot an even one.

The Function of Prices

But the effect of the inflation onintergroup equity, or subjectivefeelings of equity, is not the onlyproblem involved. The relationship among various incomes andprices is the mechanism whichkeeps our economy going as anefficient producer of goods andservices. Goods can't be producedif their costs exceed their marketprice. And if costs and prices areso related that a profit can bemade on almost anything, no matter how inefficiently it is produced,manpower and capital are not allocated to the most useful purposes.The relationships among prices(in the broadest sense of theword) are more important inmaintaining a workable economythan the absolute level of prices.

Thus, during the inflationaryprocess, patterns of economic activity are distorted. This mightnot be too bad, but the temporaryeffect of changed price-income relationships is often interpreted as

a permanent change in demandpatterns. Capital is invested tos'upply goods that may not bewanted later - and is not investedwhere it will be needed. Workersare hired and trained for jobs thatmay not exist beyond the inflationary period.

This is not anyone's fault inparticular. The price-income signal system which we rely on tocontrol the economic traffic isthrown out of kilter by the uneven inflationary process.

When the inflation ends - as allinflations must - the process isthrown into reverse. Not thatprices and incomes generally godown, but those which· have beenbehind tend to catch up. This process, too, is a slow and uneven one.At the end it is usually incomplete.

Malinvestments During 800m

The process of "disinflation" iseven more painful than the slowand uneven process of inflation.Those who maybe catching up arestill bitter because they were behind so long. Those who hadgained ground begin to feel avested right in· their new position,and will resent losing their temporary relative advantage.

But the most unpleasant aspectof a disinflation period is that weare left with a heritage of themisdirected investment and manpower from the preceding infla-


tion. It remains to be seen j listhow serious a problem this will beif, and as, we liquidate the inflation of the late 1960's. In the opinion of this writer it will not be

,catastrophic (although it couldbecome so if the inflation is reactivated). But it is already apainful problem and we shouldnot deceive ourselves on thatscore. The nation took an inflation"trip" and we are only now learning how bad a trip it was.

In pointing out that the realproblem of inflation is not thegeneral price-income increase, butits unevenness, we hope it is clearthat we are not advocating an attitude of complacency toward inflation. We are not suggestingthat inflation should be tolerated,and our efforts should be merelyto insure that everything respondssimultaneously and proportionatelyto it. Our economic institutionsare not geared to perform in thatway and it is hard to conceive ofany set of institutions that would.Universal automatic escalation, ifit were possible, would destroy themeaningfulness of our most basic

Stand.by Controls

institution - money. The only wayto avoid the kind of distortionsand inequities we have describedis to avoid inflation.

Price Controls Assure'''Worst of Both Wor/ds"

Our theme does, however, havea bearing on an important national question. Those who believethat the evil of inflation lies in thegeneral rise of prices and incomeshave a simple solution. All youhave to do, they say, is freeze allprices and incomes at their present levels by government decree.

The effect would be to freeze allthe distortions and inequities produced by inflation permanently into the system. The temporary advantage8 of some groups overothers would be preserved as longas the freeze endures. The processof unwinding the inflation, and restoring a more rational pattern ofprice and income relationships,would be stopped dead.

A price level which is kept fromrising by jamming the internalmechanism of our economy is thereal "worst of both worlds." ,

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

To ENACT stand-by controls would mean putting into the law of theland a permanent endorsement of a basic tenet of socialism - theprinciple that control of the vital mainstreams of commerce andconfiscation of the rights of private property are sound and justpractices.

F. A. HARPER

EVEN when government is limitedto codifying the taboos, invoking acommon justice, and keeping thepeace, there is and has to be anoperating staff: a bureaucracy, aswe call it. Routine procedures of abureaucracy offer a legal way toadminister a police department,as distinguished from arbitraryrule.!

Worrycrats, as I call them, are aspecial breed of totalitarian bureaucrats who spawn rapidly associety is socialized. These peopleconcern themselves with ourhealth, education, welfare, autosafety, drug intake, diet, and whathave you. Worrycrats today outnumber any other professionals inhistory, so rapidly have they proliferated.

We might say that theirs is indeed big business, except that theactivities of these worrycrats in noway resemble a free market operation. Freedom in transactionshas no part in this political procedure. Citizens are coerced to paythese professional worriers whether they want their services or not.A nongovernmental operation ofsimilar nature would be called aracket.

While the worrycrat has neverranked higher in my esteem thanany other practitioner of chican-

1 See Bureaucracy by Ludwig vonMises (New Rochelle, N. Y.: ArlingtonHouse, 1969).

THE WORRYCRATS

LEONARD E. READ

ery, it took two successive observa.tions to "turn me on." Drivingnorth on the Merritt Parkway, Iobserved a brilliantly painted roadway sign: ARE YOU DYING FORA SMOKE? While designed todiscourage smoking at the wheel,it brought to mind the recurrentmessages beamed to us by worrycrats.

Perhaps I would have dismissedthe thought had I not read in thenext morning's paper about theWorld Health Organization, operating out of Geneva, announcing

203


its plans "to step up its campaignagainst cigarettes by reducing theworld's production of tobacco."How? By getting farmers, theworld over, to switch to othercrops !2

Mine is not an argument in favor of smoking or against anyonequitting; whether you smoke ornot is none of my business. Rather,I question the propriety of our being coerced to pay worrycrats toworry about us. We worry enoughon our own without paying to haveour worries multiplied. GeorgeRobert Sims wrote a truism:

For one that big misfortunes slay,Ten die of little worries.

An experience comes to mind. In1947 I visited Houston for the firsttime. There were fifty VIP's atthe dinner. Seated next to me wasan elderly gentleman. The nextnoon, he remarked, "Leonard, youwere nervous before you spoke andyou drank far too much coffee.That's not good for you."

Admitting to both the nervousness and excessive coffee, I suggested - perhaps incorrectly - that,short of accidents, we are born,more or less, with our time tags;that my excesses might make ayear or two difference, but whyfret about that!

"I never thought of it that way

2 See New York Times, January 31,1971, First Section, p. 12.

before," said he, "but now that youmention it, here's a. piece of evidence in your support. Fifty-someyears ago sixteen couples, all inour early twenties, arrived inHouston. We became close friends,and I confess we smoked, drank alot of coffee, and even some alcohol. We worked hard but we hadfun. Then, when we reached fortyor thereabouts, all, except myselfand one other, began worryingabout when they were going to die.Having a fretful eye on reachinga ripe old age, they quit thesethings, watched their diet, andotherwise prepared for longevity.You know, all except that otherfellow and me have gone to theirreward !"

The Competence of Worriers

Observe the massive outpourings of the worrycrats - over TV,radio, and in the press - aboutlung cancer, heart failure, mercury, cranberries, cyclomates, seatbelts, groceries, and so on. Unlessone sees through all of these unsolicited oral and verbal counsels,he is going to be unnecessarilyconcerned. It is my contention thattens of millions have had their ordinary fears and worries substantially multiplied by reason of theseprofessional do-gooders. Millionsof people who never gave longevitymore than a second thought arenow worrying about it. Fear and

1971 THE WORRYCRATS 205

worry are far deadlier menacesthan all the things th~ worrycratspretend to protect us from. Butbefore trying to substantiate thispoint, let us raise a few pertinentquestions.

Are these political saviors reallyconcerned about your welfare andmine? Actually, they do not knowthat you or I exist. Nor will theyknow when we cease to exist.What, then, is their motivation?The truth is that I know as littleabout their motivations as theyknow about what is good or badfor me.

But let us suppose that they areworried about you and me. Whoare they and what is their competence? Certainly, lovely ladiesserve a purpose, but they are notexperts when it comes to your welfare or mine. Nor are publicists,propagandists, the folks of Madison Avenue - all of these peoplewho prepare the worry words wehear and read.

Or, let us further suppose thatthese worrycrats are the world'smost advanced physicians and scientists. Would they know enoughof what is injurious or helpful toyou or me to justify forcing thisinformation upon us or frightening us about it ? You and I are inno way alike; each individual isunique, extraordinary, different.Were this not the case, my doctorcould examine me and apply the

same findings to you and all others.Examination of one would sufficefor everyone.

No Two the Same

As a matter of fact, individualsvary widely. For instance, an associate of mine must strenuously exercise to live. The same exertionby most people would do them in.A late friend of mine passed on at95. He had observed a rule all hislife: never move except when necessary. Similar inactivity for mostof us would bring about an earlydemise. There are drugs which cansave your life but would kill me.This is why pharmaceutical housespublish long lists of contraindications for each drug they manufacture.

Dr. Roger Williams, a noted biochemist at the University of Texas, blamed a physician for thedeath of a patient because hetreated her as an average person- when there is no average person!This led Dr. Williams into thestudy of human variation and resulted in three remarkable books:Free and Unequal (1953), The Biochemical Basis of Individuality(1956), and You Are Extraordinary (1967).3 For a striking ex-

3 Free and Unequal, Austin: University of Texas Press.

The Biochemical Basis of Individuality,Austin: University of Texas Press.

You Are Extraordinary, New York:Random House.


ample among his findings: somepersons can imbibe twenty timesas much alcohol as can certainothers, and be no more inebriated!A later study of his revealed thateven "identical twins" are far fromidentical.

I care not who sits behind theworrycratic desk, whether a dullard or an Aristotle. When anyonethus tries to fathom our ills, deficiencies, excesses, he is staringinto absolute darkness. Prescribing for and presiding over 200 million distinctive, unique individualsis no more within man's competence than sitting atop the Cosmosand directing the Universe. Contrary to socialist doctrine, we arediscrete beings - not a mass, a collective, a lump of dough to bekneaded, baked, and consumed!

Death Hastened by Fears

of Psychosomatic Origin

Now, what about fears, anxieties, worries? Are they killers?One scarcely needs modern scienceto find support for the idea thatmost ills are psychosomatic in origin. Go back well over two millennia and ,there it is: "As a manthinketh in his heart, so is he."4

Here is modern support:

For instance, a patient whose parents have both died of heart diseasewill be anxious about his own heart.

4 Proverbs 23: 7.

When then a normal diencephalic response to an emotion causes the heartto beat faster or when gastric distension pushes his heart out of its usualposition, he will be inclined to interpret what he feels as the beginningof the disease which killed his parents, thinking that he has inherited aweak heart. At once all his fearscluster like a swarm of angry bees onhis heart, a vicious cycle is establishedand thus anxious cortical supervisionmay eventually lead to organic lesions. He and his family will then beconvinced that he did indeed inherit aweak heart, yet this is not at all true.

The above is taken from Man'sPresumptuous Brain by A. T. W.Simeons, M.D.5 This is but one ofmany illustrations of how death ishastened through fears, anxieties,rage, worries, a physiologic andpathologic process set in motion bya psychosomatic origin. In brief,unless one would speed the process,let him not fear death.

I repeat, the outpourings of theworrycrats tend to multiply ourstresses, anxieties, worries; instead of rescuing us from our waywardness, they are literally scaring us to death.

Ideally, there is a role for gov-

5 First published in 1961 by E. P. Dutton & Co., New York.

See also:The Stress of Life by Hans Seyle, M.D.

(New York: McGraw-HilI Co., 1956).The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas

S. Szasz, M.D. (London: Martin Seeker &Warburg, Ltd., 1962).

1971 THE WORRYCRATS 207

ernment with respect to health,education, welfare. That role is toinhibit misrepresentation, fraud,violence, predation, whether bydoctors, educators, restaurateurs,pharmaceutical manufacturers, labor unions, or others. No false labels; no coercive impositions onanyone! This is to say that all ofus should be prohibited from injuring others. Actions that harmothers - not what one does to self

The Reform Process

- define the limits of the socialproblem and of governmentalscope.

You know yourself better thananyone else does. Better that youturn yourself toward what youthink is your advantage than beturned by a worrycrat toward whathe thinks is your advantage. Youat least know something, whereashe knows nothing of you as an individual. (j

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

MEN LIVE their lives within a framework of customary relationsand patterns for achieving their ends and solving their problems.In the absence of positive force, they have worked out and accepted these patterns voluntarily, or they submit to them willingly. Any alteration of these by government involves the use orthreat of force, for that is how governments operate. The old ordermust be replaced by a new order for the reform to be achieved. Theresult of the forceful effort to do this is disorder....

Men may adjust to the new disorder, resume the course of theirlives as best they can, and submit more or less to conditions. Intime, they may even forget that the system is maintained by force,or that things could be otherwise. After all, most peoples at mosttimes have lived under varying degrees of oppression. Nonetheless, ameliorative reform introduces violence into life. The forcecharged with keeping the peace becomes the disturber of thepeace. Traditional relationships are disrupted. Liberty is restricted and reduced.

CLARENCE B. CARSON

The Flight from Reality

"tEbou ~balt Jlot 1Brink"MARY BENNETT PETERSON

FIFTY-ONE years ago the UnitedStates embarked upon a Noble Experiment: a millennium of socialbetterment could be brought aboutby Constitutional amendment andrepeal of the law of supply anddemand. It was the time the Eighteenth Amendment began, and Prohibition became the law of the land.

The late newspapers of January16, 1920 - the very day Prohibitionwent into effect - reported thattrucks loaded with contrabandliquor had been seized in Peoria,Illinois, and New York City by Federal agents. Other first-day accountstold of clandestine stills being raidedin Indiana and Michigan, and theissuance of warrants for arrest ofviolators of the liquor lawthroughout New York State.

Mrs. Peterson is a free lance author and reviewer. This article is an abstract of a chapterfrom her forthcoming book, The RegulatedConsumer, Nash Publishing Company.

208

The Prohibition movement began in earnest around the turn ofthe century. Hatchet-wieldingCarry Nation, with public prayers~nd condemnations of Demon Rum,set out with her pre-Women's Libdisciples on a whiskey-bottle beerkeg smashing crusade through thenation's saloons. Other Drys, ledby two powerful lobbies - theAnti-Saloon League and theWoman's Christian TemperanceUnion - steadily built up politicalpower in Congress and state legislatures.

The movement was ready for ashow of strength when PresidentWilson in 1919 vetoed the VolsteadNational Prohibition bill, originally a World War I food conservation measure. Congress promptly overrode the veto, rejecting thePresident's forebodings of national scandals and Federal en-

1971 "THOU SHALT NOT DRINK" 209

forcement fiascos. Later the requi~~{e g~ ~tat~~ ratHt~d the new law,which read simply enough:

"The manufacture, sale, ortransportation of intoxicatingliquors within, the importationthereof into, or the exportationthereof from the United States andall territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."

Prohibition was hailed by thetriumphant Drys as the dawn ofa new era, a time of a new moralcode of decency and sobriety. "Thereign of tears is over," declaredthe nation's No.1 evangelist, Dr.Billy Sunday, and added: "Theslums will soon be only a memory.We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men willwalk upright now, women willsmile and the children will laugh.Hell will be forever for rent."

The Age of the Gangster

But somehow experience did notfollow this happy prognosis northe jubilant prediction of the AntiSaloon League of New York thatAmerica was about to enter an ageof "clear thinking and clean living." Instead it became an age ofthe gangster and the rum-runner,the bootlegger and the hij acker,the bathtub gin artist and thecrooked judge.

Millions drank who never drank

before. Alcholism, always a problem, became practically a nationaldisease - and a national killer. Of480,000 gallons of booze confiscated in New York in one "dry"year and subjected to chemicalanalysis, 98 per cent was found tocontain poison.

A vast illicit industry on landand sea arose as supply attemptedto meet demand. The Coast Guardbecame known as "Carry Nation'sNavy" as it pursued the sleek andswift, armed and armoured craftof Rum Row inside the 12-milelimit. Corruption and scandaldogged politician and policemanalike. During the first four dryyears, some 140 Prohibition agentswere jailed. In April 1925, a Federal jury in Cincinnati convicted58 agents and policemen (two Pullman cars were needed to haul themiscreants to the Atlanta Penitentiary), and in the same month theProhibition director for Ohio wasfound guilty of conspiracy withthe underworld.

Underworld figures became national celebrities. Just about everyone knew about Waxey Gordon,Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano, andAl Capone. Capone, not always enjoying his fame, complained: "Icall myself a businessman. I makemoney by supplying a popular demand. If I break the law, my customers are as guilty as I am. WhenI sell liquor, it's bootlegging. When


my patrons serve it on silver trayson Lake Shore Drive, it's hospitality."

Eventual Repeal

As lawlessness came to characterize the Roaring Twenties, thearmy of Wets and Prohibition'sdisaffected grew. Ardent Prohibitionists joined the AssociationAgainst the Prohibition Amendment and the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (known among the Drys asthe Bacchantian Maidens).

And, if war paved the way intoProhibition, depression paved itsexit. The Wets, displaying not exactly sound economic thinking,blamed the Great Depression onthe Noble Experiment, arguing,among other things, that Prohibi-

tion was foreclosing thousands ofjobs and costing the taxpayer millions of dollars in fruitless enforcement and lost liquor taxes.

In 1932 both Presidential candidates Roosevelt and Hoovercalled for repeal. In April 1933,beer of not more than 3.2 per centalcohol was authorized by Congress and later that year theTwenty-first Repeal Amendmentbecame law. Prohibition was dead.

If any lessons can be drawnfrom Prohibition, it may be thatthe easy call to "pass a law" tobring about a millennium does notalways work, that the supposedcure can be worse than the disease,and that the economic law of supply and demand can be a lot morepervasive than the countervailinglegislated law of the land. ,

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

Dependence or Liberty

THE TWO NOTIONS - one to regulate things by a committee of control, and the other to let things regulate themselves by the conflictof interests between free men - are diametrically opposed; andthe former is corrupting to free institutions, because men whoare taught to expect Government inspectors to come and take careof them lose all true education in liberty. If we have been allwrong for the last three hundred years in aiming at a fuller realization of individual liberty, as a condition of general and widelydiffused happiness, then we must turn back to paternalism, discipline, and authority; but to have a combination of liberty anddependence is impossible.

WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER,

What Social Classes Owe to Each Other

TRAP FORTHE UNWARYROBERT PATTON

MANY ADVOCATES of liberty haverecently responded with enthusiasm to the proposal of a voucherplan for primary and secondaryeducation. Under this proposal,parents of school-age childrenwould be given vouchers whichcould be redeemed at local publicschools or be used as part or fullpayment of tuition at a private orparochial school. When used topay for private education, thevouchers would have a specificcash value.

Proponents of the plan arguethat it would offer several advantages over the existing systemof tax-supported education in theUnited States. Parents would befree to enroll their children in aprivate school without the burdenof paying tuition over and abovethe taxes they pay to support pub-

Mr. Patton is a graduate student and parttime lecturer in physics at Hunter College inNew York City.

lie education. Public schools,forced to compete for the tax dollars they now receive automatically, would be under pressure to improve their services. Furthermore,once the state educational monopoly had been broken, the "privatesector," infused with the vitalityof a free market, would begin toperform minor miracles in attending to the educational needs ofAmerica. So say proponents.

On the other hand, some saythat, if implemented, the voucherplan would virtually eliminatepublic elementary and secondaryeducation; public schools would beat a serious disadvantage if forcedto compete with private institutions for tax dollars since theirrigid bureaucratic structure wouldnot permit them to respond to thedemands of a free market in education. No less an advocate of public education than Albert Shankerhas predicted that "the adoption

211


of such a plan would lead to theend of public education."

A strong opponent of the voucherplan, Shanker bases his oppositionon allegations that support forsuch a system comes only fromparochial school interests makinga grab for public funds, fromthose who wish to put their handsin the public till to send their children to segregated schools, fromvarious revolutionary groups whohope to disseminate their ideas intax-supported institutions, andfrom selfish taxpayers who believethat the implementation of avoucher system would result in acutback in future allocations ofFederal and state funds to education.

Those who oppose the use of thecoercive power of the state for socalled social purposes are conspicuously omitted from Shanker'sanalysis. One cannot resist pointing out that Shanker himself isthe representative of an extremelypowerful special interest groupthat has a strong vested interestin the continuance of the presentsystem of public education.

The Promise Is Illusory

Given the apparent advantagesof the voucher proposal and thenature of the opposition, it istempting for those who favorliberty to rush into the breachand support it with unrestrained

enthusiasm. Unfortunately, thepromise that some -see in thevoucher system is illusory.

If such a plan were ever adopted, powerful interests would immediately begin lobbying in support of restrictive legislation thatwould undercut the element offree choice in the plan as it nowstands. Under pressure fromstrong special interest groupssuch as Shanker's United Federation of Teachers, laws might bepassed to require that teachers inprivate schools meet standardizedlicensing requirements and thatthe physical plant of privateschools meet arbitrary standardsestablished by the government.Laws could (and would) followlaws, self-proclaimed reformerswould come to advocate the imposition, on private schools, of whatthey would term "academic standards"; and, just as we now havea costly system of public education that wears the label "free,"we may easily end up with a system of state education that bearsthe appellation "private."

There is a descriptive term thatapplies to an economic system inwhich business is nominally under private ownership while thestate maintains an absolute control over "private" business activities; that term is fascist. Isthis what we want for Americaneducation?

1971 THE VOUCHER SYSTEM-TRAP FOR THE UNWARY 213

Why, then, have many advocatesof liperty supported the voucherproposal? The magic word hereseems to be "choice." But if thepossible consequences of thevoucher system that I have outlined ever were to become a reality, the parent who wished to sendhis child to a school free of government control would have asmaller choice than he has atpresent - or no choice at all.

The Unseen CoercionBehind the Good Intentions

At this point, many readers willremain unconvinced that thevoucher system is a step in thewrong direction, that is, awayfrom liberty. They might arguethat the dismal possibilities I havecited are simply potential pitfalls,not necessary consequences; if weanticipate these statist measures,they can be fought and defeated.Therefore, they might conclude,the voucher system can be a constructive step toward the eliminationofcoercive government control of our pocketbooks and of ourchildren's minds.

To answer this argument, let usexamine the nature of the "choice"that the proponents of the vouchersystem offer. In blunt terms theso-called element of choiceamounts to offering the parentsof school-age children options inhow they may spend the money

of others that has been expropriated by the state.

In principle, the freedom ofchoice offered by the voucher system is no different from the "freedom" demanded by some welfarerecipients to spend public monieson such things as liquor as wellas on the necessities of life. Theunfortunate fact is that when thestate takes over any market function, its citizens soon come to regard this as a natural and properstate of affairs; "conservative"citizens are no more immunizedagainst this syndrome than anyothers. Just as the liberal mayseek an expansion of welfare services on the grounds that presentprograms fail to meet the fullneeds of the people, so many "conservatives" are falling into thetrap of advocating an expansionof the state's role in education because their needs are not satisfiedby the present system.

Those proponents of liberty whoadvocate the voucher system failto recognize that, in so doing,they are giving an implicit endorsement to a principle that theyprofess to oppose. The fundamental premise of the voucher planis identical to that underlying thepresent system of state education.The coercive power of the state(which in the final analysis meansthe threat or use of the gun) willstill be used to seize the property


of private individuals in the nameof an undefinable public good.

Those who support the voucherproposal are playing the gamethat, in freshman political sciencecourses, is called "democratic pluralism." In plain language, thisterm describes a society composedof rival gangs - each fighting theothers for a bigger cut of the taxcollector's booty.

Subsidies Are Not a Stepping-Stoneto Editorial Freedom

There is one more argument advanced in support of vouchers thathas not yet been answered. If liberty is ever to be regained in thefield of education, runs the argument, it will not come overnight.If the present coercive system ofprimary and secondary educationwere abolished on the first of nextmonth, many think the resultwould be chaos. Private schoolsare just not capable of takingover the massive job of educatingall of our children on 30-days' notice. Moreover, parents who havebeen complacently letting BigBrother bear the burden of seeingto the education of their childrenare ill-prepared to accept that responsibility themselves. What is

needed, according to such an appraisal, is some sort of transitionplan whereby education can betaken out of the hands of the stateand responsibility placed whe~e itbelongs - with the parents.

Many voucher advocates see theplan as playing just this sort ofrole; they view it as a steppingstone to educational freedom. Buthere too, they have allowed themselves to be deceived. We haveseen how any build-up in the private sector of education fosteredby the voucher plan will almostcertainly be accompanied by anequal or greater build-up of statecontrol over nominally privateeducational institutions. This ishardly the type of "transition"that a libertarian would knowingly advocate. Furthermore, ratherthan shifting the financial burdenof education to the consumers ofthis service, the plan will removesome of the responsibility fromthose who have already shouldered it. And finally, the vouchersystem fails utterly to challengethe premise that the ultimate responsibility for education restswith the state. If education isever to be truly free, it is thispremise that must be overturned.

~

INSTANCES of government relief tothe poor can be found from theearliest times. Though the recordsare vague in important particulars, we do know a good deal aboutwhat happened in ancient Rome.A study of that case may enable usto draw a few lessons for our ownday.

Roman "social reform" appearsto have begun in the period of theRepublic, under the rule of theGracchi. Tiberius Gracchus (c.163-133 B.C.) brought forward anagrarian law providing that noperson should own more than 500jugera of land (about 300 acres),except the father of two sons, whomight hold an additional 250jugera for each. At about the same

Henry Hazlitt is well-known to FREEMANreaders as author, columnist, editor, lecturer,and practitioner of freedom. This article willappear as a chapter in a forthcoming book,The Conquest of Poverty, to be published byArlington House.

Poor Relie'

in Aneient Rome

HENRY HAZLITT

time that this bill was passed,Attalus III of Pergamum bequeathed his kingdom and all hisproperty to the Roman people. Onthe proposal of Gracchus, part ofthis legacy was divided among thepoor, to help them buy farm implements and the like. The new agrarian law was popular, and evensurvived Tiberius's public assassination.

He was succeeded by hisyounger brother Gaius Gracchus(158-122 B.C.). In the ancientworld transport difficulties wereresponsible for famines and forwild fluctuations in wheat prices.Among the reforms that Gaiusproposed was that the governmentprocure an adequate supply ofwheat to be sold at a low and fixedprice to everyone who was willing I

to stand in line for his allotmentonce a month at one of the public

215


granaries that Gaius had orderedto be built. The wheat was sold below the normal price - historianshave rather generally guessed atabout half-price.

The record is not clear concerning precisely who paid for thisgenerosity, but the burden was apparently shifted as time went on.Part of the cost seems to havebeen borne by Rome's richer citizens, more of it seems to have beenraised by taxes levied in kind onthe provinces, or by forced salesto the state at the lower prices, oreventually by outright seizures.

Though Gaius Gracchus met afate similar to his brother's - hewas slain in a riot with 3,000 ofhis followers - "the custom offeeding the Roman mob at the costof the provinces," as the historianRostovtzeff sums it up, "survivednot only Gracchus but the Republic itself, though," as he adds ironically, "perhaps Gracchus himselflooked upon the law as a temporaryweapon in the strife, which wouldsecure him the support of thelower classes, his main source ofstrength."l

Bread and Circuses:The New Deal in Old Rame

An excellent account of the subsequent history of the grain dolecan be found in H. J. Haskell's

1 History of the Ancient World, Vol.2, p. 112.

book, The New Deal in Old Rome.2

I summarize this history here:There was no means test. Any

one willing to stand in the breadline could take advantage of thelow prices. Perhaps 50,000 appliedat first, but the number kept increasing. The senate, although ithad been responsible for the deathof Gaius Gracchus, did not dareabolish the sale of cheap wheat. Aconservative government underSulla did withdraw the cheapwheat, but shortly afterward, ina period of great unrest, restoredit, and 200,000 persons appearedas purchasers. Then a politiciannamed Claudius ran for tribune ona free-wheat platform, and won.

A decade later, when JuliusCaesar came to power, he found320,000 persons on grain relief.He succeeded in having the reliefrolls cut to 150,000 by applying ameans test. After his death therolls climbed once again to 320,000.Augustus once more introduced ameans test and reduced the number to 200,000.

Thereafter during the Imperialprosperity the numbers on reliefcontinued at about this figure.Nearly 300 years later, under theEmperor Aurelian, the dole wasextended and made hereditary.Two pounds of bread were issueddaily to all registered citizens whoapplied. In addition, pork, olive

2 New York: Knopf, 1939.

1971 POOR RELIEF IN ANCIENT ROME 217

oil, and salt were distributed freeat regular intervals. When Constantinople was founded, the rightto relief was attached to newhouses in order to encourage building.

The Right to a Handout

The political lesson was plain.Mass relief, once granted, createda political pressure group that nobody dared to oppose. The longrun tendency of relief was to growand grow. The historian Rostovtzeff explains how the processworked:

"The administration of the cityof Rome was a heavy burden onthe Roman state. Besides the necessity of making Rome a beautiful city, worthy of its position asthe capital of the world ... therewas the enormous expense of feeding and amusing the population ofRome. The hundreds of thousandsof Roman citizens who lived inRome cared little for politicalrights. They readily acquiesced inthe gradual reduction of the popular assembly under Augustus to apure formality, they offered noprotest when Tiberius suppressedeven this formality, but they insisted on their right, acquired during the civil war, to be fed andamused by the government.

"None of the emperors, not evenCaesar or Augustus, dared to encroach on this sacred right of the

Roman proletariate. They limitedthemselves to reducing and fixingthe numbers of the participantsin the distribution of corn and toorganizing an efficient system ofdistribution. They fixed also thenumber of days on which the population of Rome was entitled to agood spectacle in the theaters, circuses, and amphitheaters. But theynever attacked the institution itself. Not that they were afraid ofthe Roman rabble; they had athand their praetorian guard toquell any rebellion that mightarise. But they preferred to keepthe population of Rome in goodhumour. By having among theRoman citizens a large group ofprivileged pensioners of the statenumbering about 200,000 men,members of the ancient Romantribes, the emperors secured forthemselves an enthusiastic reception on the days when they appeared among the crowd celebrating a triumph, performing sacrifices, presiding over the circusraces or over the gladiatorialgames. From time to time, however, it was necessary to have aspecially enthusiastic reception,and for this purpose they organized extraordinary shows, supplementary largesses of corn andmoney, banquets for hundreds ofthousands, and distributions ofvarious articles. By such devicesthe population was kept in good


temper and the 'public opinion' ofthe city of Rome was 'organized.' "3

The Dole, Among Other Causesof the fall of the Empire

The decline and fall of theRoman Empire has been attributedby historians to a bewildering variety of causes, from the rise ofChristianity to luxurious living.We must avoid any temptation toattribute all of it to the dole. Therewere too many other factors atwork - among them, most notably,the institution of slavery. TheRoman armies freely made slavesof the peoples they conquered. Theeconomy was at length based onslave labor. Estimates of the slavepopulation in Rome itself rangeall the way from one in five tothree to one in the period betweenthe conquest of Greece (146 B.C.)and the reign of Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235) .

The abundance of slaves createdgreat and continuing unemployment. It checked the demand forfree labor and for labor-saving devices. Independent farmers couldnot compete with the big slaveoperated estates. In practically allproductive lines, slave competitionkept wages close to the subsistencelevel.

3 M. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire(Oxford: Clarendon Press, second edition, 1957), pp. 81-2.

Yet the dole became an integralpart of the whole complex of economic causes that brought theeventual collapse of Roman civilization. It undermined the oldRoman virtues of self-reliance. Itschooled people to expect something for nothing. "The creationof new cities," writes Rostovtzeff,"meant the creation of new hivesof drones." The necessity of feeding the soldiers and the idlers inthe cities led to strangling and destructive taxation. Because of thelethargy of slaves and undernourished free workmen, industrialprogress ceased.

There were periodic exactionsfrom the rich and frequent confiscations of property. The better-offinhabitants of the towns wereforced to provide food, lodging,and transport for the troops. Soldiers were allowed to loot the districts through which they p3:ss~d.

Production was everywhere discouraged and in some placesbrought to a halt.

Ruinous taxation eventually destroyed the sources of revenue. Itcould no longer cover the state'shuge expenditures, and a raginginflation set in. There are no consumer-price indexes by which wecan measure this, but we can getsome rough notion from the priceof wheat in Egypt. This was surprisingly steady, Rostovtzeff tellsus, in the first and second cen-

1971 POOR RELIEF IN ANCIENT ROME 219

turies, especially in the second: itamounted to 7 or 8 drachmae forone artaba (about a bushel). Inthe difficult times at the end ofthe second century it was 17 or 18drachmae, almost a famine price,and in the first half of the thirdit varied between 12 and 20 drachmae. The depreciation of moneyand the rise in prices continued,with the result that in the time ofthe Emperor Diocletian one artabacost 120,000 drachmae. This meansthat the price was about 15,000times as high as in the second century.

In 301 Diocletian compoundedthe evil by his price-fixing edict,which punished evasion withdeath. Out of fear, nothing wasoffered for sale and the scarcitygrew much worse. After a dozen

Calvin Coolidge

years and many executions, thelaw was repealed.

The growing burden of the dolewas obviously responsible for agreat part of this chain of evils,and at least two lessons can bedrawn. The first, which we meetagain and again in history, is thatonce the dole or similar relief programs are introduced, they seemalmost inevitably - unless surrounded by the most rigid restrictions - to get out of hand. The second lesson is that once this happens, the poor become more numerous and worse off than they werebefore, not only because they havelost self-reliance, but because thesources of wealth and productionon which they depended for eitherdoles or jobs are diminished ordestroyed. ~

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

A REVOLUTION is taking place which will leave the people dependent upon the government and place the government where it mustdecide questions that are far better left to the people to decide forthemselves. Finding markets will develop into fixing prices, andfinding employment will develop into fixing wages. The next stepwill be to furnish markets and employment, or in default pay abounty and dole. Those who look with apprehension on these tendencies do not lack humanity, but are influenced by the belief thatthe result of such measures will be to deprive the people of character and liberty.

Reported in The New York Tribune,June 20, 1931.

EDUCATION FOR PRIVACY

MARTEN TEN HOOR

IN VIEW of the hundreds of conferences which have been held onliberal education, it would seem tobe impossible· to say anything newon the subject. Since there seemsto be nothing new to say, onemust, in order to be original, becontrary, eccentric, or partisan. Ihave chosen to be partisan. Theproposition to be defended is,frankly, a half-truth. If it can beestablished, there will be somecause for satisfaction; for the establishment of a half-truth is nota bad average in this complex andconfused world. There is the justification, moreover, that the other,and possibly the better, half has inour day had practically all of theattention.

Stated concretely, the proposition is this: Never in the history

Marten ten Hoor was Dean of the College ofArts and Sciences and Professor of Philosophyat the University of Alabama when this article was first published in The AmericanScholar, Winter, 1953-54.

220

of the world have there been somany people occupied with the improvement of so few. To sharpenthe point by a specific example:Never have there been so manypeople making a good living byshowing the other fellow how tomake a better one. If you are skeptical, I recommend that you trythis exercise - add up, as of thecurrent date, the social workers,planners, and reformers; the college presidents, deans, and professors; the editors of magazines,journals, and newspapers (not forgetting college newspapers); almost everybody in Washington,D. C., during recent years; andthe tens of thousands of miscellaneous social-minded folks whoattend conferences, workshops, andinstitutes organized for the improvement of the human race. Subtract that figure from the totalpopulation of this country, andcompare this figure with a corre-

1971 EDUCATION FOR PRIVACY 221

sponding figure for, say, the year1900. You will then see what Imean when I say that this is theera of undiscriminating allegianceto good causes. To come nearerhome, compute the sum of all college and university presidents,deans, and professors who have inthe last five years attended meetings devoted to the improvementof education. Compare that figurewith the number of those who remained on the campus working,and you will find proof even inacademia.

What Is an Expert?

As further evidence, and as astriking symptom, there is the recent popularity of educational surveys. Most states and many institutions have experienced several.I have lived through eleven, without noticeable improvement in myself or my neighbors. Note theprocedure and the technique, forthere you will find the moral. Thesurveyors are always from another state or another institution.This is in accordance with thewell-known principle that an expert is an ordinary person who isaway from home. These outsidersare brought in because of theirobjectivity, objectivity being thecapacity for discovering faultsabroad which you cannot recognize at home. To be a good educational surveyor - or any kind of

social analyst, for that matteryou must have a sharp eye for foreign motes but a dull one for domestic beams. You must be a contented extrovert, so that, afterdiagnosing the faults of others,you can continue to live in perfectcomfort with your own.

Too few followers

I must confess that I view allthis indiscriminate altruism witha jaundiced eye. It does seem tome that these days there are toomany leaders and too few followers; too many preachers and toofew sinners - self-conscious sinners, that is. If this were an illustrated article, I would insert atthis point a wonderful cartoon Isaw not long ago. A little boy wasasking an obviously astoundedand embarrassed father, "But ifwe're here to help others, what arethe others here for?" Nobody hastime these days to improve himself, so busy is he with attemptsto improve his neighbor. There issomething wrong with that equation. It seems to me that it is timeto try to balance it. I suggest thatthis can be done by shifting someweight from one side to the other,by shifting the emphasis from social improvement to self-improvement. I suggest that over the doorof every academic cubicle thereshould hang the sign which Thoreau had over the door of his hut:


"My destiny mended here, notyours." In short, I propose tomake a plea for education for privacy.

How to Feel Virtuous

Before undertaking to identifysome of the elements of this typeof education, I should like to offersome justification of my skepticism concerning the present emphasis on social-mindedness in education. To begin with, it is soeasy to assume that your neighbor is much worse off than yourself. The universality of this tendency is undoubtedly accounted forpsychologically by its attractiveby-products. The assumption produces a feeling of comfort. If thereis some slight suspicion that all isnot well within, it is compensatingto concentrate on the plight ofone's neighbor. Since attention tohim is distracting, it keeps the individual from worrying abouthimself. To do something about aneighbor's ignorance also makesone feel virtuous. This absorbingconcern for the improvement ofone's neighbor is undoubtedly aproduct of civilization. It is doubtful if primitive man worriedmuch about it. The cannibal, infact, represents the other extreme:he uses his neighbor solely for hisown improvement.

In the second place, I doubt ifthe reformer always has the wis-

dom necessary to direct the livesof so many people - but this iscertainly assumed. How many people are there who have demonstrated the capacity to prescribefor others? If an individual makesa mistake in trying to improvehimself, this is not so serious;but consider the consequences ifhe has induced all his neighborsto do the same thing. History isfilled with examples of self-confident leaders who led their followers straight to a common catastrophe. The fact is that we stillknow so little about human personality in the concrete. To besure, there are excellent textbookpictures, with revealing analyticaltables and graphs. But this is personality in the abstract. Any physician will tell you that he rarelyfinds a textbook picture in a patient. Not only is every human being a complex with variations, butthere are the environment inwhich that complex functions andthe accidental circumstances whichconfuse the vision and disrupt life.

Nor has the reformer too muchreason for assuming that he hasdiscerned the good life for hisneighbors. Let us take as a familiar example the characteristicprojection by parents into the livesof their children. This is something we can readily understandand, because it is suffused withparental affection, forgive. But


how many parents are there whorealize that each child iB to Bomeextent a new complex of elementsand who can bring themselves tosubstitute that confounding reality for the fond subjective creation? Too often the recommendation of a way of life is nothingmore than the advocacy of a personal preference.

From subjectivism in this senseof the term there is no completeescape. Even leadership is personalized in an individual. Hitler wasan individual: he spun his fantastic and criminal notions out of hisown warped private personality.It is, therefore, terribly importantthat everything shall be right inthe reformer before he undertakesto reform others. "Nobody," saysa character in Norman Douglas'S outh Wind, "has the right to callhimself well disposed towards society until he has grasped the elementary fact that the only way toimprove society is to improve oneself." And may I suggest in thisconnection that a major in the social sciences does not automatically qualify a student for socialleadership?

Selfish Unselfishness

Further reason for doubt is tobe found in the characteristic reactions of the hypersocial-minded.They become so indignant whenpeople resist their ministrations.

They are so determinedly selfishin their unselfishness. Ideas, particularly ideas designed for theimprovement of others, so quicklybecome inflated. In extreme casesthey devour themselves. How antagonistic even educators becomeover professional differences as tohow the ignorant should be rendered less so!Note the bitternessbetween rival reform groups. Letus not forget that human beingshave killed one another in themass even on the authority oftheir religions. Note how politicalleaders fall out, quarrel, conspire,inj ure one another in their unselfish efforts to save the country.In the absence of sophisticationand modesty, reform notions growinto delusions; their advocatesbecome more and more autocratic;leadership becomes pathological;the desire to help one's fellow menis transformed into fanaticismand tyranny - and societies become authoritarian.

Everybody Is an Individual

Here lies the explanation of thetendency of hypersocial-mindedness to suppress individualism andto produce too much uniformity.There are good reasons for doubting the wisdom of this lack of interest in the individual as a uniquepersonality. There, is, to beginwith, the obvious and inescapablefact that everybody is an individ-


uaI. The higher the scale of life,the more individuals differ and thegreater their potentialities for differing. Society must make provision for individual differences.

Authoritarianisms of the typeof national socialism and communism are primitivistic; for theypropose to turn back the course ofsocial change and to establish societies in which individuals shallhave a status more closely resembling that of ants, bees, or evenof atoms or electrons than of human personalities. They have forgotten, or propose to ignore, theincontrovertible fact that the greatworks of art, literature, music,philosophy, religion, and science- that is, the world's great manifestations of excellence and leadership - were the products of intensely individual persons. Indeed,some of the world's great geniuseshave been self-centered, unsocialand iconoclastic, with little or nointerest in the improvement oftheir fellow men.

But society can well afford that.A regimented society will not onlysuppress and possibly ultimatelybreed out these "exaggerated" individuals, but will generally discourage the manifestations of theadventurous and original spirit.Government and education designed to do this will bring abouta tragic cultural impoverishmentin human life; for individual dif-

ferences enrich life, they stimulate the intelligence and the imagination, and they invite comparison and criticism. They keep theindividual alive as an i,ndividual,and not merely as a bearer of theracial genius or a servant of thestate.

Some Laws Necessary

It is true that modern life requires a certain amount of regimentation. Individuals obviouslycannot be permitted to run amuck.At least the great majority ofpersons must adapt themselves toother persons. Mechanical contrivances, such as traffic lights, mustreplace individual judgment; lawsare to some extent substitutes forindividual choice. But let us notforget that it is not the basic purpose of these substitutes to repressindividuality, but rather to makepossible a more general and richerrealization of individuality. It isnot the purpose of social organization to reduce man to the subhuman, but to create more favorableopportunities for the realizationof what is uniquely human.

The need of complex societiesfor a high degree of organizationis one reason why so much attention is focused on the improvementof the other fellow. Especially in ademocracy, where everyone ismore or less free to advocateschemes for the improvement of


society, lively and self-confidentmjna~ are inclined to expend theirintellectual and emotional potential on reform movements. The att(!ntion of the reformer is consequently drawn away from contem-plation of the state of his ownsoul. Since he is so happily exercised in improving others, thehabit of self-examination gradually atrophies. How then can hebe sure that he is the right personto prescribe for his neighbors?Should he not stop now and thento take an inventory of his resources? Does he in fact havethese resources? It is because Ihave serious doubts of this sort,and because of the increasing neglect in education of attention tothe accumulation of these resources, that I feel it time to makea plea for education for privacy.

A Plea for Privacy

What now are the essential elements of this education for privacy? In speaking of elements itis, of course, implied that the idealconstruct of these elements constitutes an organized whole, apersonality. It is this ideal atwhich we aim, though we knowfull well that in any concrete individual, no matter how well educated after the formula which weshall propose, one or the other desirable characteristic is certain tobe under- or over-emphasized.

The first requirement, clearly,is to learn how to think - not outloud or in print, but privately. 'rhethinker himself, not his neighbor,is to be the beneficiary. To thinkdoes not mean to spend hours inidle daydreaming or in vagrantimaginings, or to make occasionalimpulsive sallies at ideas whichhappen to appear before the attention. The reference is certainlynot to the semi-somnolent andcomfortable ruminations which goon in the wandering mind of aninattentive student in the classroom. What is meant is systematicreflection, the constant purpose ofwhich is to bring order out of themultiplicity and variety of thingsin which the human being is immersed.

Experience Without Understanding

To be sure, many people gothrough life with their senses

,alert, observing and savoring ingenerous measure the richness ofthe world about them. But whatthey experience they retain onlyin the form of materials for recollection. The mind gradually accumulates a. rich inventory ofgoods, which can be brought outon display when there is socal opportunity for it. But the relationship of these resources in the mindis one of mere contiguity, like thatof goods in a department store.Experience has not resulted in an


over-all understanding· because ithas not been systematicallythought about. Such individuals

... see all sights from pole to pole,And glance, and nod, and bustle by,

And never once possess (their) soulBefore (they) die.

To possess one's soul in an intellectual sense means to have foundsome answer, or partial answer,to the questions: What is the nature of this world in which I findmyself, what is my place in it,and what must be my attitudetoward it? The problem is one ofintellectual and spiritual orientation.

A Disorganized Mind

The benefits of such intellectualand spiritual adaption have beenextolled by the wise men of allages and all countries. A "view oflife" prepares us for what lifebrings us, for what happens to usin our physical environment, andmost important of all, for whatpeople turn out to be and for whatthey do. To be spiritually and intellectually lost in the world, onthe contrary, is to be unarmed andhelpless.

A disorganized mind is unprepared for reality and easily frustrated. The fate that awaits theindividual so afflicted is to be always a stranger and a wandererin the world. The "lost soul" of

literature, the ultimate in tragiccreation, suffers from this greatspiritual illness.

It may be unfortunate, but it isa fact that the sharper and livelierthe intelligence and the more sensitive the spirit, the more seriousthe danger of disorientation. Thesimple-minded find life simple.Plants find t.hemselves easy to livewith, no doubt; for it cannot bedifficult to vegetate successfully.It is not likely that the cow's ruminations are philosophical.

Man, for better or worse, is arational animal. The more hethinks, the greater the need of organization among his ideas. Themore subjects a student studies incollege, the more extensive the potential disorder of his mind. It isnot surprising that the scholarlymind, lost in a Babel of learning,seeks escape into a clearly definedspecialty, and the practical mind,as soon as its owner has permission, into the comforts of a business, a profession, or domesticity.To be sure, we must integrate thecurriculum. But what good is thisif the professor's mind remainsperched on its gaunt pinnacle orsecluded in the laboratory?

The systematic way to the attainment of the organization ofideas is through philosophy andreligion. It is true that the greatintellectual constructions of themetaphysicians are not available


to all men, and that even to theinitiated they BometjmeB offer butpoor comfort. Moreover, all of ushave known individuals of greatsimplicity and humbleness ofmind, quite untutored in dialectic,who somehow and in the simplestterms have. securely located themselves in the cosmos.

Especially in the realm of religious experience do we find examples of this. The spirit seemsto have found peace in terms ofsome all-embracing conviction orgreat renunciation. But this is notoften possible for the inquisitiveand analytical mind.

Need for Philosophy

To cast all burdens upon theLord in one grand resolve sometimes implies ignorance of thenature of those burdens. There isonly consciousness of their oppressive weight, but no understanding of their nature or causes.To be sure, the critical intelligencemay also come ultimately to makethis renunciation; but it will notfeel justified in doing so until ithas reflected upon causes and relationships and seen the problemof human trouble and sorrowwhole. The solution must be a conquest, not an escape.

For this, the mind certainlyneeds philosophy, sacred or secular. No learned profession, however, can offer the inquiring mind

an official formula which everyman need only apply in order tobe permanently on understandingterms with the world. To be sure,there are systems of metaphysics,sacred and secular, from which thetroubled spirit can choose a readymade synthesis. But this does notmake the chosen system of ideasan integral part of the inner personality. Intellectual orientation tothe world must be something morethan an acquisition; it must bean organic growth. The studentshould by all means seek out thegreat religious and philosophicalthinkers, study their systems, andadd their insights to his own. Butin the last analysis he must workout his own solution, for such asolution must be the end productof his own reflection in the context of his own experience. Onlythrough the alchemy of private reflection do philosophical ideas become private resources. Only thenwill they be available in time ofcrisis. When the normal course ofexistence is interrupted by conflict and frustration, it is a bit lateto begin developing fundamentalguiding ideas; that is the time toapply them.

Admiral Byrd Alone

A dramatic example of the saving grace of such resources is related by Admiral Byrd in his bookon his expedition to the South

228 TItE FR.EEMAN April

Pole, entitled Alone. He had beenleft behind by the expedition in adugout located several feet belowthe surface of the icecap. Fromthis he periodically emergedthrough a vertical tunnel to makescientific observations. It happened that the heater in his subterranean shelter developed a leakof which he was not aware. Beforehe realized it, he had been dangerously poisoned, and he becameseriously ill.

During his convalescence hefound himself struggling to overcome not only the physical damagedone to his body, but also a deepspiritual depression, an obstinateconviction of the meaninglessnessof life, which threatened to overwhelm him. There was no physician or psychoanalyst or clerica.vailable. His fellow-explorerswould not return for months. Hewas absolutely alone. He had toguide himself out of this slough ofdespair. This he did, after manyagonizing days, by steady thinking, by "digging down into" hisintellectual resources. And it wasthen, to use his own homely butvivid phrase, that he "uncoveredthe pay-dirt of philosophy." Hedid not then collect the materialsof his readj ustment; he used themto recover his sanity. In this crisis, what would he have done without these resources?

But periods of crisis are not the

only time when man needs an orderly mind. If a ship is to hold itscourse, it needs a steady helm ingood weather as well as in bad. Ihasten to remark that this figureof speech has serious limitations,for a navigator has his chart prepared when he begins his voyage.Man, on the contrary, is faced withthe problem of making a chart ashe goes along. As a matter of fact,the plan of life is, for every manto some extent, an unconsciousprecipitate of his experience. Weare not completely free agents;compulsion and fate, in the formof the physical world, our fellowmen and social institutions, pushthe individual this way and that.What happens to him and what hebecomes are clearly the result of acomplex of inner and outer compulsions, over many of which hehas no control.

The Greek Chorus

We are not here primarily concerned with action, however, butwith interpretation. In philosophical reflection, the individual tosome extent plays the part of theGreek chorus. He observes himself as actor in a cosmic setting.If he does so systematically, hewill gradually discern not only hisown role, but the direction of thewhole drama. Only when he understands the meaning of the playcan he orient himself in it. Such


an understanding, vague and inf!omvlete thoUflh it may be, willenable him to achieve his own viewof life. If he is so fortunate as tosee (what seems to him) the truthand to see it whole, he will thenceforth have a vision of the futureas well as an understanding of thepresent and the past. If a rationalman does not do that, why shouldhe consider himself the crown ofcreation? If he does accomplishthis, he can exult with the poetDyer:

My mind to me a kingdom is;Such present joys therein I findAs far exceeds all earthly hliss

* * *Look, what I lack my mind supplies.Lo, thus I triumph like a king,Content with that my mind

doth bring.

The Uneasy Conscience

In education for privacy, however, more is involved than philosophical orientation to the cosmos.There is equally urgent need foreducation in the establishment andmaintenance of moral harmony.From the days of primitive religion, through Greek tragedy, theChristian epic of sin and salvation,and modern psychology, Freudianand non-Freudian, to contemporary existentialism, there runs thetheme of the uneasy conscience.The dramatic specter of moralguilt is the principal character in

many of the greatest creations ofli terary geni us.

No matter what the learned explanation, the psychological s.tateis one of inner moral disharmony.Though it may have outer causes,it is a private affliction and mustbe cured privately. In moments ofdespair or periods of cynicism wemay doubt the existence or· discernibility of moral meaning inthe universe; but such a conclusion does not relieve the individual of the necessity for solvinghis personal moral problem. Evencomplete moral negativism, if notitself a moral philosophy, leavesthe individual no recourse but toestablish a private moral order inhis life of action and reflection.

Moral Resources

Here again, the more sensitivethe individual, the greater thepotentiality for disorganization. Itis the sensitive who are the mostdeeply wounded by moral indifference, disorder, and brutality.The predisposing causes of moraldisorganization may be in the people and the things we love, in theinstitutions which demand that weconform to their customs and taboos, in the great world which sooften mocks our need for moralsignificance and order. But a vision of the good life, the spiritmust have; for devoid of it, theimagination is without moral per-


spective, conduct without guidingprinciples, and action withouttrustworthy habits.

For an individual so unprepared for life, confusion will effacemeaning and create frustration,with the onset in the case of theunusually sensitive spirit of pathological disturbances which may fora period or for a lifetime destroyhappiness. Education for privacymust therefore include the education of the moral personality, thegradual acquisition by the self ofmoral resources. Here, too, thereare available to the student ingenerous measure the works ofthe great philosophical and religious thinkers; for probably noone of the persistent problems oflife has had more of their systematic and concentrated attention. Itis relevant here to note that thepreviously discussed philosophicalorientation to the world is sometimes the foundation for moralorientation.

Emotional Stability

A third requirement in the education of the personality is thedevelopment of emotional stability. Of all the immediate causesof unhappiness, emotional disorder is unquestionably the mostserious and the most common.Currently there is a feeling thatunder the pressures of modern lifeits incidence is steadily increas-

ing. Unfortunately, emotions arethe component of the personalityabout which we know the least, asmodern science has come to realize. Our ignorance is largely aconsequence of the fact that traditionally the emotions have beenconsidered to be effects ratherthan causes.

Preoccupation with the flattering conviction that man is a. ra.tional animal has been attendedwith the assumption that therefore our emotions are under thedomination of the reason. Thisassumption has been one of thebasic tenets of formal education,though puzzled parents and selfconscious adults no doubt have allalong had their suspicions. In ourday, educators are being enlightened by psychology and the medical sciences on the subject of thedevastating power of the emotions. Moreover, the modern conception of the integrated personality has redirected our approachto this subject, so that now wehypothesize and investigate interms of interrelations and interactions. The simple classical visionof the reason enthroned in thepsyche, making judgments, issuing commands, and directing theconscious life of the individual, isdifficult to maintain in the face ofthe past record and the currentspectacle of human behavior.

Let us grant that the contem-


porary individual lives in an ageiK «ihit!.h~ fUI GlJQthQ out it "hu.manity twists and turns like aperson on a sickbed trying to finda comfortable position." To offsetthis, however, he has the advantage of a better understanding ofthe compulsive and disruptivepower of the emotions. He isaware of their insidious tendencyto direct his thinking and affecthis judgment. He knows that theyfeed on themselves and that, ifthey are of the destructive kind,they can bring him to the verge ofdespair. He knows that they cancompletely disorient him, isolatinghim from the friendship andsympathy of his fellow men, andestranging him from the beautyand utility of the world. He mustlearn that there is little he can doto remove the external causes, theirritants in his social and physicalenvironment. In order to maintainor, restore emotional stabilitywithin himself, he must learn tocontrol the effects of these irritants on himself. Education of theemotions is education in self-control, in equanimity and serenity.

Live with Yourself

To these three objectives of education for privacy - the attainment of a philosophical point ofview, a steady vision of the goodlife, and serenity of spirit - Ishould like to add one more: the

individual should be able to liveentertainingly with himself. Heshould accumulate resources onwhich he can draw when he is atleisure. The universal symptom ofthe absence of such resources isthe homely but hapless state ofboredom. It is an anomalous condition of the spirit, a state of indifference lying between pain andpleasure. Neither the mind nor thehands can find anything interesting to do. In contrast with theother troubles of the spirit whichhave been mentioned, there is littleexcuse for this great emptiness.For there is a marvelous cure forboredom, universally available,readily tapped, and virtually inexhaustible: the fine arts.

This claim hardly needs defense.Nor is it necessary to enumeratethe arts and to identify their respective potentialities for beguiling the mind and the heart. Forillustrative purposes, however, letus consider one form of art enjoyment which is available to virtually every normal human being,young or old, learned or simple,saint or sinner - reading. Its greatvirtue for education for privacyis that it is a strictly private experience. No other human being isnecessary to the reader at themoment of reading. He can takehis book with him to the jungle orthe desert, on the ocean, or themountaintop. He can select his


company at will, and rid himselfof it by a turn of the hand. It ispotentially an inexhaustible resource: all ages of history; allcountries; all varieties of humanbeings, and even of animals andplants and physical things; theentire range of human thoughtsand feelings, hopes and fears, conquests and failures, victories anddefeats; the real and the idealall are available at the turn of apage for the reader's contemplation and understanding.

The Arts

When we measure the impoverishment of him to whom thisworld is literally and figurativelya closed book, whose ear is deafto music and whose eye blind tothe glories of painting and sculpture, we come to realize the responsibility of liberal educationfor instruction in the arts. I sayinstruction purposely, because Ibelieve that the presentation ofopportunities for enjoyment andtraining in appreciation are notenough: there should also be instruction and encouragement inthe production of art. As even thebungling amateur knows, there isno greater source of pleasure thancreative activity.

The training of the most modesttalent is an enrichment of a personality and develops another private resource for leisure hours.

Even the unsuccessful attempt tocreate art, moreover', clarifies theunderstanding of art. To be sure,just as it is not necessary to trouble our friends with our thoughts,so it is not necessary to bore ourfriends with our productions. Itis, after all, not the improvementof the neighbor but the improvement of oneself that is the immediate object of education for privacy.

An understanding of the world,a vision of the good life, serenityof spirit, appreciation and practice of the fine arts - these, then,are the elements of the integratedpersonality, the development ofwhich is the immediate object ofliberal education. These are theresources which are accumulatedin the course of education for privacy. Why, now, is it so importantfor every individual to possessthese resources? In the first place,simply because he is going to needthem. We never know when we aregoing to lose our external resources, our public possessions.

Without private resources theindividual has nothing to turn towhen disappointment, frustration,or misfortune become his lot. Inthe great depression which is stillvivid in our memories, there weremany individuals who possessedonly external resources. Whenthey lost these, life was over forthem. They could not go on living


with themselves because of their~nl~ll~~tu.!ll. 111lH~!l1. ~m(Jti(Jnfll. flndartistic poverty. He who possessedthese resources, however, could exclaim with Thoreau: "Oh, how Ilaugh when I think of my vague,indefinite riches! No run on thebank can drain it, for my wealthis not possession but enjoyment."

Resources of the spirit are likesavings: they must be accumulated before they are needed.When they are needed, there is nosubstitute for them. Sooner orlater, the individual fa.ces theworld alone, and that moment mayoverwhelm him if he has no resources within himself.

Distraction helps but little andbetrays us when we least expectit. We can escape our physical environment and our neighbors, butwe cannot escape ourselves. Everyone with any maturity of experience and self-knowledge knowsthat the loneliest moments aresometimes experienced in themidst of the greatest crowds andthe most elaborate entertainments."The man at war with himself isat war, though he sits in a gardensurrounded by flowers and singingbirds," says the novelist Cloete inCongo Song.

The Psychopathic Leader

And now, in conclusion, I wishagain to pay my respects to theother half-truth, the improve-

ment of others, which was so cavalierly dismissed in the beginningof this essay. That objective, together with the other objective,self-improvement, compose thewhole truth, which is the grandobjective of liberal education. Education for privacy and educationfor public service constitute eduation of the whole personality. Hewho is not educated for privacy isha.rdly fit to educate others. Theblind cannot lead the blind. Theman who is not at peace with himself cannot be trusted to lead hisfellow men in the ways of peace.

The unbalanced leader is certain to unbalance the society inwhich he functions. Even, the leader who is intent on the side of thegood but who is a fanatic willstimulate fanaticism in his followers, arouse dogmatism and bigotry, and induce oppression andcruelty. When he is on the side ofevil, he will lead his followers intosuch excesses and wickedness aswill shame all humanity, and whicheven the innocent will wish toforget as soon as possible. Socialpathology must in the last analysisbe focused on the sickness of theindividuals who compose the society. It is pure imagination, ifnot nonsense, to ascribe the ignorance, unbalance, and wickednessof a collection of human beings toa mysterious social entity such asthe group mind or the social or-


ganism. We might as well divorcethe concept of an epidemic fromthe notion of the individuals whoare ill, or ascribe hunger to a societal stomach. People mislead oneanother exactly as they infect oneanother. The psychopathic leaderis potentially as dang-erous as thecarrier of an infectious disease.

The Safe Leader

The safe leader, in terms of theelements of education for privacy,is one who understands his placein the world and can thus envisagethe place of his fellow men; whocan morally respect himself andcan thus be respected by others;who has learned to control hisemotions and can thus be trustedto exert control over others; whohas learned to live in peace andcontentment with himself and canthus with propriety urge others todo likewise.

We are living in a world and ina time when powerful leaders withmillions of fanatical followers arecommitted to the forcible regimentation of their fellow men, according to formulas which have noinitial authority but that of theirown private dogmatism. They notonly refuse to recognize the rightof private thought and personalconscience to be considered in themanagement of public affairs,

but they have abolished the concept of the individual as a privatepersonality and have reduced himto the level of the bee in the hive.To restore the individual to hisformer dignity as a human beingis the urgent need of the day.This, in my opinion, should be thespecial objective of contemporaryeducation.

But liberal education must soeducate the individual that he ismanifestly worthy of having hisdignity recognized. If he wishesto lead his fellows, he must firstlearn to lead himself. Withouteducation for privacy he willneither merit leadership nor learnto recognize it in others. He willstrive in vain for happiness andsuccess in private or public lifeuntil he has achieved understanding, goodness, serenity, and contentment within himself. That,according to my exegesis, is inthis connection the meaning of theBiblical text: "For what is a manprofited, if he shall gain the wholeworld, and lose his own soul?" Itis surely what Thomas Hardymeant when he wrote:

He who is with himself dissatisfied,Though all the world find

satisfaction in him,Is like a rainbow-coloured bird

gone blind,That gives delight it shares not.

IReprints available 8 for $1.00

THE STORY is told of an Americannewsman discussing matters withhis counterpart from Moscow. "AsI understand it," said the American, "the basic idea of communismis to divide everything with yourneighbor."

"Not quite," came the rejoinder."The basic idea is to make yourneighbor divide everything withyou."

"Revenue sharing" is somethinglike that - meaning differentthings to different, people. In proposing to Congress early in 1971a $5 billion program of GeneralRevenue Sharing, President Nixondescribed it as a measure to "restore the confidence of the peoplein the capacities of their government. I believe the way to beginthis work is by taking bold meas-

RevenueSharing

PAUL L. POIROT

ures to strengthen state and localgovernments - by providing themwith new sources of revenue anda new sense of responsibility."

The program presumably shouldcorrect a "fiscal mismatch": Federal tax receipts, based largely onthe income tax, allegedly growfaster than the economy; at thelocal level the reverse is said to betrue; state and local revenues,based largely on sales and propertytaxes, do not keep pace witheconomic growth, while expenditure requirements for education,health, welfare, and other localservices tend to exceed suchgrowth.

Rudyard Kipling described thepolitical process of "revenue sharing" somewhat more poeticallyand profoundly:

235


In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,

By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our rnoney could buy,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said, "If you don't work you die."

In those lines, Kipling verynearly said it all. Our Federal government can and does indeed create money at a pace that exceedsthe capacity of individuals to supply goods and services in the market place. State and local governments resemble individuals in thesense that they are unable tocreate new money at will; but theyresemble the Federal governmentin promising "abundance for all."Hence, the inordinate growth ofthe "public sector," which ratherconsistently between the Civil.Warand World War I took about 9cents from each dollar of the people's earnings and today takes 43cents of each dollar earned. Inother words, government at alllevels in the United States is nowdrawing out of the market place43 per cent of available goods andservices, leaving plenty of moneyin the "private sector" but relatively less to buy.

An Empty Federal Treasury

A sober look at the record reveals the sorry condition of theFederal Treasury. Instead of analleged overflow of tax receipts to

be shared, the Federal debt hasshown an increase in everyone ofthe past twenty years, $114 billiongreater in 1970 than in 1950. Sowhere is the Federal tax revenuethat presumably is to be sharedwith debt-ridden state and localgovernments?

Incidentally, the total indebtedness of all state and local governments in the United States alsohas risen by some $114 billion overthe past twenty years - but notbecause they have been gettingrelatively smaller shares of totaltax receipts. On the contrary,state and local tax receipts havebeen increasing more rapidly thanhave Federal tax receipts since1950. And taxes at all levels havebeen biting ever more deeply intothe taxpayer's total earnings.

In light of these· sorry facts, itshould be clear that the proposalfor Federal revenue sharing issimply a prediction of further inflation. The Federal governmentwill monetize its deficit, throughthe centralized, fractional-reservebanking system, and give some ofthe newly printed money to stateand local governments.

1971 REVENUE SHARING 237

Unfortunately, the printing ofltddition!ll qU!lntitiQg of moneydoes not increase the supplies ofgoods and services that consumers want. It simply enables theFederal government and its revenue-sharing counterparts downthe line to draw an increasingproportion of goods and servicesout of the market place, for distribution and use according to bureaucratic decision rather thanindividual choice.

It may be argued, of course,that it should be no great concernof the individual whether he buysgroceries with food stamps orwith his own earnings so long ashe eats; whether his rent is paidby other taxpayers or by himselfso long as he is housed; whetherhis medical care comes socializedor private so long as he gets thecare; and so on and on. And thatwould be a powerful argument, ifresources were inexhaustablyabundant and sharing the wealthwere the only problem.

The Scarcity of Resources

Relative to Human Wants

That is not the· only problem,however. It isn't even close to thereal problem. Kipling came closer:"If you don't work you die." Theperennial problem - past, present,and future - is the scarcity of resources relative to human wants.And the solution is through effi-

cient production and use of goodsand services.

Whether it is called revenuesharing or inflation or communism or public-sector spending orwhatever - governmental withdrawalof goods and services fromthe market tends to be wasteful ofscarce resources. It is strictly aconsuming process, whether· it bea war against communism in foreign lands or a domestic waragainst crime, smut, poverty, disease, pollution, slum conditions, orother "social" problems. Warlikeor coercive force tends to be wasteful in any event, and especiallywhen the coercion is used to dowhat otherwise would have beendone voluntarily.

Besides the consumption andwaste of resources characteristicof government spending, thisdraining of resources from theprivate sector of the market leavesever less available for saving andinvestment in the tools of capitalistic enterprise. And this lossof the tools and even the incentiveto produce is what brings a taxburdened people to the fate Kipling foresaw: "If you don't workyou die."

The Decline of Morality

Meanwhile, the steady attritionof resources and incentives wearsaway the morality of individualsand destroys their sense of self-


responsibility. This breakdowntends to spread throughout thesociety. The private counterpartof governmental revenue sharingwas described by staff reporterRichard Martin in The Wall StreetJournal of February 9, 1971:

"Nobody can be sure how muchmoney employee thefts are costing companies annually, but in-

Self-Help

surance men and security specialists say the best guesses rangeupwards from $400 million ayear."

The basic idea of revenue sharing is to make your neighbor divide everything with you. But this"dirty neighbor" game alwaysends the same: "If you don't workuou die." ~

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

IT MAY BE of comparatively little consequence how a man is governed from without, whilst every thing depends upon how he governs himself from within. The greatest slave is not he who is ruledby a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is the thrall of hisown moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice. Nations who are thusenslaved at heart can not be freed by any mere changes of mastersor of institutions; and so long as the fatal delusion prevails, thatliberty solely depends upon and consists in government, so longwill such changes, no matter at what cost they may be effected,have as little practical and lasting result as the shifting of thefigures in a phantasmagoria. The solid foundations. of libertymust rest upon individual character; which is also the only sureguaranty for social security and national progress. John StuartMill truly observes that "even despotism does not produce its worsteffects so long as individuality exists under it; and whatevercrushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it is called."

SAMUEL SMILES,

From the book, Self-Help,published in 1859.

ROGER J. WILLIAMS

THE PREVALENCE of student rebellions throughout the world makesone wonder just how effectivelymodern education relates to realhuman problems. To approach theproblems of generic man from abiological standpoint may be fartoo superficial in this scientificage with its tremendous advancesin technology; yet, could not thegeneral weakness of human science be the basis for the commentby Robert Frost: "Poets likeShakespeare knew more aboutpsychiatry than any $25-an-hourman"?

Biologically, each member of thehuman family possesses inborndifferences based on his brain

Dr. Williams is professor of chemistry at theUniversity of Texas at Austin and consultant tothe Clayton Foundation's Biochemical Institute.His latest book, The Environmental Preventionof Disease (Pitman Publishing), will appearin April.

This article is reprinted by permission fromSaturday Review, January 30, 1971. Copyright1971, Saturday Review, Inc.

structure and on his vast mosaicof endocrine glands - in fact, onevery aspect of his physical being.Each of us has a distinctive set ofdrives - for physical activity, forfood, for sexual expression, forpower. Each one has his own mindqualities: abilities, ways of thinking, and patterns of mental conditions. Each one has his ownemotional setup and his leaningstoward music and art in its various forms, including literature.All these leanings are subject tochange and development, but thereis certainly no mass movement toward uniformity. Noone ever "recovers" from the fact that he wasborn an individual.

When a husband and wife disagree on the temperature of thesoup or on the amount of bed coverings, or if their sleep patternsdo not jibe, this is evidence of inborn differences in physiology. If

239


one child loves to read or is interested in science and another hasstrong likings for sports or forart, this is probably due to inborndifferences in makeup. If two people disagree about food or drink,they should not disregard the factthat taste and smell reactions often widely differ and are inherited.If we see a person wearing loudclothing without apparent taste,we need to remember, in line withthe investigations of Pickford inEngland, that each individual hasa color vision all his own; somemay deviate markedly from thepack.

The inborn leanings of Mozartwere evident by age three, and hebegan composing when he wasfour. Capablanca was already agood chess player - good enoughto beat his father - when at agefive he played his first game. Formany centuries, Indian philosophers have recognized innate individuality, which they explain onthe basis of experience in previousincarnations.

Inborn Individuality

Biology has always recognizedinborn individuality. If this inborn distinctiveness had not always been the rule in biology, evolution could never have happened.I t is a commonplace fact in biology that every living organismneeds a heredity and a suitable

environment. Unfortunately, in theminds of most intellectuals biological considerations have beenpushed aside.

Professor Jerry Hirsch, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, has protested in Science that"the opinion makers of two generations have literally excommunicated heredity from the behavioralsciences." This neglect of the studyof heredity has effectively produced a wide gap between biologyand psychology. Biology deals withliving things, and psychology islogically an important phase ofbiology.

Bernard Rimland, director ofthe Institute for Child BehaviorResearch in San Diego, in reviewing my book, You Are Extraordinary in American Psychologist,wrote: "Since between-group differences are commonly a smallfraction of the enormous, important, and very interesting withingroup (individual) difference,psychology's focus on averagevalues for heterogenous groupsrepresents, as Williams indicates,a chronic case of throwing out thebabies with the bath water. 'Throwing out the babies' is bad enough,but we psychologists have the dubious distinction of making thiserror not only repeatedly but onpurpose."

Social solidarity exists and social problems are pressing, but we

1971 THE BIOLOGY ,OF BEHAVIOR 241

cannot hope to deal with thesesuccessfully by considering onlygeneric man, that is, average values for heterogenous groups. Weneed a better understanding ofmen.

A Firm Foundation

The basic problem of genericman is how to achieve "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The writers of our Declaration of Independence were on solidground, biologically speaking,when they took the position thateach human being has inalienablerights and that no one has, byvirtue of his imagined "royalblood," the right to rule over another. In their emphasis on mankind as individuals, Jefferson andhis co-authors were closer to biological reality than are those ofour time who divorce psychologyfrom biology and center their attention on that statistical artifact,the average man.

Because each of us is distinctive, we lean in different directions in achieving life, liberty, andthe pursuit of happiness. Happiness may come to individual people in vastly different ways, and sothe human problem of achievinglife and the pursuit of happinessresolves itself, more than it iscomfortable to admit, into a seriesof highly individual human problems. We need to take this con-

sideration into account in attempting to build an advanced society.

In understanding the scope ofhuman desires, it is worthwhile toconsider briefly the problems thatreal - as opposed to theoreticalpeople face. These may be groupedunder four headings: 1) making alivelihood; 2) maintaining health;3) getting along with others; and4) getting along with one's self.These four categories, singly orin combination, cover most of thefamiliar human problems - marriage and divorce, crime, disease,war, housing, air and water pollution, urban congestion, race relations, poverty, the populationexplosion, the all-pervading problem of education, and the buildingof an abundant life.

Making a Livelihood

The importance of approachingthe problem of making a livelihood from the individual's standpoint lies in the fact that in ourcomplex society a multitude ofways exist - an estimated 23,000- in which people can make a living. People are not by any meansinterchangeable parts in society.While some might function well inanyone of a large number of capacities, many others might behighly restricted in their capabilities and yet be extremely valuablemembers of society. The idea thatit is all a matter of education and


training cannot possibly besquared with the hard biologicalfacts of inborn individuality. Thisperversion of education perpetuates the banishment of heredityan ever present biological factfrom our thinking. Fitting together people and jobs is just asreal and compelling as fittingshoes to people. People sometimessuffer from ill-fitting shoes; theysuffer more often from ill-fittingjobs.

The maintenance of health both physical and mental- involvesindividual problems to such a degree that it is difficult to exaggerate their role. Ever since the daysof Hippocrates it has been knownin a vague way that "differentsorts of people have different maladies," but we are only beginningto learn how to sort people on thebasis of their inborn individualcharacteristics. When we have become expert in this area, vastprogress will result, particularlyin the prevention of metabolic andpsychosomatic diseases, Le., thosenot resulting from infection. Aslong as we dodge the biologicalfact of inborn individuality, weremain relatively impotent in thehandling of diseases that arisefrom within individual constitutions.

The problem of getting alongwith others is a very broad one,in which individual problems are

basic. If husbands and wives andmembers of the same family always get along well together, wewould have some reason to be surprised when squabbles break outwithin business, religious, or political groups. If all these kinds ofsquabbles were nonexistent, wewould have a basis for being surprised at the phenomenon of war.

Distinctive Qualities

While self-interest and differences in training are vital factorsin these common conflicts, anotherfactor should not be overlooked:the inborn individuality of theparticipants. There is a mass ofevidence to support the thesis thatevery individual, by virtue of hisor her unique brain structure andperipheral nervous system, is psychologically conditionable in a distinctive manner. Thus, a person'sunique nervous system picks updistinctive sets of impulses, andbecause his interpretive apparatusis also unique he learns differentthings and interprets the world ina distinctive manner. Even if twoindividuals were to have exactlythe same learning opportunities,each would think differently andnot quite like anyone else. This isthe basis for the observation bySantayana: "Friendship is almostalways the union of a part of onemind with another; people arefriends in spots."

1971 THE BIOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR 243

In spite of our attempts to doso, individual minds cannot becompared on a quantitative basis.The minds of Shakespeare andEinstein cannot be weighed oneagainst the other; there weremany facets to the minds of each.At birth the two minds wereequally blank, but as they matured, each saw, perceived, andpaid attention to different aspectsof the world around it. Each wasconditionable in a unique way.

Each Mind Unique

The recognition of the uniqueness of human minds is essentialto human understanding. By developing expertness in this area,psychology will eventually becomefar more valuable. In an advancedsociety with a growing populationand closer associations, it is obviously essential that we learn better how to get along with eachother. When we are unaware ofthe innate differences that residewithin each of us, it becomes veryeasy to think of one who disagreeswith us as a "nitwit" or a "jerk,"or perhaps as belonging to the"lunatic fringe." When we appreciate the existence of innate differences, we are far more likelyto be understanding and charitable. Strife will not be automatically eliminated, but tensions canbe decreased immeasurably.

Individual problems are at the

root of the problem of crime. Manyyears ago, James Devon placed hisfinger on the crucial point. "Thereis only one principle in penologythat is worth any consideration:It is to find out why a man doeswrong and make it not worth hiswhile." The question, "Why doesa particular man commit crime?"is a cogent one; the question, "Whydoes man turn to crime?" is relatively nonsensical.

Since all human beings are individual by nature, they do nottick in a uniform way nor for thesame reasons. Broadly speaking,however, many doubtless turn tocrime because society has not provided other outlets for their energies. If we could find a suitablejob for every individual, the problem of crime would largely vanish.The problem of crime is thoroughlypermeated with individual problems; it cannot be blamed solelyon social conditions, because asthe studies of Sheldon and EleanorGlueck have shown, highly respected citizens may come fromareas where these conditions arethe worst.

A Race of Individuals

Racial relations would ease tremendously if we faced squarelythe biological facts of individuality. If we were all educated toknow that all whites are not thesame, that all Negroes do not fit


in the same pattern, that all Latinsare not identical, that all American Indians are individuals, andthat all Jews do not fit a stereotype, it would help us to treatevery member of the human raceas an individual.

It is no denial of the existenceof racial problems to assert thatindividual problems need to bestressed more than they are. Forindividual Negroes and individualwhites, the pursuit of happinessis by no means a uniform pursuit.Doubtless, although there arewhites and Negroes who wouldthink they had reached utopia ifthey had a decent shelter andwere assured three meals a day,this would not satisfy millions ofothers for whom striving and asense of accomplishment are paramount. "The Negro problem" or"the white problem" - dependingon one's point of view - is shotthrough with a host of individualproblems.

Learning to live with one's self iscertainly an individual problem,and will be greatly eased by recognition of inborn individuality.Much unhappiness and many suicides can be traced to misguideddesire to be something other thanone's self. Each of us as an individual has the problem of finding his way through life as besthe can. Knowing one's self as a distinctive individual should be an

important goal of education; itwill help pave the road each of ustravels in his pursuit of happiness.

Dangers of Oversimplification

Why have these facts of in..;dividuality not been generally accepted as a backdrop in every consideration of human problems?For one thing, many people, including scholars, like being grandiose and self-inflationary. To makesweeping pronouncements about"man" sounds more impressivethan to express more limited concerns. Simplicity, too, has an attractiveness; if life could be madeto fit a simple formula, this mightbe regarded as a happy outcome.

One excuse for excommunicating inheritance from the behavioral sciences for two generations has been the fact that inheritance in mammals is recognized by careful students as beingexceedingly complex and difficultto interpret. It is true that somefew characteristics may be inherited through the operation of single genes or a few recognizableones. But other characteristicsthose that differ in quantity - areconsidered to be inherited in obscure and indefinable ways commonly ascribed to multiple genesof indefinite number and character. These multiple-gene characteristics include, to quote thegeneticists Snyder and David,


"the more deep-seated charactersof a race, such as form, yield, intelligence, speed, fertility,strength, development of parts, andso on." To say that a particularcharacteristic is inherited throughthe mediation of multiple genes isto admit that we are largely ignorant of how this inheritance comesabout.

Identical Twins?

Recently, some light has beenthrown on this problem by experiments carried out in our laboratories. These experiments involved armadillos, which are unusual mammals in that they commonly produce litters of fourmonozygous ("identical") quadruplets that are necessarily allmales or all females.

By making measurements andstudying sixteen sets of these animals at birth, it became evidentthat although they develop fromidentical genes, they are not identical at all. Organ weights maydiffer by as much as twofold, thefree amino acids in the brain mayvary fivefold, and certain hormonelevels may vary as much as seven-,sixteen-, or even thirty-twofold.These findings clearly suggestthat inheritance comes not bygenes alone but by cytoplasmicfactors that help govern the sizeof organs (including endocrineglands) and the cellular. makeup

of the central nervous system."Identical" twins are not identical except with respect to thegenes in the nucleus of the eggcell from which they developed.

One of the most interesting suggestions arising out of this studyis the probability that individualbrain structures, which have beenknown to have "enormous" differences since the investigations ofLashley more than twenty yearsago, are made distinctive by thesame mechanisms that make fordifferences in organ weights. Thesize, number, and distributions ofneurons in normal brains varygreatly; this is biologically in linewith the uniqueness of humanminds. The further elucidation ofthis type of inheritance shouldhelp to focus more attention onheredity.

If this line of thought is validit makes even more ridiculous theinvitation issued by the FordFoundation to the biological sciences to stay out of the precinctof human behavior. The expression "behavioral science" cameinto being many years ago as aresult of the formulation of theFord Foundation-supported· programs. Biochemistry and genetics,for example, were kept apart fromthe "scientific activities designedto increase knowledge of factorswhich influence or determine human conduct."


What can be done to bridge thegap between psychology and biology? More importantly, how canwe develop expertise in dealingwith the human problems thatplague us but at present go unsolved?

Differential Psychology

A broad, long-range, and practical strategy for learning how todeal more effectively with humanproblems is to explore, problem byproblem, the inborn human characteristics that are pertinent toeach one. Differential psychology,for example, needs to be intensified and greatly expanded; thiscan probably be done most effectively in connection with a seriesof problem-centered explorations.

Some of the specific problemareas that require study from thestandpoint of how inborn characteristics come into play are: delinquency and crime, alcoholism,drug addiction, unemployability,accident proneness, cancer, heartdisease, arthritic disease, mentaldisease, and broadest of all, education. Each of these problems couldbe vastly better understood as theresult of interdisciplinary studyof the influences of inborn characteristics. Such study would include differential psychology whenapplicable, combined with extensive and intensive biochemical andphysiological examinations, for ex-

ample, of blood, saliva, urine, andbiopsy materials. To expedite theseinvestigations, automated equipment and computer techniqueswould be used extensively to helpinterpret the complex data.

It is not likely that these explorations will find that some individuals are born criminals,others alcoholics, etc. Once werecognize the unique leaningsthat are a part of each of us, wewill see how, by adjusting the environment, these leanings can beturned toward ends that are socially constructive. Every inherited factor can be influenced by anappropriate adj ustment of the environment. All this should not bemade to sound too easy; it may bemore difficult than going to themoon, but it will be far moreworthwhile.

One of these specific problems alcoholism - has been of specialinterest to me. After about twenty-five years of study, I am convinced that inborn biochemicalcharacteristics are basic to thisdisease, but that expert application of knowledge about cellularnutrition (which is not far off)will make it scientifically possibleto prevent the disease completelyand to correct the condition if theapplication of corrective measuresis not too long delayed.

Inborn inherited characteristicshave a direct bearing on the cur-


rent revolt against the Establishment. If biology had not been banished from behavioral science, andif students and other intellectualswere well aware of the biological,roots of their existence, it wouldbe taken for granted that conformity is not a rule of life.

Recognizing Our DifferencesCan Lead to Harmony

If all that we human beings inherit is our humanity, then we allshould be reaching for the sameuniform goal: becoming a thoroughly representative and respectable specimen of Homo sapiens.There is rebellion against thisidea. Revolters want to do "theirthing." The revolt takes on manyforms because many unique individuals are involved.

If nonconformity had a betterstatus in the eyes of the Establishment (and it would have if ourthinking were more biologicallyoriented), exhibitionism would bediminished and the desire of eachindividual to live his own lifecould be fostered in a natural way.

Human beings are not carboncopies of one another. Studentsand others who are in revolt havefound this out. Perhaps withoutfully recognizing it, they arepleading for a recognition of inborn individuality. This is essentially a legitimate plea, but it cantake the form of disastrous anarchy. A peaceful means of helping resolve the ideological .messwe are in is to recognize heredityby having a happy marriage ofbiology and behavioral science.'

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

Agreement to Disagree

A "UNITED STATES" was only possible if men could agree to disagree about a great many things.

What was expedient for them is, however, an essential of liberty.Theoretically, it might be desirable for all men to agree on everything, though I doubt it. Practically, such agreement would onlybe possible if all individual wills were crushed and subjected to asingle wilL The effort to do this is always in the direction of thewell traveled road to despotism. The alternatives are agree.mentto disagree or despotism.

CLARENCE B. CARSON, The American Tradition

PROPERTY

JAMES MADISON

THIS TERM, in its particular application, means· "that dominionwhich one man claims and exercises over the external things ofthe world, in exclusion of everyother individual."

In its larger and juster meaning, it embraces everything towhich a man may attach a valueand have a right, and which leavesto everyone else the like advantage.

In the former sense, a man'sland, or merchandise, or money,is called his property.

In the latter sense, a man has aproperty in his opinions and thefree communication of them.

He has a property of peculiarvaiue in his religious opinions, andin the profession and practice dictated by them.

He has a property very dear tohim in the safety and liberty ofhis person.

He has an equal property in the

248

free use of his faculties, and freechoice of the objects on which toemploy them.

In a word, as a man is said tohave a right to his property, hemay be equally said to have aproperty in his rights.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is dulyrespected. No man is safe in hisopinions, his person, his faculties,or his possessions.

Where there is an excess of liberty, the effect is the same, thoughfrom an opposite cause.

Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; aswell that which lies in the variousrights of individuals, as thatwhich the term particularly expresses. This being the end ofgovernment, that alone is a justgovernment which impartially secures to every man whatever is hisown.

1971 PROPERTY 249

According to this standard ofmerit, the praise of affording ajust security to property shouldbe sparingly bestowed on a government which, however scrupulously guarding the possessions ofindividuals, does not protect themin the enjoyment and communication of their opinions, in whichthey have an equal, and, in theestimation of some, a more valuable property.

More sparingly should this praisebe allowed to a government wherea man's religious rights are violated by penalties, or fettered bytests, or taxed by a hierarchy.

Conscience is the most sacred ofall property; other property de-pending in part on positive law,the exercise of that being a natural and unalienable right. Toguard a man's house as his castle,to pay public and enforce privatedebts with the most exact faith,can give no title to invade a man'sconscience, which is more sacredthan his castle, or to withholdfrom it that debt of protection forwhich the public faith is pledgedby the very nature and originalconditions of the social pact.

That is not a just government,nor is property secure under it,,;vhere the property which a manhas in his personal safety and personal liberty is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest. A

magistrate issuing his warrants toa press-gang would be in hisproper functions in Turkey or Indostan, under appellations proverbial of the most· complete despotism.

That is not a just government,nor is property secure under it,where arbitrary restrictions, exemptions, and monopolies deny topart of its citizens that free use oftheir faculties and free choice oftheir occupations which not onlyconstitute their property in thegeneral sense of the word, but arethe means of acquiring propertystrictly so called.

What must be the spirit of legislation where a manufacturer oflinen cloth is forbidden to bury hisown child in a linen shroud, inorder to favour his neighbour whomanufactures woolen cloth; wherethe manufacturer and weaver ofwoolen cloth are again forbiddenthe economical use of buttons ofthat material, in favor of the manufacturer of buttons of other materials!

A just security to property isnot afforded by that government,under which unequal taxes oppressone species of property and reward another species; where arbitrary taxes invade the domesticsanctuaries of the rich, and·· excessive taxes grind the faces ofthe poor; where the keenness andcompetitions of want are deemed


an insufficient spur to labor, andtaxes are again applied by an unfeeling policy, as another spur, inviolation of that sacred propertywhich Heaven, in decreeing manto earn his bread by the sweat ofhis brow, kindly reserved to himin the small repose that could bespared from the supply of his necessities.

If there be a government, then,which prides itself in maintainingthe inviolability of property;which provides that none shall betaken directly, even for public use,without indemnification to theowner, and yet directly violatesthe property which individualshave in their opinions, their religion, their passions, and their faculties - nay, more, which indirectly violates their property in

their actual possessions, in thelabor that acquires their daily subsistence, and in the hallowed remnant of time which ought to relievetheir fatigues and soothe theircares - the inference will havebeen anticipated that such a government is not a pattern for theUnited States.

If the United States mean to obtain or deserve the full praise dueto wise and just governments, theywill equally respect the rights ofproperty and the property inrights; they will rival the government that most sacredly guardsthe former, and by repelling itsexample in violating the latter,will make themselves a pattern tothat and all other governments. t)

March 27th, 1792. From the Works of Madison, Vol. IV, pp. 478-80.

IDEAS ON

LIBERTY

Abraham Lincoln, on Property

PROPERTY is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable, is a positivegood in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may

become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry andenterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house ofanother, but let him work diligently to build one for himself, thus

by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence....

I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquireproperty as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don't believe

in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more

harm than good.

A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

Christianity andthe Closs Struggle

In Christianity and the ClassStruggle (Arlington House, $7.00),the Reverend Harold O. J. Brownhas addressed himself to thatever-growing band of masochists,nominally Christian, who thinkthat guilt can be "collective." Theheresy to which Dr. Brown takesexception comes in many guises.The "capitalists" are to blame foroppressing the "masses." The"Germans" were collectively guiltyof murdering the Jews. The modern "white" population of America must pay reparations for whattheir forebears did to the blacksin enslaving them. The "over thirties" have wronged the "undertwenties" by bringing them intoa defective world of war and pollution. Everything gets reducedto a terrible and absolutely unrealsimplicity.

To the true Christian the theorythat a collectivity can be guiltydenies the proposition that all menare human, each with his share of

original sin, and each with hisvarying propensity to redeemhimself. Only individuals may beheld responsible. The "class war"solves nothing in Christian, orhuman, terms for the simple reason that it seeks an externalchange that has no relation to theindividual. When the "up" classis abolished, the "down" class becomes, in Djilas's phrase, the "newclass." It not only perpetuates allthe old wrongs, but it actually intensifies them. As Max Nomadonce said, "the Kaiser and Czarwere liberals" in comparison tothe national socialistic and proletarian tyrants that came afterthem.

Dr. Brown accurately notes thatthe theory of the class strugglehas ceased to serve the Marxistsin most of the "developed" nations. The "capitalists" were neverthe vicious oppressors that Marxand Engels originally thoughtthem to be, but even granting for

251


the sake of argument they hadbeen, the supposed "exploitation"of nineteenth century days is nowvery far behind us. The "masses"in the Western nations now partake of a general well-being thatcan't be matched in "Marxist" societies. It is hard to nurse a grudgeagainst the man with a Cadillacif you yourself are driving aChevy or a Plymouth to your ownpleasures. So the "class struggle"no longer serves as a useful revolutionary prod in the Westerndemocracies. Marxism is now acure in search of a problem.

Nevertheless, the professionaldividers among us, including manyChristians who should know better, have found convenient substitutes for the concept of class war.There is now the "race war:" Or,if not that, there is the generational war. These are the "NewLeft" substitutes for the older,and now ineffective, propagandaof the "class struggle."

Race War Is Suicide

Since racial differences are ineradicable unless we assume a fewgenerations of world-wide intermarriages, it is, in Dr. Brown'sopinion, a "heinous crime" to promote any theory of race war. Racial differences must be acceptedor they will end in de~.th and destruction to the weaker side. TheChristian, according to Dr. Brown,

must accept man as man, tryingto ameliorate problems on individual terms. Dr. Brown is extremelycritical of his co-religionists who,acting on the theory that all Christians were guilty for what happened before the Civil War, accepted James Forman's demandfor money reparations to be paidby the churches to the NationalBlack Economic DevelopmentCouncil. The idea of "reparations"is, to Dr. Brown, sheer extortion.The money, if paid over, wouldn'tgo to the original victims who hadsuffered the ignominy and crueltyof being enslaved. Nor would thetruly guilty parties, the slaveraiders (both black and white)who tore men away from their ancestral homes in Africa, be payingthe reparations. Church memberswhose grandfathers and grandmothers weren't even living inAmerica in the early nineteenthcentury would be the victims ofthe extortion plot. And therewould be no guarantee that themoney would be used in a way tobenefit the black community.

The practicing Christian, saysDr. Brown, who feels he must dosomething about the blacks, or thecentral cities, or whatever, woulddo better to invest in businessesthat are "color blind" in their hiring policies. Or, if he is so mindedas a charitable individual, he couldgive his own money to a Negro

1971 CHRISTIANITY AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE 253

college, or to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The point is that theindividual must feel for the individual if the ideals of Christ areto be upheld.

Parents and Children

The "generation war" makeseven less sense to Dr. Brown thanthe race war. There can be no permanent lines of battle in a generational war, for today's "youth"are in all too short a time tomorrow's "middle-aged." If the members of a single generation couldbluff their fathers into givingthem power, would they, in turn,be likely to relinquish that powerat age thirty to the next wave ofon-coming youth? It is hardlylikely.

The class struggle and the various substitutes for it are, in Dr.Brown's description, "the devil'sprogram." They set men againsteach other not in fruitful competition but in the delusion that evilcan be destroyed by destroyinghuman beings. You think you aredoing something for "humanity"and you end by killing three million kulaks whose knowledgemight have saved other millionsfrom periodic famine. If you follow Jerry Rubin's advice to killyour parents, you can have nological objection if your children,in turn, decide to murder you. And

if you preach Black Power in therace war sense, you risk a revivalof the Ku Klux Klan mentality ina numerically superior portion ofthe population. This, of course, isa sure recipe for suicide.

Dr. Brown's book comes with anintroductory note by Billy Graham. Its evangelical imagery mayput off some readers in our secularcivilization, but its substance iseternally true. The problem facingthe world is not one that can besolved by "revolution," for in revolution the ugly means take overand Decome the permanently evilends. What we need is reformation, which begins with the individual. This is not only true fororthodox Christians, it is also truefor all believers in the traditionsof the West.

.. THE THEORY OF MONEY ANDCREDIT by Ludwig von Mises(Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y.: TheFoundation for Economic Education, new printing, 1971), 493 pp.$4.00

Reviewed by Hans F. Sennholz

FEW BOOKS have contributed moreto the advancement of monetarytheory than Mises' Theory ofMoney and Credit. And yet, fewserious books have had such littleimpact on contemporary thoughtand policy as this treatise. Theworld continues to ignore or rejectit while it is clinging to antiquated


notions and practices. Of course,it is more pleasing and popular forgovernments to follow the adviceof statists and inflationists than toheed the warnings of economistslike Professor Ludwig von Mises.

N early all contempora:ry economists adhere to holistic theoriesthat are utterly futile and sterilefor an understanding of monetaryphenomena. There is the popular"income-expenditure analysis"which swayed economic thoughtduring the 1930's with the publication of the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money byJohn Maynard Keynes.

According to Keynesian analysis, there is an ideal level of monetary expenditure at which the national economy achieves full employment under stable price conditions. In its search for this ideallevel the income-expenditureanalysis endeavors to trace theflow of money payments throughthe economy. As income is quantitatively the largest source of fundsspent, an analysis of its determination and disposition is basic tothe approach. In addition, fundsfor spending may be derived fromexisting reserves of currency anddemand deposits, time deposits,and other liquid assets that areeasily converted to cash. Andfinally, when the ideal level of totalspending has not yet been reached,newly created money, preferably

demand deposits created throughbank credit expansion, may beused to achieve the desired total.In short, it is the principal role ofInonetary authorities to ensuregrowth in the monetary reservebase sufficient to facilitate creditexpansion for full employment.

As a holistic theory Cfrom thestandpoint of the whole ratherthan the parts) it does not professto be concerned with individualeconomic actions, merely withpolicy guidelines for governmentsseeking economic growth and fullemployment. But even in thislimited objective it has failed conspicuously wherever it was tried.For massive unemployment continues to be with us after morethan thirty years of Keynesianpolicies.

And finally, there are the "monetarists" of the Chicago Schoolwhose holistic theories resemblethe Keynesian doctrines. The famous "equation of exchange," asdeveloped by Professors Fisher,Marshall, and Pigou, providestheir starting point CPT == MV, orP == MVIT). As the price level cannot be expected to remain stable forvarious reasons, which renders themarket system rather unstable,they call on government to takeIneasures to stabilize the level andthus cure the business cycle.

It is true, the economists of theChicago School reject the compen-

1971 OTHER BOOKS 255

satory fiscal policies prescribed bythe Keynesians because they realize the futility of continuous finetuning. But they recommend longterm stabilization through asteady 3 to 4 per cent expansion ofthe money supply. They have nospecial trade cycle theory, merelyth~ "pr~scr{"pt{on-tor goveyanment to"hold it steady." "If there is arecession issue more money, andif there is inflation take someout !"

Both schools of thought, the income-expenditure analysts as wellas the monetarists, are unalterablyopposed to the gold standard. Itsdiscipline is rejected in favor ofgovernmental power over money.

Von Mises' subjective theorymakes individual choice and action the center of his investigation. On the cornerstone laid byCarl Menger's theory of the natureand origin of money ProfessorMises, in his Theory of Money andCredit, built a comprehensive fullyintegrated structure. With thehelp of his notable regressiontheory he completed the subjectivetheory of money, which had frustrated other economists beforehim.

Professor Mises demonstratedthat the individual demand formoney springs from the fact thatit is the most marketable good aperson can acquire. It is true,money is not suitable to satisfy

directly anyone's needs. But itspossession permits him to acquireconsumers' or producers' goods inthe near or more distant future.People want to keep a. store ofmoney to provide exchange powerfor an uncertain future. Some aresatisfied with relatively small holdinR;s, others prefer to hoard largersupplies. And we all change frequently our holdings in accordancewith our changing appraisals offuture conditions. Money is never"idle," nor is it just "in circulation"; it is always in the possession or under the control of someone.

The demand for money is subject to the same consideration asthat for all other goods and services. People expend labor or forego the enjoyment of goods andservices in order to acquire money.This is why individual demand andsupply ultimately determine thepurchasing power of money in thesame .. way as they determine themutual exchange ratios of all othergoods. The quantity theory ofmoney as understood by ProfessorMises is merely another case ofthe general theory of demand andsupply. However, he rejects thequantity theory as commonly presented by the "monetarists" andother contemporary economists asa sterile aberration that proceedsholistically and arrives at emptyequations and models.


Professor Mises' trade cycletheory integrated the sphere ofmoney and that of real goods. Ifthe monetary authorities expandcredit and thereby lower the interest in the loan market belowthe natural rate of interest, economic production is distorted. Atfirst, it generates overinvestmentin capital goods and causes theirprices to rise while production ofconsumers' goods is necessarilyneglected. But because of lack ofreal capital the investment boomis bound to run aground. The boomcauses factor prices to rise, whichare business costs. When profitmargins finally falter, a recessiondevelops in the capital goods industry. During the recession a newreadjustment takes place: the malinvestments are abandoned or corrected, and the long neglected consumers' goods industries attractmore resources in accordance withthe true state of public saving andspending.

This Mises theory has explainednumerous economic booms andbusts ever since 1912 when thefirst edition of The Theory ofMoney and Credit appeared inprint. And it continues to providethe only explanation of the rapidsuccession of booms and recessions that continue to plague oursystem.

The subjective theory of Professor Mises also points up thedesirability of money that is notmanaged by government. The orthodox gold standard or gold-coinstandard is such money, the valueof which is independent of government. It is true, it cannotachieve the unattainable ideal ofan absolutely stable currency.There is no such thing as stabilityand unchangeability of purchasingpower. But the gold standard protects the monetary system fromthe influence of governments asthe quantity of gold in existenceis utterly independent of the wishes and manipulations .of government officials and politicians, parties and pressure groups. Thereare no "rules of the game," noarbitrary rules which people mustlearn to observe. It is a social institution that is controlled by inexorable economic law.

For nearly 60 years of worldwide inflation and credit expansion, depreciations and devaluations, feverish booms and violentbusts, Ludwig von Mises' Theoryof Money and Credit has givenlight in the growing darkness ofmonetary thought and policy. Theworld should be grateful that thelight is maintained through anew printing of this remarkableanalysis. ,

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