Preface

That this work, from the standpoint of my motives, experiences, education and general background, may, to the unacquainted, be disrobed of the mysteries usual to anonymity, permit me the confessions of this preface.

I am thirty-eight. I have two sons, twelve and fifteen, for whom I desire an America of opportunity. However, my observations of current trends, made clearer than otherwise possible because of the nature of my work, leave me with some apprehensions as to what the future holds for Leonard, Jr., and Jimmie.

My background is a common one. Born on a Michigan farm near a little Irish-settled village, my boyhood was spent amidst the exacting necessities of people in our moderate circumstances. Disciplined in hard work, educated in reading, writing and arithmetic, I entered the era of responsibility at the early age of eleven upon the death of my father.

Up at four in the morning, milking cows, cleaning stables and general farm chores, I found time to run down to Fish Creek to inspect my traps. A hasty breakfast, to the village general store at eight to sweep out and arrange stock, school at nine, away from there at four to more chores, supper and to the store again until it closed at nine. Romance? More than any pampered millionaire’s son—I loved it!

1917 and War! Away I went—to England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany. Was on the “Tuscania”—it sank! Nearly two years over there, in the air service. Flyer? No, just a mechanic and only a private.

Back to America in ’19. Disillusioned? Not a bit. Went to work—first insurance, then as cashier in a factory. Then into the wholesale produce business—on a “shoestring” and knowing little about it. Worked like the devil, two in the morning until six at night. Six years of fight, a two-fisted business, that game. Romance? Plenty. A home, car, radio and I’m a man with a family. Went broke. Sold home, car, everything to liquidate with honest decency. Learned something about business from that.

Discouraged? No. That word wasn’t taught to Wolverine farm boys, then. Took the next train to California. Went to work first day selling real estate on commission. Did it a year—made a living.

Always trying something about which I knew nothing. Accepted secretaryship Burlingame Chamber of Commerce. Made fair record and was given better position at Palo Alto. Was offered, and accepted, position as assistant manager, Western Division, Chamber of Commerce of the United States. For more than four years now I have been Manager of that Division.

Little significance to all of this except it does indicate that opportunity was open to me. It suggests the results of work—27 consecutive years with a job of some kind—romance in all of it. That’s the kind of chance I want for my boys.

The present drift of political and economic currents, as I see them, portends disaster. No particular class of citizens—labor, business, politics, agriculture—seems to have a monopoly on social vice or economic virtue, but a direction away from true American liberalism or, more precisely, liberalism as I will presently define it, seems evident among all classes.

The problem, “Impoverishment in the Midst of Plenty,” on which I propose to offer some ideas, is one which I have a driving passion to solve, at least to find a formula by which it may be solved. We have come nearer to a solution in America than anywhere else. At times we were “warm” but apparently there has been no unanimity of opinion as to why we ever came even close to a solution.

Thus, the objective of this effort, like that ascribed to the collectivists, is worthy and lofty. But the method? Ah, there is the catch—the method. Solutions have ranged everywhere from the Single Tax to the Townsend Plan, the objective in each case being worthy. Nothing as automatic or as easy here. Rather the idea calls for the general practice of some difficult human virtues. The thesis is reactionary because it calls for reality. It is radical because it demands an overthrow of present indulgences. To the stickler for labels, what does that make me?

Such flaws as the reader notes can be blamed on my own thinking and on my inadequate ability to express ideas which, to say the least, are complicated. A few lines, here and there, have been lifted bodily from some speech or book. For instance, the quotation from “Iolanthe” appearing at the beginning of the first chapter, and the term “politically-managed labels” on the same page, represent pure plagiarism. They were taken from Mr. Nock’s article appearing in the October, 1936, issue of the Atlantic Monthly.

While I believe my general idea of identifying some of our behaviors as either promotive or subversive to the factor that makes for a wider diffusion of wealth to the population to be a good one, I fully recognize my shortcomings in detailing those behaviors. That is a field that should be reserved for, and incidentally undertaken by, the competent philosophers and economists. It is one of the compelling necessities of the moment.

This work merely represents a serious attempt at “thinking through” by one whose formal education contributed little to such processes. Quite naturally, such thinking results in many rough edges, which I hope the more skilled will tolerantly indulge for the sake of the broader argument.

The broader argument contends there is a definable factor which, if promoted, will tend to do away with poverty and unemployment and, conversely, if subverted, will tend to destroy the possibility of more goods and more services for more people. It is really an argument on the problem of wealth, approached in a different manner than is customary.

Time and again I did mental stumbles into economic blind alleys. When I had the wisdom to recognize my position and the good sense to admit my predicament, such friends as W. C. Mullendore, Professor Thomas Nixon Carver, Dr. George L. Hoxie, Philip J. Fay and James Mussatti came to the rescue. But in giving them much deserved credit, let no blame attach to their persons for my mistakes. A hesitancy to admit difficulties and a stubbornness to proposals from whatever source, have combined to keep this work a distinctly personal and therefore a highly fallible effort. But there is a theme here for which even I, in my humility, will make no apology.

—Leonard E. Read