Under a Gum Tree; S. Yankus

A SOUTH AMERICAN correspond ent asks: "What progress are you making in promoting the ideas of Iiberty in Australia?" Australia is a vast country. The nature of my job prevents my wandering off to Toowoomba, Queensland, or some other town a thousand miles away. So how can I promote liberty all over Australia? Did you ever get the feeling that you can't do much alone? On the surface it seems most of us lack the funds and are ill-equipped to promote freedom without be longing to a large organization. But I'm in favor of two-man con versations held under the shade 14 of an Australian gum tree, or any other convenient place, as one of the best means of promoting lib erty. If one's ideas are good, I have faith the ideas will spread like dandelion seeds. If the ideas are worthless like some seeds, they won't even germinate. To illustrate, let me relate a re cent conversation with a libertar ian friend concerning the follow ing story: Back in the days of horse trans portation, a group of tourists were being hauled around the country side by team and wagon. The dri ver was an expert with his whip.

Whenever a fly landed ona horse, the driver flicked it off with a quick snap of the whip. Then a bee land1965 UNDER A GUM TREE 15 ed on one of the horses, but the driver never moved. One of the curious tourists asked, "Why don't you use your whip on the bee?" The driver winked his eye know ingly and replied, "The bees are too well organized!" This story was intended to show that organizations have great pow ers while individuals have none. But my libertarian friend doesn't eat everything that's put on his plate. He had sharper insights. "Suppose," he said, "you were gi ven the task of eliminating all the bees or all the flies. Which task '''ould seem easier to accomplish? How easy it would be to sneak up on a hive at night and capture the entire organization of bees by throwing a plastic bag over the whole lot. How difficult it would be to catch all the flies. They seem to be everywhere and nowhere, un organized as they are."

Likewise, the unorganized lib ertarian can go about his busi ness of promoting liberty unno ticed in the middle of the action taking place. Have you ever no ticed how unobtrusive one is while strolling through a crowded shop ping center - seen and unseen at once? Edgar Allen Poe in his short story, "The Purloined Let ter," illustrated how well a letter could be hidden in plain view on top of the desk. But what can an unorganized individual do to promote liberty without such tools of communica tion as newspapers, radio, and TV publicity? After all, what good are the ideas of liberty if no one else knows about them but you? Hidden Tape Recorders After purchasing a tape re corder, I eagerly demonstrated my new possession to a family visiting our home. The lady, who heard herself for the first time on the play-back of the tape record ing, commented, "I would not like to be recorded secretly by a hidden tape recorder."

Her husband shrewdly ob served, "You are tape recorded by every man, woman, and child you talk to. Not only that, you are televised by family, friends, neigh bors, and strangers who see you. All of us have mental recollections of facial expressions and conversa tions we saw and heard many years ago." Since most of us come in con tact with thousands and thousands of individuals during a lifetime, the number of mental tape record ings we leave in other minds be comes difficult to calculate - even for a mathematics professor. All this communication takes place without spending a penny on the publicity of newspapers, radio, and TV. The lesson to derive from an awareness of the multitude of im16 THE FREEMAN May pressions made on others by our words and behavior is to work toward self-improvement - to make ever better tape recordings of self. These ideas were not generated by a large organization aiming to reform others, but, rather, by two ordinary individuals who were mutually trading ideas on liberty for their own self-improvement one hand washing the other. How better can. one promote liberty in Australia or elsewhere? ~ How to Advance Liberty ONCE AN INDIVIDUAL who would advance liberty has settled on self-perfection as correct method, the first fact to bear in mind is that ours is not a numbers problem. Were it necessary to bring a majority into a comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty would be utterly hopeless. Every significant move ment in history has been led by one or just a few individuals with a small minority of energetic supporters. The leaders have come from strange and odd places; they could not have been predicted ahead of time. One, I recall, was born in a manger. Another, the leader of a bad movement, was an Austrian paper hanger. Who, more than any other, will advance liberty in America? I do not know; you do not know; that very individual does not know, for each person is possessed of aptitudes and potentialities about which he or she is unaware.

LEON ARD E. READ LABOR DRIVES FOR "TOTAL SECURITY" PAT VINCENT You are hired by the company the day you leave school. You move up the seniority lad der at a fixed and unalterable pace. There's no need to make a spe cial effort or develop new skills: your position and pay are fixed by the time you spend on the job. You receive financial assistance when you marry, later get addi tional benefits for your children. You retire at the age of 55. The worker's paradise? Not so, say Japanese union lead ers about the "lifetime employ ment plan" which covers approxi mately 40 per cent of their coun try's work force. In fact, both labor and management are now trying to find some way of dis mantling Japan's tradition-bound system. Unions are restive, pointMr. Vincent is a freelance writer specializing in the business and industrial field. ing out that the worker is stuck with one job for life, has no in centive to develop additional skills, and can't better himself by taking advantage of opportunities in a different industry. Management is hobbled by a work force that is stagnant, regimented, and un adaptable to changing times.