An Admission of Failure; D. W. Shorock

Allowed to continue to operate with even the relative freedom that it has enjoyed in recent years, the capitalist system will continue to produce these miracles. It will continue to make progress against poverty by a general increase in income and wealth. But short sighted and impatient efforts to wipe out poverty by severing the connection between effort and re ward can only lead to the growth of a totalitarian state, and destroy the economic progress that this country has so dearly bought. ~ DONALD WALTER SHOROCK THE "TRUE BELIEVER" of our day seems marked by a willingness to force others to act according to his beliefs. Too civilized to resort to direct open force, he advocates government action instead. Much may be said for a person who is generous with his own re sources, but a "true believer" wants everyone to be generous. Not that he would play the role of Robin Hood; his is the more Mr. Shorock is a senior majoring in Speech, with a minor in Economics, at Ottawa Uni versity in Kansas.

civilized approach of asking gov ernment to do the job. Thus, the primitive "justice" of waylaying the tax collector and dividing his purse among harassed taxpayers becomes the "true believer's" ra tionale for seizure and redistribu tion of property that men have earned and are using in service to willing customers. Those persons greatly concerned about the use of alcohol often fol low similar tactics. It is not enough for them to understand that drinking can lead to loss of 1966· AN ADMISSION OF FAILURE 37 judgment and injury to one's health. Nor is it enough, they say, to make these facts available so that others might come to the same conclusions. The "true be liever" concerning the evils of drinking would not allow anyone to drink - would force him not to. The person who advocates gov ernmental redistribution of wealth is often heralded as the great hu manitarian. And only the Prohibi tionist is presumed to be deeply concerned about the drinking prob lem. Thus, those who have the least faith in their own ideas are judged to be the true believers.

If a person has faith enough in his own ideas, he feels no need to force others to accept his moral judgments and conclusions. If his premises and facts are sound and his logic valid, others should have no problem agreeing with his conelusions; and in case they do not, the failure may be his rather than theirs. Those who would force others into agreement would seem to be admitting failure. Any idea which inspires so little confidence among its advocates is hardly worthy of becoming a law to govern every one. As a reminder of the foolishness of trying to force others to my standards of morali ty, I ref er frequently to a small card at my desk: May I have ideas in which I have enough trust that I never feel. a need to force others to live by them. And may I have ideas worthy of this trust. Princes and Paupers FOR A MAN who can command another man's labor and self denial for the support of his own existence is a privileged person of the highest species conceivable on earth. Princes and paupers meet on this plane, and no other men are on it at all.

On the other hand, a man whose labor and self-denial may be diverted from his maintenance to that of some other man is not a free man, and approaches more or less toward the position of a slave. WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, said Richard Weaver. He wrote a book on the subject, mainly to demon strate that ideas which entered the stream of thought centuries ago have continued to inform our thought and unfold in the direc tions implicit in them. (Perhaps he also demonstrated in yet anoth er way, how the sins of the fathers are visited upon the chil dren to the seventh generation, or beyond.) Ideas have conse quences in two realms. Ideas which serve as basic assumptions (often unconsciously held and un examined) have consequences in the realm of ordinary beliefs and thoughts. When applied, ideas also result in acts, which have conDr. Carson is Professor of American History at Grove City College, Pennsylvania. Among his earlier writings in THE FREEMAN were his series on The Fateful Turn and The Ameri can Tradition, both of which are now avail able as books.