The Last Candle; J. Schreiber

W'e aren't free to do what we want to do, but rather, Jefferson said, we are free to do what we ought to do. In other words, the price of freedom is indi vidual re sponsibility. So freedom isn't all free, you see, nor is it perpetual. Part of the American dream is that to each generation there falls a new responsibility to preserve This article is condensed from lecture notes prepared and used by Dr. Schreiber, a physi cian in Canfield, Ohio.

1967 THE LAST CANDLE 417 that freedom which was estab lished here by those early patriots. But it took more than just a phi losophy of government. Those early Americans, wise beyond their years, also realized that govern ment of, by, and for the people had to flourish in an economic system of free enterprise, with competi tion as the catalyst. So they estab lished a structure of limited cen tral government, permitting this newly won freedom to have un limited possibilities. One could assume, then, that we have it made. Never have any people, at any time, anywhere, had it so· good. But in our present abundance and luxury something is wrong. People aren't happy. They don't walk down the streets of our cities smiling, or whistling a happy tune. There is discontent, and one can sense fear of the un known. Overabundant Americans are jittery. There seems to be a tarnish on our golden Mecca. Our welfare lists are growing. We've created a new breed of men who won't work. And instead of the slogan, "God bless America," we now hear, "What have you done for me lately?" The signs aren't too hard to read. They are the signs of internal decay - the dry rot of apathy and indifference.

The symptoms of our disease of welfarism began some years ago when we began to penalize success by taxation. By using our tax dol lars,government has relieved us of Illany of our own personal re sponsibilities, in exchange for our personal freedom. We have come to think of our early history and the men who made it as a kind of fairy tale instead of the greatest success story of all time. We have been flirting with a dangerous and clever seductive mistress called socialism. And for a time, since the depression days of the thirties, we have been toying with ideas which have proven a failure in most of those countries where they've been tried. It seems to me we are in the mess we're in for several reasons. From Freedom to Barbarism The first is the natural evolution of civilization. Lord Byron, in trac ing the rise and fall of great na tions, said that "people go from freedom to glory, from glory to wealth, from wealth to vice, from vice to corruption, and from cor ruption to barbarism."

The second reason f or the be ginning of the welfare state is temptation. We are being tempted as we have never been tempted be fore - tempted to let the govern ment do it. From all sides of the Great Society comes the siren song. The government should pro vide free housing; the government should pay for college education; 418 THE FREEMAN July the government should take care of the aged; the government should provide beauty and culture; the government should guarantee jobs; and so it goes. It's not an easy thing being a free American, when all around us the misguided and the misinformed tell us the gov ernment owes us all these things which up to now we have been pro viding for ourselves. There is a third reason why we are losing our freedom. Most of us accept the beginning of the welfare state, not because of our weakness, but rather because of one of our finest virtues - human compassion.

Through our misguided love for humanity we have bought the idea that the mere spending of enor mous sums of our own money, plus the creation of vast new bureauc racy to process and administer the complexities of the new social laws will, in themselves, solve the ills of the people. By passing the buck and surrendering our personal respon sibilities into the hands of govern ment, we solve our guilty con sciences as a nation and as individ uals. And finally, we have begun our journey into the welfare state for another reason. For too long now, too many of us have been too will ing to let someone else call the shots. We have been busy with things, which in t~e end don't count for much, and in our madness for materialism we have forgotten how to lead. We have been letting "George do it," and "George" has messed it up. For one shining, glorious moment of history we had the key and the open door and the way was there before us. Men threw off the yoke of centuries and thrust forward along that way with such hope and such brilliance that for a little while we were the light and the inspiration of the world.

Now the key has been thrown care lessly aside - the door is closing we are losing the way. In summary then, we Americans have inherited the greatest nation in the world, but we're finding out it's not easy being a free Ameri can. We need to remind ourselves of the magic formula of free en terprise, operating in an environ ment of competition with limited central government. We must con stantly remind ourselves, and each other, that our freedom is threatened by those who promise us security instead of opportunity. We do not have to go down the drain of the welfare state just be cause of a silly historic cycle. We can pass on the heritage of per sonal freedom to our children with the three keys of leadership, per sonal involvement in public affairs, and a recrudescence of the home and church. This we can do if enough of us will care enough to do enough.

1967 THE LAST CANDLE 419 Freedom, Self-Control, Human Dignity, and Limited Government Once upon a time there was a young nation struggling in the community of nations to find her place in the sun. For this young country of brave people discovered that freedom is a Godgiven right. So impressed Were they with this belief that they lit a candle to sym bolize their freedom. But in their wisdom they knew that the flame could not burn alone, so they lit a second candle to symbolize man's right to govern himself. The third candle was lighted to signify that the rights of the individual were more important than the rights of the state. And finally they lit a fourth candle to show that govern ment should not do for the people those things which people. should do for themselves. As the four candles of freedom burned brightly, the young nation prospered; and as they prospered, they grew fat; and as they grew fat, they got lazy. When they got lazy, they asked the government to do things for them which they had been doing for themselves, and one of the candles went out. As gov ernment became bigger, the people became littler and the government became all important and the rights of the individual were sacrificed to the all important rights of the state. Then the second candle went out. In their apathy and indiffer ence they asked someone else to govern them, and someone else did, and the third candle went out.

In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted se curity, a comfortable life, and they lost all, comfort and security and freedom. For you see when the freedom they wanted most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free, and the Athenians of nearly two thou sand years ago were never free again. The last candle was extin guished. ~ Omnipotent Government THEY [parliaments] possess no power beyond the linlits of the trust for the execution of which they were formed. If they con tradict this trust, they betray their constituents, and dissolve themselves. All delegated power must be subordinate and limited. If omnipotence can, with any sense, be ascribed to a legislature, it must be lodged where all legislative authority originates, that is, in the PEOPLE. For their sakes government is instituted, and theirs is the only real omnipotence. RICHARD PRICE. Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, 1776 GEORGE C. ROCHE III 2. SOME MODERN MANIFESTATIONS MAN'S attempted exercise of pow er over other men is as old as his tory. Of almost equal age are man's speculations concerning the dangers of power and the means by which it might be limited. De centralization and a supposition of a framework of Natural Law, lim iting ruler and ruled alike, have emerged as man's two best an swers to the problem of power.