Heads Will Roll; L. Franckowiak

LEONARD FRANCKOWIAK IN THE SOCIETIES of yesteryear, the king ruled supreme. The say ing that· "heads will roll" was no idle comment but a probability which struck fear in the hearts of the people. When Henry VIII of England said "heads will roll," roll they did! Whenever and wher ever the king was displeased, the shockwaves of his fury would reverberate throughout the dy nasty, and the poor citizen would shudder in fear. The king was al mighty; and people, at best, were humble servants of the king. The king's word was law; his word was justice; he was the absolute ruler; all property was his to con trol; all people were his to control. The king was the government, and there 'was no such thing as indiMr. Franckowiak is a businessman in Chicago. His business includes a weekly radio program in behalf of freedom, entitled We StiII Have 57 Per Cent (referring to the portion of per sonal earnings not taken by taxes). "Heads Will Roll" is from his script for April 10, 1972.

632 vidual freedom for people. Even the democracy of Athens and the Roman Empire, which were what we call representative govern ments, were based upon the prin ciple that government is almighty and man's right to live or die is decided by the state. In days of old, governments were always first and the people second. Then, along came the United States of America and things were different. Man was to enjoy freedom, of which we still have 57 per cent. In other societies, people such as you and I were absorbed by the state. It was as if the government was God on earth. Governments were at the top and people were the servants of government. But when the United States of Amer ica was formed, a dramatic thing happened. In terms of setting up a country, our forefathers did a 1972 HEADS WILL ROLL 633 complete flip-flop. While every other country had government first and people second, the United States was founded in reverse people first and government sec ond as servant of the people. How dramatic that was - a bold, new principle - people first and gov ernment second. The people were to be at the top rung of the ladder and the government at the bottom.

People were to be free to enjoy life; people were to be free to do their own thing in any way that was peaceful; and the government would serve all men, preserve the freedom of all men through law and through order, through justice and through the punishment of criminals. This was a fantastic achievement in the history of mankind - and still is! The mira cle of America is man's precious individual freedom. Freedom with Responsibility Of course, with freedom comes responsibility. If man is to enj oy the blessings of freedom on the top rung of the ladder, then he also has to be responsible - re sponsible for his own welfare, for his own housing, for his own se curity, for his own employment, responsible for his own existence and for his own happiness. That was and always is the price of freedom. If man is to enj oy free dom, and the spirit of freedom to do his own thing, then he must also bear the burden of respon sibility for the consequences of his actions. Man, enjoying the fresh, brisk breezes of freedom, must also be the master of his own fate and destiny. Rich or poor, good or bad, the fortunes of suc cess or the consequences of fail ure, to enj oy freedom is to accept responsibility. This was the foun dation upon which the United States was built: free and sel£' responsible men at the top rung of the ladder and government sec ond as the keeper of the peace.

America Is Changing Now, Iittle by Iittle, America is changing. Men began· to abdicate their individual responsibility and they turned to "benevolent" gov ernment. Housing is now a func tion of government; education is now a function. of government; Medicare is now a function of gov ernment; Social Security is a function of government; so is banking, transportation, electric ity, water, busing, farming, prices and wages, employment and non employment. The war on poverty is now a function of government. And so it goes; man, in his abdi cation of responsibility, has yielded to government - and the rungs of the ladder are no longer clearly defined. Where once the man of America stood proudly at 634 THE FREEMAN October the top and government was a far removed and far-distant second, they now crowd together on the ladder: individual freedom and self-responsibility - 57. per cent; government responsibility and government control - 43 per .cent, and rising. America is shifting priori ties so that the government will be on top and people second calling to mind the divine right of kings of yesteryear, the Russia and Red China of today , where, in fact, "heads still roll."

To abdicate responsibility, to seek welfare from government, is to give up in exchange man's precious freedom because the two are interrelated. To obtain housing from the government is to place housing in control of government. To obtain education from governMisplaced Controls ment is to put government in con trol of education. The price of welfare from government is con trol by government - and control is the opposite of the freedom that was the miracle of America. For man to enjoy his rightfu1 place at the top of Nature's laddeI in the sunshine of human dignity he must first accept his responsi. bility and thereby keep govern· ment beneath him as his servant The divine right of kings and gov· ernments is the principle of yes· teryear. Now is the time fOl dramatic reaffirmation of man kind's greatest discovery: man'~ right to life, man's right to th, pursuit of happiness, and man': right to liberty. Otherwise, "head: will roll." @ IDEAS ON LIBERTY THEY ARE EXPLOITING public ignorance, these politicians wh would put price controls on meat and other food prices. Thes prices have not soared as have the costs of government, and i is the costs of government which need to be controlled.

If the costs of government hadn't risen any more than hav meat prices, there wouldn't be enough inflation to make it problem. The fact is that well over a third of consumer payment fo meat and other voluntary purchases goes to cover costs of thing the government has decreed more important. J. KESNER KAH A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN THE BEWILDERED SOCIETY SOMEWHERE, so Geor~e Roche III believes, the American people took a wrong turn. It was not that their values were wrong - their fore bears had come to the N ew World in order to find space for individ ual development .. The American wanted to be "his own man," to carve out a business, or to develop himself culturally, morally and pro fessionally, without having to ask permission from those who had been placed above him in a social environment that enforced status. But, in coping with a big conti: hent, the American somehow per cnitted technology to creat what Dr. Roche calls "enmassment."