Political Corruption; A. Brownfeld

One Result of All-Powerful Government and Centralized Power ALLAN C. BROWNFELD PEOPLE throughout the country are asking themselves the ques tion: "Why are so many men in so many high places in Washington involved in so much corruption?" They observe huge cash payments, unreported, being made to national political campaigns and wonder why so many businessmen feel the need to involve themselves in pol itics. Unfortunately, the answers we receive to such questions miss the point entirely . We are told, in response, that we need more hon est men in government, or stricter laws, or more Congressional con trol. It may be true that we need more honest men in Washington, for politics, as President Eisen hower once reflected, "is too im portant for the politicians." It may Mr. Brownfeld of Alexandria, Virginia is a free lance author, editor, and lecturer especially in terested in political science.

also be true that we need stricter laws and additional control by the Congress. But the simple reason why so many businessmen are in volved in politics is that politics is so involved in business. If govern ment did not have the power to set wages and prices, no one would feel the need to bribe anyone for a favorable ruling. If government did not have huge contracts to be stow in a multiplicity of fields, no one would need to payoff poli ticians for a piece of the action. If government did not provide itself with the power to regulate, in the name of "safety" or "ecology" or whatever, no one would feel the need to bribe anyone for or against a particular ruling. It is inevitable, as government becomes more and more powerful and controls more and more as pects of our lives, that Americans will seek to influence that govern643 644 THE FREEMAN November ment through campaign contribu tions and other forms of reward.

It is similarly inevitable that men in political life, with such enorm ous power at their disposal, will be tempted to accept such bribery. Changing the men and keeping the system as it is will change very little. Earlier Scandals The trend toward government control of the nation's economy goes back to the latter part of the nineteenth century. Discussing the age of the "Robber Barons," Gus tavus Myers, in his book, History Of The Great American Fortunes, places great stress upon the low level of political morality which was evidenced in the rush to ac commodate the highest bidder from the business community. De scribing the situation in New York State, Myers charges that, "Laws were sold at Albany to the highest bidder." In an article prompted by the Credit Mobilier scandal, E. L. God kin, editor of the Nation, warned that the only lasting answer to bribery and corruption would be an end to the power of congress men to bestow great privileges upon private individuals or corpo rations. Godkin wrote: "The rem edy is simple. The Government must get out of the 'protective' business and the 'subsidy' business and the 'improvement' business and the 'development' business. It must let trade and commerce, and manufactures, and steamboats and railroads, and telegraphs alone. It cannot touch them without breed ing corruption."

The Bewildered Society Discussing the tendency at this time to look at the scandals of the past - and present - and conclude from them that what we need is more and not less governmental authority, George Roche III, in his volume, The Bewildered Soc1iety, notes that, "Advocates of central ized authority and economic con trol in the twentieth century look back to the so-called era of Recon struction and big business to point out its evils with great glee and to suggest that those evils are a prima facie case for the necessity of more political control of busi ness. The very reverse is actually the case ... All of the significant scandals of the nineteenth century were closely connected with the exercise of political power." Dr. Roche points out that, "... there evolved the dichotomy which saw businessmen preaching laissez faire doctrine for everyone else, while asking for government as sistance in their own· particular case."

The recent revelations with re gard to the Nixon Administration 1973 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 645 - the Vesco funds, the contribu tion from the milk producers, the airlines, and so forth - are simply part of the ongoing reality of cor ruption in a society where gov ernment becomes the arbiter of all things. Similarly, the use of the Internal Revenue Service by those in power to punish opponents is only additional proof that those who argued that the power to tax is the power to destroy were' quite right. To Restore Integrity, Limit Government's Power If Americans seek to restore honesty and integrity to govern ment, the first step in the proper direction would be to begin divest ing government of its power over the nation's economy, its schools, and its farms. A government which did not have favors to be stow would not be a recipient of secret cash contributions. Politi cians, without life and death pow er to wield, could more easily maintain their honesty and in tegrity.

If the Watergate hearings have an additional long-range lesson for the American people, it may be the fact that the dire warnings over the years by distinguished states men and scholars about the danger of an all-powerful executive were quite correct. In The Federalist Papers, James Madison declared that, "In fram ing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." During the years when, under the New Deal leadership of Frank lin Roosevelt, the role of the ex ecutive was increasing in scope and was less and less subject to control by either the legislative or judicial branches of government, it was conservative Republicans such as Senator Robert Taft of Ohio who warned of the dangers of executive power. Discussing the manner in which we went to war in Korea, without a Congressional declaration, Sen ator Taft stated that, "If in the great field of foreign policy the President has the arbitrary and unlimited powers he now claims, then there is an end to freedom in the United States not only in the foreign field but in the great realm of domestic activity which neces sarily follows any foreign commit ments."

During those years, it was the liberal Democrats who supported executive power, who opposed measures such as the Bricker Amendment which sought to limit it, and downgraded the role of the Congress.

646 THE FREEMAN November How Did It Happen? Now, with Watergate and the spectacle of nonelected and am bitious men charged with illegal and unethical activities, many Americans wonder how it is that the executive branch came to pos sess so much power and to view itself as above and beyond the law. Ironically, the liberals, whose poli cies have led to this state of af fairs, are most aghast; while many conservatives, who always recognized the danger of arbitrary executive power, now tend to apol ogize for it, for it is being wielded by their own party. The noted historian, Daniel M. Boorstin, states that one of the most important lessons to be learned from Watergate relates to the growth of the government's executive branch: "There are hundreds of people who write on White Houl!e sta tionery. This is a new phenome non. In fact, it's a phenomenon which has astonished, and prop erly astonished, some senators who asked the counsellor to the Presi dent if he ever saw the President and he said he didn't. And I think there are something like 40 per sons who bear some title such as counsellor to the President or as sistant to the President or some thing of that sort. Now this is a relatively new phenomenon: the opportunity for the President to get out of touch with the people who speak in his name."

American political philosophy has always held that the legis la- . tive branch was to be the supreme branch of government. Philosopher John Locke, who profoundly af fected the thinking of the Found ing Fathers, is emphatic on the position of the legislative branch. In his Second Treatise he writes that, "There can be but one su preme power, which is the legisla tive, to which all the rest are and must be subordinate." Departure from Tradition Presidential dominance, which has been growing since the days of the New Deal, is inconsistent with the American political tradi tion. If men such as those involved in today's Watergate scandal, who are not elected by the people and cannot be voted out of office by the people, are unchecked in their ex ercise of power, the concept of representative and limited govern ment is seriously challenged. It is unfortunate that principle seems to play such an ambiguous role in American politics. The men who most feared executive power when the other party wielded it, are now becoming comfortable with it. Similarly, those who wel comed it when it was in their own hands, are now suspicious of it.

This, of course, becomes argument 1973 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 647 from mere circumstance, and not from principle. The American peo ple deserve something better from their elected officials. If we learn from Watergate to be suspicious of centralized power, whether in the hands of Demo crats or Republicans, we will have learned an important lesson. Dur ing the colonial period, the anti Federalists, men such as George Mason and Patrick Henry, op posed the ratification of the Con stitution because they believed that even that limited and limiting document provided for too strong an executive. "Did we fight King George III only to have an elected king?" they would ask. Their question still bears asking, for we in America do not want an elected king, but an executive to carry out the laws passed by the Congress. Hopefully, Watergate will mark the end of the trend toward cen tralized power started in the New Deal. If it does, all of us will benefi~ ~ IDEAS ON LIBERTY No Change By Usurpation IT IS important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its admin istration to confine themselves within their respective constitu tional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroach ment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.· The necessity of recip rocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Consititution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation: for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weap on by which free governments are destroyed.

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S Farewell Addres8 SEVENTEEN YEARS ago the Aus trian economist Ludwig von Mises observed that the people of the United States enjoyed the highest standard of living of any people in the world; but only because the United States government em barked much later than the gov ernments in other parts of the world upon the policy of obstruct ing human enterprise and endeav or.1 The dismal results of govern ment intervention in the areas of agriculture, education, employ ment, housing, urban renewal, mail carriage, and transportation, to na.me but a few, are a matter of record.2.3.4.5.6.7.8Today it appears that the U.S. government is on the verge of a massive intervention into the practice of dentistry and medicine, because of an alleged Garvan F. Kuskey, DDS, has offices in Santa Barbara, California. His article is reprinted by permission from the Journal of the Cali fornia Dental Association, July, 1973.