Book Reviews

Leonard Read's economic theory is solidly based on Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises, but the curious thing about most of the Read essays is the profusion, of noneconomic names that are used to make economic points. In an es say on the division of labor Read quotes Thoreau and Alfred Lord Tennyson, not Adam Smith. He doesn't mention John Kenneth Gal braith when he is writing about the "bold-faced and flagrant lies" that are part and parcel of a price controlled economy. Instead, he in vokes Shakespeare. When he is writing about the in dividual's drive to improve him self, the substantiating quotations are from C. S. Lewis, Heraclitus, 381 382 THE FREEMAN June and the German psychologist Fritz Kunkel. In staking out the limits of government power Read uses Woodrow Wilson and Immanuel Kant to make his points, and his trust in the individual as a self starter is bolstered by references to William Butler Yeats, Joaquin Miller, Benj amin Franklin and Arnold Toynbee.

Of course, there are references in CASTLES IN THE AIR to Adam Smith, von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, F. A. Hayek, Thomas Nixon Car ver and W. A. Paton, all of whom qualify as first-rate economic minds. There is also one mention of John Maynard Keynes. But it is interesting that Read deals with Keynes not as the founder of an economic school but as an immor alist. Mises appears as a political philosopher and as a teacher, Haz litt and Hayek as "ethicists of in creasing influence." Just about the only economist who gets extended treatment in a Read essay as an economist is Adam Smith. But it is Smith on the nature of Provi dence (the "invisible hand") that gets Read going, and when one talks about Providence one is talk ing about "the inner nature of things." The Art 01 Living The point is that Leonard Read is more interested in the art of Iiving than he is in the technical aspects of economic science. He wants to create character. If people believe in uncoerced choice, the economic system will take care of itself. Read's pedagogic method is to try and perfect his own under standing and behavior. If he can improve himself he is satisfied that he can be a teacher by example, not one by argument.

Noone, as Leonard Read says, knows, all by himself, how to make a pencil. Yet pencils are made and sold by the gross. The market has a wisdom that does not exist in anyone person. So, naturally, Leon ard Read wants to let individuals follow their o\vn bents in an un coerced way. The man who knows something about lead will, through the working of the market, pool his knowledge and skill with those of the man who knows something about wood. The man who knows about rubber will contribute the eraser. Pencils - and virtually every other economic product - de pend on the generative capacity of individuals who have no external force standing in their way. Freedom to Grow But, though Read obviously uses pencils and other economic goods, it is the freedom to "flow and grow" as human beings that is his primary concern. When people have creative freedom, they do 1975 CASTLES IN THE AIR 383 more than eat well. They have a margin to spare for other things.

Everyone has a vested interest in the other fellow's diversity. Rev erence for differences leads to rev erence for life which is made up of differences. So Leonard Read finds himself writing about the "open" human being in language which, to me, borders on the mystical. He be lieves that man who reveres life, with all its diversities, can actually "radiate" a feeling that will affect the plant life around him. I know that people can have rapport with birds and dogs. But plants? They depend on loving care. But do they really care about the love as long as they get water, warmth and sun light? Unlike Leonard Read, I wouldn't bet on the plant having perception. But, in a world of mysteries, Read could be right. The main point is the live-and-let-live quality of Read's "freedom philosophy," which, if it could be universalized, would create a world not only of happy plants but of men and women without envy.

Mr. Read's concept of civiliza tion is the opposite of most peo ple's. He believes that civiliza tion represents an evolution from the complex to the simple life. When Thoreau went to' Walden Pond, he had to be a master of many skills. When one had to be a Jack-of-all-trades to survive, it made for complexity. One had little time to discover one's own unique ness. To get from Michigan to Los Angeles in the days of Leonard Read's grandfather, one had to know something about horses, hunting, Indian fighting, cooking and Heaven knows what else. But now all one has to do is to get on a plane, wearing a suit from Hong kong and shoes made in Rome. The plane's chef, a specialist, can offer you salmon 30,000 feet up from 3,000 miles away, still fresh. The Simple Life Read is so obviously right about civilization permitting one to lead the simple life. But our collective refusal to abide by the live-and let-live principles piles interven tion on intervention and inflation on inflation. So, in self-defense, one is forced back to the J ack-of all-trades philosophy. The believ ers in a free market, in the free flow of energy, are now subscribing to economic letters that advise the purchase of Walden-like retreats far from our decaying cities. One is advised to lay in a store of dried and canned foods and to learn something about gardening and carpentry. If the inflation survival letter writers are right, the only practical insurance policy lies in the cultivation of the Jack-of-all trades attitude.

But, of course, that won't work 384 THE FREEMAN Jun.e for very long, either. When civili· zation is on a retrograde course, things won't stop at the Walden Pond point. The stone age mental ity comes next in the retrogres sion, with the new savages from the decaying cities fanning out into the countryside to murder the Jack-of-all-trades in his Walden retreat for the sake of whatever food is in his cellar or in his gar den. Even if things don't go this far, an armed dictator would be quite capable of taking you out of your retreat and putting you to work on a collective farm. No, there is no other way than to fight it through on Leonard Read's terms. Propagation of the freedom philosophy is necessary to survival. We luust put founda tions under Mr. Read's castles in the air. ~ HANDSOME BLUE LEATHERLEX FREEMAN BINDERS $2.50 each THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. IRVINGTONON·HUDSON, NEW YORK 10533 the Freeman VOL. 25, NO.7. JULY 1975 The Great American Revolution Ralph Bradford 387 Shall the real revolution continue to bear its fruit of freedom and opportunity?