Book Reviews

They were all in the room together at the Madrid and Salamanca ses sions in Spain. Over the years the four had formed a Readean chain. In 1946, when the British were turning their backs on Winston Churchill in favor of adopting the Labor Party 755 756 THE FREEMAN December socialism of Major Clement Attlee, Antony Fisher, then out of the Royal Air Force, went to Professor Hayek for advice about getting into politics. Hayek, fresh from writing The Road to Serfdom, gave Fisher some things to think about that seemed para doxical. The way to affect politics, he said, was to stay out of politics. Work on ideas, Hayek told Fisher; get them into the marketplace. Ideas at Work So Fisher worked on ideas. He first took the practical precaution of making a considerable sum of money in the chicken business, one of the few businesses that had been overlooked by Attlee's planners. Then he subsidized an organization called the Institute of Economic M fairs in London, putting the effer vescent Ralph Harris in charge to overwork himself until he managed to find a compatible sidekick, Ar thur Seldon. For the better part of thirty years Harris and Seldon is sued a stream of freedom philosophy publications. The lEA pamphlets often seemed to fall on stony ground.

But Margaret Thatcher read them, and so did Sir Keith Joseph, now England's Secretary of State for In dustry ~ lEA ideas became the new Conservative agenda. And one of the first things Mrs. Thatcher did on attaining office was to make Ralph Harris a Lord. It was as if four men had acted out the sequence that is suggested in the essay on ((Resolution: A Freedom Imperative," which is one of the many good ones in the new Read book. ((In what respect is freedom a prQplem?" Read asks in this essay. ((Personal experience has given me the answer. For 45 years my princi pal aim has been to understand and explain how freedom works its won ders ... The dedicated aim-resolu tion-of many people working for freedom has resulted in thousands of tiny breakthroughs .... " And, after some characteristically humble words about how little he knows, Read says what he does know: uOur end-the Blessings of Freedom-is but the flower of good seeds we plant; our objective has no other means of attainment. Your and my role? Exemplarityl (Example is the school of mankind; they will learn at no other.'"

Like most of us in this benighted twentieth century, Leonard Read had to come by his wisdom the hard way. He seldom gets personal, but once in a while autobiography in trudes in a Read essay. He confesses: in uPerseverance: A Key to Free· dom," that in 1929 he was taken ill by Herbert Hoover's demand fOJ wage and price controls. That waf Republican doctrine at the time. II the subsequent New Deal days, wher Franklin Roosevelt acted or Hoover's advice, Read, as Manage] of the Western Division of the U.S 1979 THE FREEDOM FREEWAY 757 Chamber of Commerce, supported the N.R.A., with its wage and price controls in all the big industries that had enrolled under· the banner of General Hugh ~~Iron Pants" Johnson's Blue Eagle. It was Fas cism of a peculiarly American sort, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers accepted it. ((Copycat Read!" so the Old Self Read says of the Young Self Read of 1933.

Copycats of Socialism Leonard Read mentions some of his fellow copycats of the early Thir ties. One of them, described as a (~brilliant economic thinker" in gen eral, advocated rent control-UA naive position he later overcame." Another, a ((so-called conservative President of the United States," en dorsed the Harvard professor, a ((mentor" of the younger Read, who wrote: ((Government must do for the people that which they cannot do for themselves." ((This specious coun..; sel," says the mature Read, uspawned countless copycats and made a substantial contribution to the socialistic mess we are now ex periencing." Few people, so Read re flects, can do much of any single thing for themselves. But the divi sion of labor steps in to make gov ernment action quite unnecessary. The mature Read wonders how ((the 16,000,000 elected or appointed officials-federal, state and localwho doubtless know even less than the rest of us, will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves! If this isn~t politico-economic balderdash, pray tell, what is?"

It is characteristic of Leonard Read that when he quotes an intel ligent remark or bit of poetry or pertinent aphorism, he always names the person he is quoting. The name index of The Freedom Freeway 'would do justice to a Ph.D. in philos ophy. But when Read tells us about his fellow copycats of New Deal socialist days, he mercifully fails to identify them. Read doesn't believe in getting people's backs up. Good psychology suggests to him that if you attack a person by name, or otherwise subject him to embar rassment of any kind, it. is more difficult to convert him to what Rus sell Kirk calls Right Reason. So Leonard Read's books become soft sells. The quality of his phraseology is not strained, it fall eth as the gentle rain from heaven. Read follows what is an operation ally sound technique, one which, in the hands of his British counter parts, has brought the Conserva tives-really, the classical lib erals-back into the seats of power. The same technique will, in time, send the necessary signals to W'ashington, D.C.

When he has finally achieved his aim and no longer has any worries about getting people's backs up, I 758 THE FREEMAN December hope Leonard Read will write an auto biography that names names. He can tell fascinating stories about people who have made gaudy mis takes in judgment. He tells about keeping a journal. Does he name names in that? For one, I would like to know. Meanwhile, I am quite con tent to absorb Leonard Read on such subjects as the ((socialization" of sin (socialism itself), and the (~menace of meddlers." Read may not name his sinners or his meddlers, but he is surely convincing about the evil of the unnamed culprits' deeds. @ RESTORING THE AMERICAN DREAM by Robert J. Ringer, with a Foreword by William E. Simon (Published by QED; distributed by Har per & Row, Publishers: New York) 1979 320 pages. $12.50 cloth Reviewed by Roger R. Ream, Director of Seminars, The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington on-Hudson, New York HORROR stories about waste and fraud in government are nothing new. Proponents of a free market economy have always been the most vocal in explaining the destructive nature of government intervention, be it printing press money, regula tion of business, tariffs, or whatever else government does beyond its proper role of protecting every indi vidual's right to life, liberty, and prop erty. Still, it is always encouraging when someone lucidly exposes the emperor without his clothes.

Recently, we have had several superb accounts warning of the dan gerous power the state has amassed during the 200 years since our Founding Fathers created a gov ernment oC~limited and enumerated powers." One such warning was A Time For Truth (reviewed in The Freeman, August, 1978), former Treasury Secretary William E. Si mon's candid account of his experi ences in Washington. The latest warning of the threat presented by a concentration of gov ernmental power comes from Robert J. Ringer in his new book, Restoring The American Dream. Ringer, au thor of two previous bestsellers, sees in today's government many re semblances to the collectivist states of George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. ~~Today one feels the ether of these books in the air," he writes. HRational people know that there is something wrong. There is tension and uncer tainty. There is ill will. There is fear .... Government-inspired nothink and doublethink have de secrated the American Dream."

The book is frightening, but con· tains a glimmer of hope. It is frightening when Ringer forcefully 1979 OTHER BOOKS 759 describes the grim realities and con sequences of the transition from government by the people to gov ernment for the benefit of those in power. He exposes the tactics used by government to maintain and ex pand control over people: U. • • de mocracy, though it has many disad vantages for powerholders, seems to be the most practical way to main tain control, because it gives the illusion of consent." There are various ways, Ringer points out, by which a democratic government may reinforce its con trol; the most successful being infla tion. Government can hide the costs of the generous benefits it grants potential voters by creating new paper money rather than levying direct taxes. Government officials then blame workers and busi nessmen for the unpleasant conse <quences of this inflation-higher prices and a lower standard of liv ing. This enables the politician to have his cake and eat it too-he takes credit for granting benefits to voters (even though consumers are forced to pay for them in the form of higher prices) while continually pointing the finger at business and labor for the painful consequences of inflation. As Ringer says, u •••infla tion is the one government scheme, above all others, that must be de mystified if the American Dream is to be restored."

Ringer's reason for hope is borrowed in part from Simon's book. It is the belief that the American peo ple would insist upon positive change ((ifthey understood the situ ation." Therefore, Ringer's objective is to explode the myths of statism in a manner which enables the layman to understand the basic principles of indi vidual liberty and the threat presented by collectivism. With respect to inflation (al though I believe Ringer would as sert the same in regard to the whole interventionist mess) he states, H ••• the only hope that remains is that a great majority of Americans will come to understand the colossal in flation swindle for what it is and insist upon reform. To say the least I rate that a long shot. But at least it's a shot." We must hope Ringer is wrong on the method, for if our task is to get a majority to under stand the situation, it will be a most difficult battle to win. In fact, Ringer calls himself ((a pessimist trying hard to be an optimist."

Fortunately, we have writers of Ringer's ability to state the case in a manner which those outside the intellectual community can com prehend. By writing for a general audience, however, Ringer has made an un necessary sacrifice of the philosophical justifications for some of his statements. This is unfortu nate, since Ringer has demonstrated an ability to explain complex argu760 THE FREEMAN ments in a lively and understand able manner. As it is, there are some claims that need either fur ther clarification or additional sup port to give them legitimacy. At times Ringer needs to be more precise. It appears as if he has let sentences slip in that cause confu sion and seem to be contradicted by passages that follow. For example, Ringer puts great emphasis on what he calls a Natural Law: «each man owns his own life and therefore has the right to do anything he wishes with that life so long as he does not forcibly interfere with the life of any other man" and refers to it through out the book. However, when first discussing the concept, he develops it as merely «an opinion" which he chose-seemingly out of thin air-as his initial premise. Yet, he goes on from this point and the reader dis covers this «opinion" to be a «no compromise principle."

Furthermore, this Natural Law involves morality. If we seek an end whose «attainment requires a viola tion of the rights of even one man, then the end has been achieved through immoral action." But wait. Upon further reading we find Ringer slipping a sentence into his discussion on welfare that states, «Rational men realize that there is no such thing as absolute morality." The reader is left asking whether this concept of Natural Law is an absolute moral principle and, if so,_ how Ringer arrived at it. This confu sion is unfortunate, since Natural Law is the foundation for the free dom philosophy Ringer develops. Because this concept is so impor tant, Ringer should clarify what he means by «absolute morality" and develop the justification for his «Natural Law" premise. This is par ticularly important if he hopes the lay audience for which he is writing will grasp this basic premise.

These shortcomings, however, are more than outweighed by the clar ity, excitement, and provocative na ture of the book. You wish every government bureaucrat would read it. Ringer offers a variety of sug gestions of what can be done to re store the American Dream. The most important is to «... be consis tent on the issue of human freedom.': In other words, don't give up free· dom for the tempting handouts of fered by expedient-minded politi· cians. Bill Simon dedicated his book, iI part, «to my children, so that the) can never say, at some future time (why weren't we told?'" Ringer, likE Simon, has cleared away the camou flage disguising government's· true nature. The message is clear. Be cause we have books like Restorin~ The American Dream we can neve say at some future date, «(Wh: weren't we told?" @ Index THE FREEMAN-Volume 29, January-December 1979 Prepared by BETI'INA BIEN GREAVES of the Foundation staff NOTE: In page references, the number preceding the colon designates the month, those following refer to pages.