The Writings of F. A. Harper; P. L. Poirot

Paul L. Poirot The Writings of F. A. Harper A Review WHAT was written as ((Introduction" to The Writings ofF. A. Harper may also serve as a review of this two~ volume memorial edition just pub lished by The Institute for Humane Studies, Inc., 1177 University Drive, Menlo Park, California 94025. Dr. F. A. (Baldy) Harper left a position as Professor of Marketing at Cornell University to join the staff of The Foundation for Economic Education from 1946 through 1958. He helped to found and served as Executive Director and then as President of The Insti tute for Humane Studies until his death in 1973. I would not push the illiberal no tion than any individual is like any other. It is because of our differences that liberty is so vital. But Baldy did adhere to· the guiding rule of Soc rates, ~(Know thyself." He believed with Socrates that goodness is based on knowledge, wickedness on igno rance. Like Socrates, he sought truth all his life, in ways that at tracted young scholars. By the So cratic method of a series of carefully directed questions, he would en courage the other person to find out the truth for himself.

In these collected writings ofF. A. Harper, concerned with liberty in the broadest sense, are to be found some of his conclusions. But the reader will also find throughout his works a series of carefully directed questions. For as Judge Learned Hand observed, ((Thespirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." I believe that is the spirit in which Baldy would have us pursue his search-a never-ending search for the truth about liberty. How does that search begin? Perhaps best with his premise as to the nature and destiny of man: In the design of the universe, every thing is subject to certain natural laws. ... A person's capacity to perceive the nature of these natural laws, which rule 505 506 THE FREEMAN August his being, is limited by his intelligence or powers of instinctive conduct; his beliefs, in this respect, are both his privilege and his responsibility; he is free to choose his sources of information as guides in his search for truth, and he is personally responsible for the wisdom of that choice and for the resulting conclusions; he will know that no person, not even himself, has any direct and certain line of com munication with the sources of truth; all conclusions carry a corresponding uncer tainty no matter who holds them; he knows that while he cannot avoid acting on the basis of some belief, these beliefs must ever be held subject to change as further evidence or new reasoning be comes available; but always he is obli gated, by honesty, to believe and act in accordance with truth as he then sees it.

That premise as to the truth about liberty is broad enough to encom pass a lifetime search in any direc tion. And this list of some of his titles illustrates Baldy's wide range into the moral, social, political and other aspects of the subject: USociety under God" ((Morals and Liberty" t(In Search of Peace" t(The Disharmony of World Unity" (tFruits of Intolerance" ((Blessings of Discrimination" However, his specialty was the search for and promotion of a greater understanding of free mar keteconomics and its importance to the individual who would be free. uEconomic liberty pervades· the entire problem of liberty and is an absolute requisite to liberty in gen eral." Textbooks may help us, but few of us come by our discoveries of truths in anything like a logical textbook arrangement. At some moment, a better idea displaces an assumption or a myth that had formerly oc cupied one's mind. And many of the shorter articles assembled here are shots fired at popular myths. But they are shots from the orderly and well-disciplined mind of a scholar and teacher. Let me share, then, the steps that I believe Baldy may have taken-the points he seemed to stress as most important-in his study and exposition of free market economics.

Undoubtedly of first importance is the concept of private property t(the economic extension of the per son." The point is stressed through out his writings, but comes most clearly, as it should, in his latest discussion, ttProperty and Its Pri mary Form": As I now see the matter of property and ownership, the first person singular is the primary form from which all other forms of property arise. It is the prior and superior form. . . . This view of self ownership as primary property, from which all other property arises as deriva tives ... rests on the subjective evalua tion of worth, with all market prices determined in the market as with other things of worth. So, in economics, one starts with 1979 THE WRITINGS OF F. A. HARPER 507 the freedom and dignity of the indi vidual human being and his natural right to his own decisions and their consequences. Because he is his own man, the fruits of his peaceful ac tions are his property-and his re sponsibility. With that as their premise, competing individuals can peacefully determine ((what is mine and what is thine."

Once the concept or institution of private property is accepted, human beings in their infinite variability, and with their respective degrees of skill and talent, are in position for the next step of specialization in various productive efforts. Until a man can own what he produces, he is unlikely to produce much beyond his immediate needs. But if the prod uct is his property, then he will strive to produce enough to meet future needs and begin to think how he might trade some of those sav ings for other goods or services. So begins another step in free market economics, the process of competition and cooperation through voluntary exchange of pri vate property. Exchange, yes, but at what rate of exchange, how much of mine for thine, at whose price? At the market price, suggests Baldy, if the objectives of the participants are to maintain peaceful relations and to maximize productivity in the light of the always scarce and lim ited resources available.

What a man brings with him to market as his own property affects what he will be able to bid for the property of others. Some have their skills or their productive labor to sell, some have tools or land or buildings or other savings to offer, some have new and better ideas for combining labor and tools and other scarce resources more efficiently to serve consumers. Where more than two or three are gathered together in a market place, each interested in selling one or many items and in buying one or many items, some one or more of those items of commerce will be put to use as money to get away from the limitations of barter-to facilitate exchange. How much money, of what size or shape or other condi tion? Leave such matters to the market-to the willing buyers and sellers in the market. Once traders have found a satis factory medium of exchange, then market exchange rates will be ex pressed in money prices, and these market prices afford businessmen a means of economic calculation or business accounting-a way of knowing their profit or loss.

Out of this seeming bedlam of bids and offers, from individuals with various and ever-changing supplies of goods and services and demands for other things, emerges a series of market prices. Workers competing for jobs and employers competing for laborers set the pattern of wages for 508 THE FREEMAN different kinds of work. Savers and borrowers compete and cooperate to fmd the rate of interest that will best serve their more urgent re quirements. Market prices help in dividuals decide how much of what to consume and how much to save and invest in tools and raw mate rials and other factors of further production. Profits and losses ulti mately disclose which competitors have succeeded or failed and guide them and others into the most fruit ful and efficient lines of productiv ity. Finally, but by no means the least of the services the market affords, is education. It affords a measure of the worth of experience, of school ing, of learning. It tells the cost of buildings, of books, of hired teach ers, of various educational facilities.

It lets the individual (the parent of the child) choose what he can afford to spend for greater wisdom in rela tion to his other needs. some of that procedure from him. But, hopefully, the attempt may help alert the present and future students of F. A. Harper to some of the main points of his free market philosophy. Unfortunately, ours is not an ideal free market economy. Not all men are always peaceful, tolerant and wise, however good their inten tions. Some will resort to coercion to gain advantage and to rule over others. They will turn to govern ment to tax some and subsidize others, to regulate and control peo ple ((for their own good," to dispense (charity," to prevent failure, to penalize success, to invent a magic money machine, to apply rent and wage and price supports or ceilings and thus refute the vital signals of market pricing, to manage the rear ing and the education of the young, to interfere with the free trade of free men in countless other ways.

Much of Baldy's life was devoted to exposure of these frustrations of Were Baldy to survey this humble the free market economy and these attempt to outline his views of the limitations on freedom. And that is free market economy, he might con-a never-ending task. Fortunately for clude that the attempt has raised us, we have his record and example more questions than it answers. And of the ideal of a free man toward I could only answer that I learned which to strive. @ Volume I (453 pages) and Volume II (611 pages) ofThe Writings ofF. A. Harper list at $10.00 each volume, but also are available as a set at $16.00 from: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York 10533 A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK FOR THE RECORD JOHN CHAMBERLAIN WHEN in 1940, Felix Morley decided to leave a prestigious and influen tial position as editor of Eugene Meyer's Washington Post to become president of Quaker-supported Haverford College, he did it in all humility. Rufus Jones, who had taught him philosophy at Haverford in the early part of the century, said he should take the job ((not because thee is a good Quaker but because further exposure to Quakerism will do thee good." Felix Morley accepted the kindly admonition in good grace.