The Forgotten Man; R. Awenius

We strongly backed freedom for the Philippines, placing at one time as many as seventy thousand troops Mr. Awenius is a retired attorney and freelance writer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. there and later sending ten thou sand young American teachers and experts on sanitation, nutrition, tropical medicine, and agriculture to improve living conditions and wipe out disease. This Philippine adven ture was a great pivot-point in American history, and as was stated by Richard O'Connor in his book Pa cific Destiny: It signaled our determination to gain and hold supremacy in the Pacific and over as much of Asia as our military power could sustain. The consequences of that move have involved us in three wars so far and promise an unending, possibly unavailing conflict on the Asian littoral. 1 Not all persons approved this stated American notion of world power. One great voice in opposition was a crusty conservative Yale Uni153 154 THE FREEMAN March versity professor named William Graham Sumner, who based his op position on humanist grounds. His voice was prophetic because what he said also relates to the title piece of this article. Sumner's reasoning is put this way: The Forgotten Man, to whom he re ferred continually in his essays, was not the slum-dweller but the person who paid his bills for what later sociologists would term the disadvantaged. The Forgotten Man of Sumner's canon was the one who "just when he wants to enjoy the fruits of his care, is told that it is his duty to take care of some of his negligent neigh bors, ... but the point now is, that if preaching and philosophizing can do any good in the premises, it is all wrong to preach to the Forgotten Man that it is his duty to go and remedy other people's ne glect. It is not his duty. It is a harsh and unjust burden which is laid upon him, and it is only the more unjust because no one thinks of him when laying the bur den so that it falls on him. The exhor tations ought to be expended on the negligent-that they take care of themselves."2 Sumner was saying that the mil lions of dollars of American wealth and resources spent on military and civil affairs at home and abroad were paid by the Forgotten Man, and that this burden was imposed upon him as a duty. His thesis went beyond ap plication to the bellicose events of his era, since he meant his general the ory to be applied broadly to all acts of the state.

So, likewise in the field of political science and sociology, the Forgotten Man is the common man who after working hard and paying his bills and taxes is told by the liberal es tablishment (oftentimes his govern ment) that it is his "further" duty to become responsible for all the unfor tunate persons, institutions, or other entities who, through negligence on their part or for other reasons, look to the government for their support. Here, for example, is the teenage girl who becomes pregnant outside of wedlock. In the view of many, if she has no funds for an abortion or for childbirth, these expenses must be paid by the state. And, further, when she goes on welfare she will re ceive Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) until the child's eighteenth birthday. All of this is to be paid by the state from taxes of the Forgot ten Man. The Forgotten Man is told, also, that his taxes are needed to provide housing for families whose bread winner fails to provide.

The farmer who produces more grain than the market will absorb at support prices is told by his govern ment that his grain can be stored as collateral for a commodity loan, with the loan proceeds coming from the Federal treasury, and supported by the Forgotten Man's taxes. The arts and humanities groups (museums, symphony orchestras, theaters, painters, sculptors, writ1985 THE FORGOTTEN MAN 155 ers, etc.) claim they are entitled to receive-and do receive-millions of dollars of government aid. And all this comes from taxes paid by our Forgotten Man. He is told that certain categories of citizens-and even non-citizens are entitled to have legal counsel furnished by the government, and this expense is to be borne by him through his taxes. He is told that certain classes of citizens are entitled to food stamps, and he must pay for this through his taxes. Our Forgotten Man is told that when a large national bank in a great city makes ill-advised energy loans that jeopardize the bank's cap ital structure, the federal govern ment should infuse billions of his tax dollars into that bank in order to save it.

In short, he is advised by liberal spokesmen that all the poor and un fortunate of the land should be taken care of by the government, and that he (the Forgotten Man) should pay for all this. Never mind whether many of the poor and unfortunate became so through their own negligence. The Forgotten Man is told that be sides managing his own life he also should manage others' lives. In that regard the late Leonard E. Read stated, "Managing one's own life is complex enough; managing the lives of others is impossible."3 And to support all this govern ment spending again the Forgotten Man is called upon: He is the Forgotten Man. If we go to find him, we shall find him hard at work tilling the soil to get out of it the fund for all the jobbery, the object of all the plun der, the cost of all the economic quackery, and the pay of all the politicians and statesmen who have sacrificed his inter ests to his enemies. 4 Human Motivation The Forgotten Man of whom we speak is in fact a very uncommon man in view of the burden cast upon him. He is a man of utmost integrity, and he has been so since civil social experience began. He has searched for certain ends and purposes in life and sought to reach them. He does not welcome all the burden that so many well-meaning people impose on him, since he places first in all his thoughts the provision for his own family's welfare. The history of man kind shows this strong incentive is continually reduced by the state, as well stated by Russell Kirk in his book on Conservatism: A ... motive always has been the de sire to provide for the welfare of one's own family and heirs; but the assumption by the state of the functions of education, economic management, and responsibil ity even for foods-supply and housing, has diminished the responsibility of the in dividual here, while taxation has hacked at the very foundation of the idea of bequest. 5 156 THE FREEMAN March Today, as at the turn of the century in Sumner's time, the Forgotten Man is paying the public cost of those who do not pay their share. In the For gotten Man we behold the principle of dualism present in every person who pays his expenses and also those of the state. "He will ... accept heavy taxation if he feels it neces sary for the maintenance of Society, yet make every legitimate effort to keep his own contribution as low as possible."6 This is the same Forgotten Man who durIng the war years of the na tion does all of the fighting and most of the dying. In many of these wars he is told he is fighting for democ racy, when in many cases the coun tries he is trying to save do not know the meaning of democracy.

When we are discussing the rights of our Forgotten Man, we are deal ing in the field of civil liberty. In this respect William Graham Sumner ably stated it this way: The notion of civil liberty which we have inherited is that of a status created for the individual by laws and institu tions, the effect of which is that each man is guaranteed the use of all his own pow ers exclusively for his own welfare.7 All of history and philosophy tells us that the free citizen in a democ racy should be guaranteed the ex elusive enjoyment of all that he pro duces through work. It certainly is not the function of the state to make men happy; they must do it in their own way, and at their own risk. The Oppressive State For the Forgotten Man to be told by his own government or by other spokesmen that he has a duty to sup port others who do not support them selves, is to accept dictation by a privileged class that is asserting it self to create an immoral political system. This imposes upon his earn ings an ill-defined duty to make oth ers happy. Our Forgotten Man rebels at this duty others cast upon him be cause he wants the state to be kept within reasonable bounds of power and function. He full well knows that the state has a tendency to become oppressive.

The social doctors focus their at tention on a group of people-the poor, minorities, workers-appeal ing to sympathy and imagination, and devising programs to care for them. They (the social doctors) set in force motion and forces that react throughout the entire fabric of so ciety, and in the furtherance of their grandiose plans ignore the effect upon other members of society. They have developed the myth of a gov ernment competent to solve prob lems. They forget "that the State cannot get a cent for any man with out taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This is the Forgotten Man."8 1985 THE FORGOTTEN MAN 157 Their programs thus shift capital from one group of men to another. The men from whom the capital is taken, individually, are the Forgot ten Men. This transfer takes from one and gives to another, who per forms no productive effort to earn the property that comes his way.

The property transferred-usually money-is diverted from productive use. The person who produces this property is our Forgotten Man. This largess brings to mind the illustra tion of a man who gives a hungry man a fish. The better plan for the small philanthropist to follow here would be to give the hungry man a fishing pole and teach him how to fish. When he is hungry again, he will fish for his meal and not ask for a handout. Sumner phrases the sit uation in this manner: There is an almost invincible prejudice that a man who gives a dollar to a beggar is generous and kind-hearted, but that a man who refuses the beggar and puts the dollar in a savings-bank is stingy and mean. The former is putting capital where it is very sure to be wasted. 9 In the above example the man who placed the dollar in a bank will start a process of the dollar going into the labor market as a demand for pro ductive services. The real party in interest is the man who performs the productive service. He is the Forgot ten Man. He is the one who the social doctors never think of when they lay their plans.

The way to keep the state within bounds is to restore to the individual his sense of self-reliance and the con trol of his private property and right to inheritance: The conservative is no anarchist; he knows that the just state, kept within reasonable bounds of power and function, is a force for our common betterment; but today the danger is that the state shall become all, quite as oppressive as the danger, in other times, that the state might waste away to. nothing. 10 The state certainly has a proper in terest in expanding the opportuni ties for its free citizens to pursue their happiness. In this free demo cratic society, of which we speak, the only duty a free man has to other men of his same rank and standing is to render the others respect, cour tesy, and good-will; here his duty ends. In other words, what we are saying is that men who have not done their duty to others in the world never can be equal to those who have done their duty tolerably well. The class distinction which we see in a democratic society results from the different degrees of success whereby men have utilized their chances from opportunities placed before them.

Sumner, again, says it well: "In stead of endeavoring to redistribute the acquisitions which have been made between the existing classes, our aim should be to increase, mul tiply, and extend the chances."ll 158 THE FREEMAN If, as a nation, we try to satisfy every demand put forth by the social .planners who endeavor to help the "poor," we'll learn that there is no way to meet such a ravenous appe tite. We might just as well try to bail out the Atlantic Ocean with a sieve. At every step in the process of gov ernment, we should examine the ef fect on the Forgotten Man, since on his economic and political health de pends the safety and security of our nation. G!J -FOOTNOTESlRichard O'Connor, Pacific Destiny (Little Brown & Co., Boston-Toronto, 1969), p. 258. Leonard E. Read 2Ibid. 3Leonard E. Read, Meditations on Freedom (The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, Feb. 1972), p.

22. 4William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (The Caxton Print ers, Ltd., Caldwell, Idaho, 1978, Eighth Caxton Printing, 1978), pp. 125-126. 5Russell Kirk, A Program for Conservatives (Henry Regnery Co., Chicago, 1954), pp. 106 107. 8Karl Mannheim, Freedom, Power, and Dem ocraticPlanning (Oxford University Press, New York, 1950), p. 282. 7Sumner, op. cit., p. 30. 8Sumner,op. cit., p. 108. 9Sumner, op. cit., p. 109. lOKirk, op. cit., p. 120. l1Sumner, op. cit., pp. 144-145. IDEAS ON LIBERTY THE IDEA that each person has an inherent and inalienable right to life becomes meaningless when a person loses the authority for his own de cisions and must act according to someone else's decisions. Unless a per son holds the power of self-control, his life is not truly his own. Before a life can be valued for its own sake-and not just as a means to someone else's goal-that life must have its own power of choosing, its own qual ity, its own dignity. Without such a basis for love, respect, and friendship, the needy person is soon regarded as a puppet or a millstone around one's neck. Unless it is voluntary, even a mother's love in caring for an invalid child cannot exist. Aged persons and others who have come to depend for their survival upon the state's power of confiscation become merely numbers in the confused statistics of political bureaus. Statistics and bureaus have the capacity for neither love nor charity.

We should realize that the end pre-exists in the means. An evil means inevitably leads to an evil result. Related to the thesis under discussion, evil, not good, must come to persons who attempt to benefit from the confiscated property of other persons.