September

336 The Toxicity of Environmentalism GeorgeReisman Countering the intellectual, philosophical, and cultural poisons of the environmental movement. 351 The Gregs of Styal Robert Thomas How a family of 19th-century British "cotton kings" put the ideas of free trade to practical use. 354 Prelude to the Total State NelsonHultberg Why the welfare state cannot sustain freedom. 360 Men Versus Machines J. GreshamMachen Thoughts on the proper role of education. 363 Smoking on Airplanes RobertT. Smith The danger in presuming that government knows best. 364 Letter to a Congressman StephenJ. Dow A reminder from a constituent that government has nothing of its own to give. 365 Book Reviews GiveWar A Chance:EyewitnessAccountsof Mankind'sStruggleAgainst Tyranny,Injustice,andAlcohol-FreeBeerby ~ 1. O'Rourke, reviewed by William H. Peterson; The Virtueof Prudenceby Douglas Den Uyl, reviewed by Tibor R. Machan; Freedom:Freedomin the Makingof WesternCultureby Orlando Patterson, reviewed by Doug Bandow.

CONTENTS SEPTEMBER 1992 VOL. 42 NO.9 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 President: Hans F. Sennholz Editor: John W. Robbins Senior Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Contributing Editors: Bettina Bien Greaves Mark W. Hendrickson Edmund A. Opitz Editor Emeritus: Paul L. Poirot The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. FEE, established in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, is a nonpolitical educational champion of private property, the free market, and limited govern ment. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization. Other officers of FEE's Board of Trustees are, Gregg C. MacDonald, chairman; W.A. Speakman III, vice-chairman; Paul L. Poirot, secretary; Don L. Foote, treasurer. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through donations. Donations are in vited in any amount. A trial subscription to The Freeman is available to any interested person in the United States for the asking.

Additional single copies $1.00; 10 or more, 50 cents each. For foreign delivery, a donation of $35.00 a year is required to cover direct mail ing costs. Copyright © 1992 by The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue except "The Toxicity of Environmentalism," "Prelude to the Total State," and "Men Versus Machines," provided appropriate credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to The Foundation. Bound volumes of The Freeman are available from The Foundation for calendar years 1971 to date. Earlier volumes as well as current is sues are available on microfilm from Univer sity Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. The Freeman considers unsolicited editorial submissions, but they must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Our author's guide is available on request.

Phone: (914) 591-7230 FAX: (914) 591-8910 PERSPECTIVE Powerand Accountability I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility.Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost alwaysbad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it .... For many years my view of Catholic controversy has been governed by the following chain of reasoning: 1. A crime does not become a good deed by being committed for the good of a church. 2. The theorist who approves the act is no better than the culprit who commits it.

3. The divine or historian who defends the theorist incurs the same blame .... To commit murder is the mark of a moment, exceptional. To defend it is constant, and shows a more perverted con science. -LORD AcroN A FundamentalInconsistency There is a fundamental inconsistency between farm price support programs that raise product prices and food-assistance programs. Price support programs raise prices of milk, fresh fruit, sugar, peanuts, and other products at the same time low income consumers are deemed to have too little money to provide food. Domestic consumers are legally prevented from purchasing lower-priced dairy products, for example, by import restrictions which are a necessary component of price support programs that hold domestic prices above world prices. In addition to administering the dairy pro gram, which raises fluid milk prices, for example, the USDA has prevented reconstituted milk from being sold for less than the price of whole fluid milk. In marketing orders for fruits, lower-income consumers are harmed most by quality control provisions that restrict sales of lower grades and smaller sizes of commodities. It is ironic that bil330 lions of dollars are being spent on government pro grams to raise prices of milk and other commodi ties while, at the same time, billions of dollars are also being spent on programs to lower the price of food to low-income consumers.

-E. C. PASOUR,JR. Agricultureand the State FoodShoppingin Russia Just to obtain milk, for example, Anna, a facto ry worker and housewife, must take public trans portation, time-consuming in itself, from store to store, using her experience to guide her to shops that have received deliveries of milk in the past. A few kopecks here and a ruble placed in strategic hands there will give her tips that she could never have found on her own. One salesclerk tells her about an afternoon milk delivery scheduled for a store on the other side of the city and, made especially garrulous by an extra few kopecks, the clerk advises her how many kopecks she will need to bribe another salesclerk to receive a few liters. Anna immediately rushes to the other store to bribe the clerk before the delivery. Because she is far from the factory where she works, she de cides to scour the nearby stores for bread and cabbages while she is there. She keeps an eye out for the milk truck the entire time. Anna manages to get another tip in much the same way about an upcoming shipment of cabbages across town.

With that valuable information in hand, she feels the day was productive, although the milk de livery arrived three hours late, precluding her return to work. Once in possession of the valuable liters of milk, Anna carefully arranges them in her shopping bag and presses the bag close to her body to try to prevent the milk from freezing in the subzero temperatures during her long ride home. -PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS and KAREN LAFOLLETTE Meltdown:Insidethe SovietEconomy LegalDiscrimination As currently engaged in, race-norming tests, and gender-and race-based preferences and quo tas have two incontrovertible characteristics. The PERSPECTIVE first is they discriminate against white males in fa vor of ethnically identifiable minorities, and in fa vor of white females who have had themselves legislatively declared a disadvantaged class-sup posedly victims of white male oppression. Second, they are premised on the proposition that their beneficiaries are intellectually inferior to white males, or are otherwise unqualified to succeed on their own merit. The use of race-or gender-based tests, preferences, and quotas constitutes discrim ination-discrimination directed solely at white males. These practices are wrong, they are uncon stitutional, and they should be abolished. No group should be more aware of this fact than we African-Americans.

-W. JAMES ELLISON,writing in The BirminghamNews YourPapers,Please... My little sister, a high school senior, recently put together her college applications. Everything looked fine: good grades, camp counselor, band, cheerleader. All the evidence of a fine young per son who can both contribute to and gain from high er education. But that's not all the evidence that went into her state scholarship applications. My sister had just documented that she is 1/32American Indian. This made her eligible for minority-only state scholar ships. What other societies have required racial docu mentation for participation in government pro grams? The Soviet Union issued identification cards that classified the carriers as "Russian," or "Georgian," or "Jewish," regardless of where they lived at the time. And, of course, the Nazisrequired proof of "pure Aryan blood." In a lighter mood, I might suggest that genealogy will be a growth industry. However, happy as I am that my sister is college bound, I'm concerned. Will the accomplishment mean as much to her if she is left wondering whether she could have made it without this advantage? And as much as her inter nal wellbeing, I'm worried about her growing up in a world where one has to document one's racial heritage.

-ERIK ~ WINGREN Seattle, Washington 331 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY Thoughts on Creativity While Watching The Twilight Zone by Thomas A. Giovanetti I n one of the better known episodes of The TwilightZone, the head of a manufacturing company callously replaces experienced workers with "more efficient" computers and automated machinery. The CEO is gleeful at the prospect of an automated production line since machines "don't callin sick,take breaks, or require maternity leave." In this episode, which stemmed from the concern that automation would make human beings obsolete, the machines eventually drove the CEO mad, and he himself was replaced by a machine. In the justice of The TwilightZone, the CEO got his comeuppance because he did not properly value the inherent dignity of human beings. Of course, we know that technology does not make human workers obsolete. Though there is always some temporary displacement of lower skilled workers when new technology comes along, the technological revolution is relieving human beings of the more monotonous and dan gerous tasks in the workplace, and is freeing them for more creative ventures.