March

Rescuing society from the disastrous consequences of state planning and impaired markets. 118 Our Own Mad Clockwork by Robert Zimmerman Answering questions about the establishment of slavery in America may help us to spot the beginnings of a parallel evil in our own time. 124 Inside the Federal Hurting Machine by James L. Payne Political discourse about spending programs overlooks the human inconvenience and suffering inflicted by taxation. 129 Government Redistribution Impoverishes the Poor by Dwight R. Lee Transfer programs reduce economic growth by discouraging productivity and encouraging dependency. 131 How Much Money? by Bettina Bien Greaves What individuals want is not more money, but more purchasing power. 134 Capitalism: An Alternative for Inner-City Gangs by Ralph Reiland Instead of the failed remedy of welfare handouts, why not try the market? 136 Freedom versus Fear by John Attarian Much of today's colossal government intervention in the free market can be traced to fear of life and its mishaps.

141 A Needful Blessing for the Tsar by Phil Trieb Keeping the government out of our lives. 143 Strikers and Scabs by Charles W. Baird The dangers of prohibiting employers from hiring permanent replacement workers in economic strikes. 145 Correction, Please! by Mark Skousen In the first of his monthly Freeman columns, Professor Skousen takes a look at paradigm shifts in Paul Samuelson's thinking. 148 Book Reviews Raymond J. Keating reviews George Gilder's Recapturing the Spirit of Enterprise and the revised edition of Wealth and Poverty; Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought, reviewed by Jonathan H. Adler. CONTENTS MARCH 1994 VOL. 44 NO.3 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 President: Hans F. Sennholz, Ph.D. Managing Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Guest Editor: E. Calvin Beisner Editor Emeritus: Paul L. Poirot, Ph.D.

Review Editor: Robert Batemarco, Ph.D. Associate Editors: John Chamberlain Bettina Bien Greaves, Soc. Sci. D. Rev. Edmund A. Opitz Columnists: Gary North, Ph.D. Lawrence W. Reed Mark Skousen, Ph.D. Contributing Editors: Charles W. Baird, Ph.D. Doug Bandow E. Calvin Beisner Peter J. Boettke, Ph.D. Clarence B. Carson, Ph.D. Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Ph.D. Joseph S. Fulda, Ph.D. Roger W. Garrison, Ph.D. Robert Higgs, Ph.D. John Hospers, Ph.D. Tibor R. Machan, Ph.D. Ronald Nash, Ph.D. William H. Peterson, Ph.D. Richard H. Timberlake, Ph.D. Lawrence H. White, Ph.D. The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. FEE, estab lished in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, is a non political, educational champion of private prop erty, the free market, and limited government. FEE is classified as a 26·USC 501(c)(3)tax exempt organization. Copyright © 1994 by The Foundation for Eco nomic Education. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, provided appropriate credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to The Foundation.

The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through donations, which are invited in any amount. Donors of $25.00 or more receive a sub scription to The Freeman. Student subscriptions are $10.00 for the nine-month academic year; $5.00 per semester. Additional copies of single issues of The Freeman are $2.00. For foreign de livery, a donation of $40.00 a year is suggested to cover mailing costs. Bound volumes of The Freeman are available from The Foundation for calendar years 1972 to date. The Freeman is available on microfilm and CD-ROM from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI48106. PERSPECTIVE A Lesson From the Past Admiral H. G. Rickover was eccentric, an iconoclast, often at odds with his peers and superiors in the Navy. But his perfec tionism gave us our nuclear propulsion Navy. Our first nuclear submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus, went into service in January 1955.

The Polaris fleet followed in 1960. Rickover named them for patriots beginning with George Washington and including Daniel Boone, Will Rogers, George Washington Carver, and others. Why this disregard for Navy tradition of naming submarines for marine life? Despite the demands of his profession Rickover had two avocations: history and the education of American youth. By naming the Polaris fleet for pa triots he sought to keep their names and deeds before the public, especially young Americans. He wrote a book, Eminent Americans: Namesakes o/the Polaris Sub marine Fleet, in which his wife assisted in the biographical research. His interest in American history was re newed in 1974 by a newspaper article re calling the destruction of the battleship Maine. The journalist questioned again whether the sinking was due to an external or an internal explosion and quoted the Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Steam Engi neering as saying that the explosion was in one of the ship's a;mmunition magazines.

The admiral decided to review the findings of the Board of Inquiry and other relevant information, and to apply modern techno logical analysis to determine the probable cause of the explosion. Navy technical lab oratories performed tests and experiments for him. Mter relating the tests to the written record, he concluded that there was insuf ficient evidence to support the Board of Inquiry's conclusion that the Maine was destroyed by an external mine. Moreover, there was now significant evidence of the likelihood of an internal explosion. Two related factors supported this: the bitumi nous coal used by the Navy often caught fire in the coal bunkers due to spontaneous combustion, and only a thin steel wall 98 separated some of the bunkers from the ship's ammunition storage. Had modern technological analysis been available and applied in 1898 the meaning of "Remember the Maine" could have been significantly different. Admiral Rickover stated the lesson as follows: " ... we can no longer approach technical problems with the casualness and confidence held by Americans in 1898. The Maine should im press us that technical problems must be examined by competent and qualified peo pie; and that the result of their investigation must be fully and fairly presented to their fellow citizens. " Now, almost two decades later, his further warning bears repetition and emphasis: "With the vastness of our government and the difficulty of controlling it, we must make sure that those in 'high places' do not, without most careful con sideration of the consequences, exert our prestige and might. Such uses of our power may result in serious international actions at great cost in lives and money-injurious to the interests and standing of the United States. "

The admiral was thinking of military con sequences, but his words are applicable in a broader spectrum, namely science and tech nology in government. Had his methodol ogy been applied by government agencies concerned with our ecology and environ ment we would not have had the unscien tific, unwise decisions regarding alar, asbes tos, PCB, dioxin, and "acid rain," to name but a few, that have· been so detrimental to our national economy. - WM. J. ELLENBERGER Escondido, California To the Editor: In "Sexual Harassment: What Is It1" The Freeman, June 1993, Wendy McElroy says that "Racism is difficult to define, yet few people would deny its existence." She is too kind. For it is easy to define' 'racism" in such a way that it becomes a word for a 99 PERSPECTIVE kind of obviously unacceptable behavior. "Racism" is thus to be defined as advan taging or disadvantaging people for no other and better reason than that those people happen to be members of one particular racial set.

Difficulties and confusion arise because so many people want both to commend positive discrimination and quotas as anti racist, notwithstanding that these are in the sense defined paradigmatically racist; and to denounce various individuals and institu tions as racist notwithstanding that these individuals and institutions have not been guilty of that obviously obnoxious form of behavior. Yours faithfully, ANTONY FLEW The Rule of Law The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule which is little known, and less fixed1 -THE FEDERALIST A New Freeman Feature: Mark Skousen's "Correction, Please!"

Mark Skousen's monthly Freeman col umn, "Correction, Please!" makes its debut on page 145, settling into a regular spot preceding the book review section. Read him each issue for a lively rebuttal of pop ular myths and fallacies in today's media.