Onward Still; H. Sennholz

Much more needed to be done than just change the political guard. Public opinion, that indicator of the political, social, and economic climate, which caused the people to cast their votes and the legislators to enact the contentious laws and regulations, needed to be changed. Most economists whose names attracted attention were con cerned with macroeconomic schemes for a centrally managed economy. Among these were the Keynesian professors such as Paul Dr. Sennholz is president of the Foundation for Economic Education. Samuelson and, W. Fellner as well as the devout Marxians Oskar Lange, L. R. Klein, and P. M. Sweezy. Many younger econo mists were doing government work in the numerous officesof the federal government. The War Production Board, Office of Price Administration, and other government agencies were swarming with economists charting the course of "reconstruction." Many Americans had come to accept the philosophical premises of the New Deal, differingonly on the team of politicians who could'carry out economic intervention most efficiently and effectively. They were con vinced ,that the old economic order of un hampered competition and individual enter prise no longer served the interests of the working people, that greedy entrepreneurs and capitalists were abusing and exploiting them, and ~hat legislators and regulators should be called upon to head off such evils.

Leonard Read saw the great issues of his time in a different light. His ideological mentors were William Graham Sumner and T. N. Carver, his favorite authors J. B. Clark, C. J. Bullock, and F. W. Taussig. From the day Leonard settled in Irvington, Henry Hazlitt and Ludwig von Mises were his staunch allies and steady companions. Together they set -out to awaken public interest in sound economics and rekindle the freedom philosophy. The task was momen tous and urgent. "A new generation, one which has never experienced economic lib erty, is taking over," they wrote. "Young men who have become accustomed to being regimented and restricted are coming into positions of responsibility in business. The job of economic education must be under taken now while those who appreciate the value ofliberty are stillin position to support it." To undertake this giant task, they molded the Foundation for Economic Edu cation ("FEE").

A 1946 Outline ofProposed Activities and Reasons Therefor expounded five basic principles of education which were to be come FEE's guiding principles. 1. "The Foundation shall confine itself to the field of ideas. It shall not disparage or support particular persons or political 332 parties. Its purpose shall be a program of economic education rather than political campaigning. It shall content itself with presenting its findings for whatever use citizens want to make of them. " 2. Education cannot be imposed. Unless economic enlightenment is wanted and sought it falls on barren ears. FEE must create a desire for economic understanding and then serve the desire thus created. 3. FEE will conduct an "integrated pro gram of production, promotion, and distri bution, " engaging scholars and specialists now working in isolation and calling on others to assist FEE from the outside. 4. Since the intellectual leaders of tomor row cannot be known today, the only way to reach all possible leaders is by "creating opportunity for the enlightenment of all."

5. There is an intellectual hierarchy among scholars. The thought leaders from all walks of life must reach out to those who write, expand, and explain to yet larger groups until "almost any literate person can understand and appreciate" the importance of economic knowledge. Freedom education not only imparts knowledge of economic theories and prin ciples but also aims to develop a sense of right, self-reliance, and responsibility. It needs writers and teachers who can explain the meaning and beauty of liberty, who impart knowledge and teach by example. Leonard Read, therefore, surrounded him self with men and women of excellence, seekers of knowledge and students of liberty such as V. Orval Watts, Frank Chodorov, F. A. Harper, George C. Roche III, The Reverend Edmund A. Opitz, and others. He invited famous professors such as Fred Rogers Fairchild of Yale University, J. Hugh Jackson of Stanford University, and Leo Wolman of Columbia University tojoin him on the board of trustees. This they did as a gesture of endorsement of a great task and noble endeavor to which they gladly contributed some of their time and effort.

The Foundation helped to revive and guide the intellectual opposition to the ideo logical mainstream. It refused to be fashion able but, instead, stood for what it believed 333 Hans F. Sennholz, President of FEE to be right. In time, FEE was to become a "home" for the friends of freedom every where, a bright beacon of hope inspiring the creation of numerous similar organizations at home and abroad. After ten years on Leonard's senior staff, F. A. Harper left FEE to found the Institute for Humane Studies on the west coast. Ken Ryker cre ated the Freedom Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and Ralph Smeed The Center for Market Alternatives, in Boise, Idaho. In other countries, Antony Fisher and his friends founded the Institute for Economic Affairs in London; Alberto Benegas Lynch established the Centro de Estudios sobre la Libertad in Buenos Aires; Manuel F. Ayau built a new university, Universidad Fran cisco Marroquin in Guatemala City; Gustavo Velasco and Agustin Navarro cre ated the Instituto de Investigaciones 80 ciales y Econ6micas in Mexico City, and Nicomedes Zuloaga forged the Instituto Venezolano de Analisis Econ6mico y Social in Caracas. To all, FEE pointed the way and instilled new hope for the future offreedom.

Hope ever tells us that tomorrow will 334 THE FREEMAN • MAY 1996 FEE senior staff and associates, 1955 - first row (left to right): »ZM. Curtiss, Bettina Bien (now Greaves), Leonard Read, Ludwig von Mises, FA. Harper; second row: Paul L. Poirot, Edmund Opitz, Ivan Bierly, Charles Hull Wolfe, Thomas Shelly. be better. All things change, and we must change with them. Half a century has passed since the doors of FEE first opened. That which stood in front of the founders is behind us, and that which they could not foresee is before us. The "Evil Empire" has disintegrated and the overall political and economic climate of the world has improved dramatically. The old conditions of super power confrontation and constant danger of nuclear devastation may have given way to amicable negotiations and discussions. The Soviet empire in all its forms and colors, which had degenerated to a backward col lectivistic prison, was weighed in the bal ance and found wanting. All over the world the political and economic gates have opened, permitting individual freedom to advance. But they may close again if the opening is misunderstood and misinter preted. Only the philosophy of individual freedom and the property order can keep them open.

Socialistic countries have collapsed because the system itself is chaotic, unnatural, and inhuman; but the doctrines and values of socialism are very much alive in all parts of the world. They live on in the minds of many Americans under the labels of "social market economy," "moderate" Democra tism or Republicanism, "middleof-the road," or just "welfarism," and merely proceed more slowly to the same destina tion: economic poverty and social disinte gration. Socialism and welfarism are cousins of the same family having many features in com mon. Both are guided by messianic objec tives such as ' 'social justice" or "social security" to which all individual concerns are held captive. In the name of "social justice" both enslave their people-one by barbed-wire fences, and the other by tax collectors who force their victims to spend half their working lives laboring for "the will of the people. " Both resort to legislation and regulation to arrange and settle all things. Both politicize economic activity ONWARD STILL 335 The staff of FEE, February 1996-first row (left to right): Bettina Bien Greaves, Beth Hoffman, Mary Sennholz, Hans Sennholz, Felix Livingston, Barbara Dodsworth; second row: William Watkins, Harriet Bender, Kyle Swan, Renate Oechsner, Michael Darcy, Kathleen Walsh, Gregory Pavlik, Janette Brown, Marion Sheehan, Mary Ann Murphy, Helen Dalzell.

and collectivize many manifestations of so cial life. Both substitute public law for contract law, passing hundreds of public laws in every session of the legislature and imposing countless new regulations every year. Both make a mockery of property rights. One confiscates means of production and allocates income, while the other forc ibly redistributes income from the means of production. The difference is minimal when both consume more than one half of the social product. In the name of "social security" both systems create much insecurity. When the crime rates soar, one may inflict cruel and unusual punishments on the violators, while the other incarcerates millionsof its citizens in comfortable recreation centers. Both de stroy self-reliance, responsibility, and mo rality. Where government makes all deci sions, everyone is merely obliged to obey. Noone is responsible for the consequences of his blunders, but everyone has "rights"

which are claims against all others. Both disavow family responsibility for the edu cation of children and the care of the old and sick. Both erode the basic Judeo-Christian values of honesty, fairness, trustworthiness, reliability, diligence, frugality, and depend ability. Both give birth to a "new morality" which actually is immorality and dissolu tion. Social disintegration may take the form of soaring crime rates, growing underground economic activity, ethnic and racial con frontations, and even calls to arms. An early symptom is the growing weight and gravity of politics, which tum into an unending bitter battle about"taxes and entitlements. Politicians become rancorous spokesmen for their special entitlement groups while all the rest, in their view, are strangers, enemies, or thieves and highwaymen. While the economy stagnates or even declines, the people belligerently cling to their polit ical privileges and entitlements: the young clutch their educational benefits from the nursery to medical school (always at other 336 THE FREEMAN • MAY 1996 people's expense), the elder generation clings to Social Security and Medicare ben efits, and millionsof middle-agedAmericans thrive on government payrolls or subsist on public assistance. The number of govern ment employees now exceeds that of all Am~rican manufacture. The number of peo ple with "entitlements" is incalculable. In a society so torn by political conflictit may be difficult,if not impossible, to halt the social deterioration.

All Western welfare states are heading toward disintegration. The weight of the pyramid of entitlement debt amounting to trillions of dollars is likely to crush the very system that incurred the debt. It will cause welfare governments to default in one form or another to both their creditors who fi nanced the pyramid and to the entitlees who were promised much more. The ultimate default ofttimes leads to angry polarization and even bloody confrontation. In societies of homogeneous ethnic and cultural compo sition, the crisis may give rise to a political and economic command system which bru tally suppresses all entitlement conflicts. In societies with various ethnic and cultural classes, individual alienation tends to tum into civil strife and bloody warfare. The potential for political, social, and economic strife may be greater today than when FEE was born. Surely, the United States now is the sole superpower of the world and no longer needs to fear anyone adversary. It rules the world as no country ever did. But it may also be weaker morally and spiritually than it was half a century ago.

The welfare state has eroded the moral fiber of the people, has created a conflict system with classes of beneficiaries and victims, and fostered the growth of multiculturalism which breeds hatred and hostility. It casts doubt on the feasibility of a roll-backor even purge of the conflict system and raises the spectre of civil violence in case the benefit system should fail to meet the demands of the entitlees. Economic stagnation and de cline tend to seriously aggravate the social conflict. The task of education is more urgent and momentous than ever. There is but one method ofpreserving our freedom and main taining the social peace, and that is by disseminating the seeds of Judeo-Christian morals and economic knowledge by means of education. As public tax-supported edu cation is a root cause of the rise of welfar ism and an important pillar of the conflict system, this can be done effectively only by the means of purposeful private educa tion. There is no room for complacency.

It is imperative that we face political and social turmoil with courage and self-assur ance, always pointing toward the light of freedom. The Foundation for Economic Education is dedicated to preserving and strengthening the moral and ideological foundation of a free society. It is not just one of many organizations seeking to impart economic knowledge and promote the cause of free dom. From the day it opened its doors in 1946 to this very day it has never compro mised its principles. It cares more for the truth than for popularity, for truth is its own witness. The Foundation shuns politics and keeps a respectful distance from politicians. Gov ernment has come to be an institution of booty and privilege, and is managed primar ily on class-war principles. Many people plunge into politics to make their own and their electorate's fortune and care only that the world will last their span of days.

The Foundation seeks to impart not only economic knowledge but also individual values which are essential for social peace such as honesty and integrity, industry and self-reliance, prudence and courage, and charity toward all men and women. Wisdom, knowledge, and virtue are nec essary for the preservation of our freedom and the republican form of government. Therefore, we must discover and dissemi nate the seeds of virtue and knowledge through every part of society by all means at our disposal. We must dedicate ourselves and our labors to this very end. D THEFREEMAN IDEASON UBERTY FEE and the Climate of Opinion by Bettina Bien Greaves "The genuine history of mankind," as Ludwig von Mises wrote, "is the his tory of ideas." In this sense, history is made, although it is not planned, by men and by their ideas. We can see the power of ideas by studying history. Just as water can in time wear away rock, so too may an idea whose time has come erode the rock of public opinion and change the course of history. For instance: the concepts of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment-indi vidual rights, private property, religious freedom, and limited government-sparked an "industrial revolution" and reduced ab solute monarchs to figureheads; socialist, Communist, and fascist ideas produced the totalitarian states and the world wars of the twentieth century; political propaganda ca tering to the fears and hopes of people persuaded the voters in the 1930s to wel come Roosevelt's New Deal and Hitler's national socialism; and the widespread be lief that government spending and inflation are needed for the economy to prosper has produced today's "welfare states."