July

THE FJ\EEMAN Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 E-mail: freeman@fee.org FEE Home Page: http://www .fee.org President: Donald 1. Boudreaux Editor: Sheldon Richman Managing Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Editor Emeritus Paul L. Poirot Book Review Editor George C. Leef Editorial Assistant Mary Ann Murphy Columnists Charles W. Baird Doug Bandow Dwight R. Lee Lawrence W. Reed Russell Roberts Mark Skousen Thomas Szasz Walter Williams Contributing Editors Peter J. Boettke Clarence B. Carson Thomas J. DiLorenzo Burton W. Folsom, Jr. Joseph S. Fulda Bettina Bien Greaves Robert Higgs John Hospers Raymond J. Keating Daniel B. Klein Wendy McElroy Tibor R. Machan Andrew P. Morriss Ronald Nash Edmund A. Opitz James L. Payne William H. Peterson Jane S. Shaw Richard H. Timberlake Lawrence H. White The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Eco nomic 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 government.

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Cover: Bombing damage in Kosovo. (APIWIDEWORLD PHOTOS). Operation Legacy The Clinton policy in the Balkans can be criticized at many levels: the apparent lack of forethought, the misapprehension of the con flict and the region's history, the likely dishon esty about the intention to use ground troops, the law of unintended consequences (the boost to Greater Albania, for example), and so on. That all has been much commented on. What's most neglected is the domestic reason for forswearing such foreign adventurism, no matter how heart-wrenching the CNN coverage. I can do no better than to quote James Madison on this subject. "Of all the enemies to public liberty," he said, "war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instru ments for bringing the many under the domi nation of the few. . . . No nation could pre serve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

The reader is referred to Robert Higgs's Crisis and Leviathan for documentation of the Madisonian principle. Mr. Madison proceeded to describe the bloated executive that war produces. Could he have foreseen the day when a president makes war without a congressional declaration? (These days we have "consultation" or, at best, debate after the president has committed the country to war.) "War," Madison continued, "is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement. In war, a physical force is to be created; and it is the executive will, which is to direct it. In war, the public treasuries are to be unlocked; and it is the executive hand which is to dis pense them. In war, the honors and emolu ments of office are to be multiplied; and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed; and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the 2 honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace."

Milosevic takes his place beside a long list of state-wielding butchers. He's caused the burial of thousands of ethnic Albanians. The president of the United States didn't have to let that tragedy dump more dirt on the gravesite of limited government here. * * * We devote a major portion of this issue of The Freeman:Ideas on Libertyto the U.S.-led war against Yugoslavia. David Mayer argues that the war is an act of aggression that vio lates the U.S. Constitution, not to mention the charters of the United Nations and NATO. He also points out that events in Serbia and Koso vo bear no relation to any vital interest of the American people. Gary Dempsey outlines the history of Kosovo, beginning about 2000 B.C., and its importance to both the Serbs and Albanians, showing that brutality is not unknown to either side. Peter Mentzel adds to the historical analysis, emphasizing the modem roots of the conflict.

Next we reprint a classic from the autobi ography of Frank Chodorov in which he defends isolationism as a sensible human impulse to mind one's own business and to avoid far-off conflicts that one likely doesn't understand. Robert Higgs summarizes America's involvement in two world wars and the cold war to illustrate how foreign adventurism bol sters the power of government and shrinks the sphere of liberty. Michael Palmer finds himself thinking back to 1969, when he was dispatched to the barren and perilous Ashau Valley in South Vietnam, and fears for the young Americans facing combat in the Balkans today. Wendy McElroy takes a close look at Ran dolph Bourne's famous sentence-"War is the health of the State"-and shows that he had more in mind than taxes and spending. 3 Two of our columnists also focus on the war. Donald Boudreaux explains that govern ment doesn't have the competence to impose itself on other people's conflicts. And Doug Bandow tries heroically to make sense of a foreign policy that defies explanation.

No idea is more important to the freedom philosophy than that of unplanned, or sponta neous, order. Yet it is counterintuitive and therefore hard for many people to accept. Nigel Ashford explores the products of human action but not human design. When the government sets out to create equality in any sense other than equality before the law, all manner of mischief is pos sible. James Bovard reports that "tyranny" is not too strong a word for what egalitarian offi cials are capable of inflicting. Why are frog populations declining and deformities increasing? Does it portend an environmental cataclysm? Some officials would have us believe so. Brian Doherty says the real meaning may be less worthy of head lines. Americans of the nineteenth century knew something about the nature of money that has long since escaped citizens of today. Joseph Stromberg demonstrates this through the memoirs of an obscure but classic pioneer and jack -of-alI-trades.

Lawrence Reed's column points out that Bill Clinton could have learned a thing or two about taxes from Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge. Dwight Lee finds it ironic that property rights are blamed for problems caused by the lack of defined property. Thomas Szasz says suicide is a moral, not a medical, issue. Mark Skousen explains "eco nomic value added." Walter Williams wonders when people will stop blaming others. And David Kelley examines the claim that tax pol icy should make "winners" compensate "losers,"concluding,It JustAin't So! In the book review section, volumes on welfare, Calvin Coolidge, H.L. Mencken, the rich, and freedom of speech on the Net get a going over. -SHELDON RICHMAN Tax Cuts Are Unfair? It Just Ain't Sol F ederal tax revenues last year were nearly 22 percent of GDP-the highest level in American history. With federal coffers swollen, the government is enjoying a surplus that, until recently, no one would have expect ed. It is obviously time for a tax cut to return some of this largess to its rightful owners, the taxpayers.