11. Plan of Escape

CHAPTER 11 PLAN OF ESCAPE Our problem in understanding government begins when we seek to understand the word itself. In earlier pages, it has been pointed out that only the individual controls himself. It is possible for one individual to influence another; to injure another; to dominate· another. It is not possible for one indi vidual to control another. The motor nerves that control the muscles, the mysterious processes of thought and motivation are centered in each individual's mind and are unalienable.

218 - THIS BREAD IS MINE Control of the individual resides in the individual. Anything that appears otherwise is a hoax or an i11~sion. But government, by its very derivation, presumes such control. To govern, means to control others. That such control is contrary to nature, is generally not recognized. Humankind has accepted the idea of such control as a fact for thousands of years. Men have acted in their comings and goings as though they were controlled, just as pre-Renaissance man acted as though the world were flat. The fact that men believ,e that governments can control them does not make it so. Superstition What we are dealing with here i~.' a superstition older than history. So deeply imbedded in tIle mores of the species is this fallacy, that it is almost impossible for modem man to permit in his consciousness the revolutionary thought that only he controls himself. To suggest it as a possible fact can induce a state of near shock. To argue it as a demonstrable fact is tantamount to causing a state of mental paralysis.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 219 Nonetheless, the fact can be demonstrated. The single thing on which all governments base their existence is the belief in the mind of man that he can be and indeed is gov erned and controlled by this instrumentality. Were this· belief to perish, political forms would become as archaic and use... less as the second brain at the posterior of the stegosaurus. Amid the crashing of toppling governments, man would emerge properly identified as what he is, an individual, not a mass man. The consternation in the ranks of the collectivists at this statement will require no embroidery. There is enough of the collectivist in virtually every reader to send his mind whirling into outer-space by this assertion. Thus, government is at once both a hoax and an illusion. It cannot do what it is designed to do. If it appears to accom plish some of the things it is called on to perform, its accom plishment must be credited to man's blind and ritualistic acceptance of robotism under false persuasion.

But we must begin where we are. Man believes that.gov emments control him. Therefore, he acts as though this were 220 - THIS BREAD IS· MINE true. So in the use of the word, government, it will be employed to mean the kind of supposed control exercised by some over others, contrary to the true nature of mankind. What is the true function of government? This question has never been satisfactorily answered in any age. The answer has shifted all the way from the supposition that the ruler was a divine emissary from God's throne and as such was to make all decisions for all men, to an institution set up by men for the purpose of protecting the freedom of those who set it up. Either assumption is faulty, and all possible gradations between these two extremes fall short of the mark. The truth is, governments are established because of the general conviction on the part of the humap race that man must not be permitted to be an individual, but rather must be compelled to act out a type of "togetherness" with all other men within a specified geographical area. And since this idea has led to enormous bloodshed and perpetual war, we now have the extension of the idea to its logical conc~sion, namely, that geographic limits must be abolished and all men, wherever PLAN OF ESCAPE - 221 located, must be compelled to react to a single set of controls manipulated by a single super government. This is the crown ing folly. It is the extension of the socialist idea to the socialist ultimate - until such time as man bridges the gap between the planets and seeks to. establish a universal government of a solar system.

Jungle Background The idea is a carryover from our jungle years. Man begins in primitive surroundings as a congenital collectivist. He may have no formal institution of "government" as we ordinarily employ the word. But he is dominated at each moment by taboos, by tribal consciousness which causes him to think. of himself more as an integral part of a whole than as a self- . conscious, self-responsible individual. Aboriginal languages have no word for "I." Primitive peoples do not understand or think in terms of personality. To them, the tribe is the human being. Voluntary individual action is the beginning of civilization. It creates civilization and civilization itself breeds further de222 - THIS BREAD IS MINE sire and necessity for voluntary individual action. The one aids and abets the other. A useful illustration comes to mind. All primitive peoples, believing as they did in socialism, or in tribal and group values, imagined God to exist in similar societal or tribal fashion.

All ancient religions depicted a chief god with a pantheon of lesser gods and goddesses. Heaven and earth were but a mir rored reflection of each other. The chief on earth ran the tribe. The chief in heaven ran the lesser deities. Whether the myths and legends were animistic and totem istic as with the Eskimo, the Bantu and others, in which the gods and goddesses take on animal and bird forms which ap pear to be endowed with immortality, or whether the myths and legends depended on gaints, heroes and demigods as with the Japanese, the Hindu, the Greek or Roman, the collectivist concept was absolute. God was a collective. So was man. It was impossible for early socialist man to imagine anything else. Early men took note of nature. They saw that animals ex isted. They thought of themselves as animals. They noticed PLAN OF ESCAPE - 223 that animals tended to run in packs. In order for them to kill an animal, they had to separate it from the herd. They con cluded, not illogically, that men must herd together· and that in the herd was safety. To be banished from the man-herd was the most severe form of punishment· meted out by primitive chieftains.

The ancient Hebrews are credited with the first individual ization thought processes in known history. But it was not long afterwards when an Egyptian pharaoh got the same idea. However, the idea was not easy for socialists to grasp. Imagine only ONE god, when it is known that man is collective. How could an individualized god control a collectivized creation? The transition toward individualism was painful and haIt ing. Gradually, the idea arose that not only was there but one God, but all persons were, in the final essence of reality, individuals. Still the ancient pagan concepts dominated. Believing in the bureaucracy of tribes, even· with the revolutionary con cept of a single God, early theologians were quick to manufac224 - THIS BREAD IS MINE ture a divine bureaucracy. It was against this bureaucracy that Mohammed rebelled, some 600 years after Christ. He re verted to the purity of the "oneness" of each person and the absolute "oneness" of God. He insisted that there "is no God but God." But the concept was too new. In heaven, Mohammed provided places for masters and servants, and managed to push the Almighty into an area of space removed from the deceased who peopled his stratified paradise.

At root, the tribal concept of socialism continued to dom inate men's thinking. If it is true that there is only one God, it is manifestly. apparent that there is more than one man. Hence, it must be that some men, by virtue of divine right, must rule other men. But as humankind gropes more and more toward the un foldment of his potential, it will follow that he will become more individualistic. He will be less willing to accept a bureaucracy whether divine or secular. He will discover his own particular attributes .and inclinations and follow them with increasing zeal and determination. As man learns ever more to· specialize PLAN OF ESCAPE - 225 and to create and conserve great quantities of energy, so he will find that life for him becomes an increasingly flourishing affair. Until this natural direction for the developing species is recognized, man will continue to moor himself to collectivist concepts, either in whole or in part. He will vacillate between the full recognition of himself as a completely unique entity and some half-way unique creature who must be· mastered at times by various levels of bureaucratic organization.

The twentieth century brings man to a threshold in his development. Civilization lies through the open doorway. But all about him and deeply imbedded in him are his manifold dependencies upon collectivist concepts. He may elect to move forward despite his fears and his habits of barbarous origin. Or he may elect to move backward and to close the door. But one thing is certain. He cannot stand still. If he would move forward, then he must come to understand his true nature and upon collectivized and socialized criteria. There are only two ways of obtaining exchanges. One is to rely upon market place exchanges for his desires rather than voluntary, through mutual cooperation in which something 226 - THIS BREAD IS MINE can be exchanged for something else. The other is compulsive, wherein cooperation is banished and where some strong man rises to compel exchanges according to a pattern he believes will be beneficial to others or to himself.

In primitive societies, formalized government did not exist as we know it today. Nonetheless, a type of government obtained, usually established by a strong man, a priest or a combination of the two working together. Instead of a body of law there was the body of a man. Obedience rather than volun tary cooperation was the order of the day. It is the individualistic position that a formalized institu tion of government is not necessary in order to demonstrate the existence of a governing force. In barbarous communities this governing force flowed from the chief, the priest and from a body of custom, woven into a pattern by taboos and ritual, so that no man dared defy that governing force. The Zunis in Africa felt that they were contaminated if the shadow of an alien to their tribe fell across their food while in preparation or when being eaten. The Bantu saw in virtually every natural PLAN OF ESCAPE - 227 event the intrusion of the gods, the presence of·the spirits of departed chieftains and the unending authority of their own strong man. To disobey the ritual, the custom or the immediate order of the chief, brought death, immediate, or death through the lingering terror of banishment. In these and other primitive tribes a system of tribal communism or tribal socialism was extant from the earliest times. These savages lived under a condition of TOTAL government. They were controlled in all acts of their lives for they believed in total authority residing outside of themselves personally.

Durant suggests - and it is easy to agree - that civiliza tion begins with the first voluntary action. Under tribal com munism, voluntaryism was unknown. But civilization started in some dark time and some remote age where some individ ualistic savage broke the taboo or violated the custom either by doing something that was forbidden, or. by refusing to do something that was commanded. The dawn of civilization broke. at that moment. And if Durant is correct respecting the origin of civilization, it is a logical inference that to bring an end to 228 - THIS BREAD IS MINE civilization one would simply have to create a society in which all voluntary actions were eliminated - in a word, to establish socialism; to return to .barbarism. We have brought traces of the jungle with us into what we call civilization. That jungle carryover is our remaining trust and faith in the ancient taboo that government has the ability to control us.

Undoubtedly, an important contribution to the general fallacy is the conclusion of so many historians and philosophers that civilization is, itself, dependent upon government. These savants, including a veritable host of otherwise reasonable and scholarly men, tell us that civilization advances only under the CERTAINTY of LAW. They point to the rise of business and industry in such ancient regimes as Rome's and opine that the single prerequisite of such a burgeoning economy as occurred in the Latin world was the fixed nature of the corpus 3uris. Lacking law, specifically a written and a generally under stood law, the market place, these scholars believe, is subjected to the whims. of predators against whom the struggling free enterpriser is by all odds outclassed.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 229 Certainty It is not the nature of the laws so much that concerns these thoughtful men, but the· certainty of the laws. Civilization and certainty go together, they tell us. If there is no certainty of law, no government to punish some or to reward others, no man knows which pursuit to follow; no man can successfully plan for the future; hence, no possibility of a civilized future unfolds. _On the surface, this argument appears to be valid. But we are in danger here of accepting one fact and one fallacy because we do not permit ourselves to think in a manner void of mythol ogy. Let us agree that certainty and civilization go together. Let us question whether it is government that provides the kind of certainty that civilization requires. Bruno Leoni, the distinguished Italian professor, in a series of lectures on the subject of freedom and com petitive enterprise at Claremont College (California) in 1958, brings us an astonishing reminder. The astonishment proceeds from the fact that the point he makes is so obvious and, until now, so widely overlooked.

230 - THIS BREAD IS MINE We are admonished by the professor to recollect that in ancient Rome there were two bodies of law, that famed corpus juris of Justinian which was the legislated body of law; and Roman common law, which was simply a body of custom and usage adopted through the years and ABOVE AND BEYOND THE POWER OF THE SENATE AND THE CAESARS. This common law was the base on which the Roman world rested. It was not written. But it was certain. It was not dependent upon government. It preceded and superseded the formal or ganization of a body of legal force. True, the corpus juris ofJustinian was a latter-day com pilation, of which Gibbon ("Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire") was distrustful since there is small evidence to establish the omniscience of Justinian's selection and inter pretation of which laws and which decisions were worthy of inclusion in his vast undertaking. Specifically, Justinian be longs to the period of Byzantine ascendancy and thus the Roman compilation of the body of law is actually a by-product, reaching post-historically into a preceding age and time.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 231 Nonetheless, Professor Leoni's position is accurate for one does not require· Justinian to ascertain the existence of this body of law. It was a fact. And with it was the additional fact that the unwritten laws, the non-corpus juris, provided the bed rock on which the Roman concept of freedom and liberty was based. We are immediately reminded both of British common law and the American Declaration of Independence. In the former case, during long centuries British subjects grew up in a belief that there were certain rules which applied to them simply because they were British subjects. These rules were not neces sarily spelled out by Parliament. They were a part of the common usage and custom, and far more certain than formal, written law. The British common law dates from most ancient times and generally came about under foreign occupation. It is rea sonable to suppose that most persons under the control of outsiders will not willingly obey nor abide by the arbitrary dictations of their foreign masters. Under such duress they tend 232 - THIS BREAD IS MINE to gravitate in their sensibilities toward the rugged realities that they face. They find themselves relying upon such natural rules as the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. They will gradually and insensibly oppose dicta which are contrary to these precepts. And since it is true that no government can, in fact, control anyone, the foreign invaders are faced with the necessity of reducing their legal enactments to a basis which will ultimately be acceptable to those whom they coerce. This is the basis of British common law.

Referring to the Declaration of Independence, we find the authors and signatories to that document declaring that there are certain rights which precede government and which gov ernment cannot take away, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By implication, there are others as well. In addition to rights (functions) which we have univer sally as a part of our human natures, there is always a body of natural law which is generally understood and which is inherently based upon the Golden Rule. As a matter of natural PLAN OF ESCAPE-233 law we do NOT contravene our rights or functions. It is in this body 01 natural law that CERTAINTY resides. It can never reside in formalized law, which can be and frequently is con trary to natural law. Thus, when we examine the precise function of govern ment in practice, both in ancient and modern times, we find that governments do NOT provide certain law, on which civili zationmust be based. Rather, governments provide such a welter of conflicting, contradictory, ever changing rules, or ders, demands, taxes, circumstances, ordinances, codes, pro hibitions, subsidies, rewards, and plain red tape, that no man can predict today what the rules are going to be tomorrow.

Thus, if our historians and philosophers are correct, name ly, that civilization and certainty go together, it becomes apparent that governments in practice do NOT advance civilization, but raise obstacles across the pathway to such civiliZa tion. The only certainty to be traced to government is the uncertainty of governmental conclusions. And when the uncer tainty of government in general is augmented by the absolute 234-THIS BREAD IS MINE certainty that government in action will prey upon the persons in the market place, but in such an uncertain and unpredictable manner that no man knows which avenue to pursue or what to avoid, we find that the cause of individualism and hence of civilization, which must invariably rest upon individuals, is thwarted and forestalled. To quote Professor Leoni: "Even those economists who have most brilliantly defended the free market against the interference of authorities have usually neglected the parallel consideration that no free market is really compatible with a law-making process centralized by the authorities. This leads some of those economists to accept the idea of a certainty of the law, that is, of precisely worded rules as those of written law, which is neither compatible with that of a free market nor, in the last analysis, with that of freedom as the absence of constraint on the part of other people, including authorities, on the private life and business of each individual."

But let us take the modern, and the uniquely American conception that the purpose of the government is to protect PLAN OF ESCAPE-235 the freedom of all. Certainly, this is the most acceptable of the general definitions and the least harmful. What we are saying here is ·that government shall have the exclusive power to use force. What we are also saying is that government shall employ that power in a negative way only. Men will be free, unless or until they trespass upon the freedom of another. Then, and then only will the government act. And its actions will be confined to restoring the original state of freedom that has suffered under the transgression. Protection,: Aggressive-Defensive If this definition is acceptable' for the moment, let us pro ceed. If this is to be the sole function of government, then it would he safe to say that any expansion of the government's power beyond the purely negative protectionaI functions would be an improper use of that power.

In other words, when the government attempts to build roads, it is not acting in a negative, defensive category. Rather, it is acting in a predatory, socialistic manner by seeking to 236 - THIS BREAD IS MINE provide a service which will be used by some of the people, in a manner which will entail taxation of some or all of the people. This is consistent with socialism. And this would be true even if the government· collected the money from only some of the people and made the roads available to all of the people. This, too, is socialism, as has been shown. In other words, government roads are socialistic roads. But this is true up and down the line of governmental op erations. In fact, it should be apparent even to the casual thinker that if the government collects money for roads only from those who use the roads,and if anyone can use the roads and in the process pay for their use, then government has in vaded the field of private enterprise and is providing a service which can readily be provided by any ambitious and persever ing enterpriser. For the same rules apply to admission at a motion picture theater, or any other type of private enterprise.

Only those who pay to see the films ·get to see the pictures. Only those who see the pictures pay for the privilege. Yet the theaters are open to any who wish thus to indulge themselves.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 237 This is free enterprise. If government is limited only to defen sive protectionism, then it has no business running motion pic ture theaters or providing roads. Either would be an invasion of the economy and either would advance the socialist goal of moving what should be private property and private wealth out of private hands and placing that property and wealth into the hands of the government. This is true from agriculture to zoos, from A to Z. If the government attempts to provide a product or a serv ice in some other manner than by permitting those who use the product or service to pay for it, to wit, by taxing all so that some may have the service or the product, that in essence is socialism. If, on the other hand, the government seeks to pro vide a service or product in the same manner as any enterpriser might seek to do the same thing, that is the attainment of the socialist goal which demands that the means of production and distribution be owned and controlled by the state.

Think of anything your government does now. From education to interstate commerce regulation, the classification is 238 - THIS BREAD IS MINE the same. Either the government is acting as an enterpriser and thus competing with some legitimate private means of providing goods and services, or it is engaged in a socialist practice of taxing all to provide something for some, or of taxing some to provide something for all. It can be demonstrated that in all avenues (let us by pass the matter of protection, for the moment) when a government acts, it acts in a socialist manner. It cannot help itself. And again it can be emphasized that the manner or the type of the government, the frequency of elections, if they are held, the blood lines of the rulers, the wealth they enjoy-all of these things are academic distinctions which fail to provide a non-socialist framework in any government. Governments are socialist institutions and have been so from their inception.

Protection Weare left with the sole function of the government a matter of negative defensive force. And now we face the crowning denouement. For protection is a service in every PLAN OF ESCAPE - 239 way comparable to insurance. If a person is compelled to take out insurance, the process is socialistic. If he is compelled to pay for another person's insurance, the process is socialistic. If he receives payments from his insurance that other persons have been compelled to provide, the process is socialistic. And by definition we are faced with the necessity of concluding that even police protection is socialistic. Some persons wish considerable in the way of police pro tection. Others see little or no reason for it. But by means of taxation, all pay for it. Either police protection is a legitimate function of private firms, or it is essentially socialistic. If it is a legitimate free enterprise, then it is simply one more area of human activity in which governments have destroyed competition, by force; and all insurance company inspectors, private guards, night watch men, railroad detectives, merchant police, private detectives, armored car specialists and so forth, plus the use of burglar alarms, locks on doors and electric eyes, are the rightful guardians of private property and private safety. In this case, 240 - TIDS BREAD IS MINE governmental intrusion on the scene is an unnatural perver sion and should be eliminated just as so many seek to eliminate government competition in other fields.

Otherwise, police. protection is essentially socialistic, in which case we must believe that while socialism in all other fields of human need tends always to destroy civilization, a so cialist police force operates in the opposite way, to civilize us. But our problem in viewing protection as a totally nega tive and defensive function is that in all of known history we have relied upon governments to furnish it. And governments have failed to provide that which we sought. In fact, governments engaged in protection invariably from the earliest times, buttressed their efforts by establishing courts of competent jurisdiction so that the government's fail ure to provide protection would not be noted. Had government protection been successful in fact, the necessity of having a court to adjudicate problems becomes questionable. This point may be difficult· of discernment at first, but let us consider it.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 241 At the moment in these United States, an interesting paral lel can be observed. It has become a rather ordinary practice for parents to enroll their children in remedial reading classes. No such classes would be necessary if the children had learned in their normal reading sessions in school. Remedial reading becomes necessary only when reading is not learned when and where it should be learned. The same observation could be made in connection with defense. If we had provided ourselves with true and adequate defense for our properties or persons, no crimes would ever occur. Let us be visionary for a moment and imagine a kind of defense that would really defend. Let us suppose that "A" owns a house. To protect it from arsonists, burglars, robbers, vandals and what not, let us sup pose that he contrives an electronic force field which complete ly (and invisibly) encompasses his building from all sides. Any effort by any individual or group of individuals to break through that defensive shield will result (we will suppose) 242 - THIS BREAD IS MINE in the breaking of the miscreant's arm or leg. "A" has merely to throw a switch and his defensive mechanism goes into operation.

Along comes "B," a predator of any kind you choose. "B" makes an effort to get through the shield and finds his arm broken. Does "A" seek to take him to court to prosecute him, to obtain vengeance or other punishment? It would be unlikely. "B" has already suffered the punishment for his criminal in tention. "A" might more properly and more likely rush him to a hospital so that the bone could be set. There is no need for vengeance, or retribution of any sort. In fact, it is out of the question. Retribution, if it can be called such, has already oc curred because the defensive mechanism WORKED. . When governments preempt the field of protection they invariably fail to provide protection. Rather, they provide ex tensive and expensive devices by means of which those who have broken through our defenses (thereby proving their ineffectiveness) can be tracked down, prosecuted in court, and, perhaps, ultimately punished. The existence of the court for PLAN OF ESCAPE--- 243 this purpose is virtual proof of the failure of the defense to work successfully.

Thus, human beings confuse defense with vengeance. They suppose that vengeance is a natural extension of defense when in fact it is only a substitute and is made necessary by the fail ure of defense to function. But the substitute appears necessary to nearly everyone since the IDEA of adequate defensive measures is almost non-existent. While it could be argued that governments are the proper and logical devices by means of which vengeance can be taken, it would be difficult or impossible to argue the merits of ven geance if defensive mechanisms truly worked to the point that crimes could not be committed. If a crime can be stopped BE FORE it occurs, by means of adequate defense, then there would be no criminals. A criminal intention to act would carry within itself such enormous risks that the criminal would be pitied rather than pursued in vengeance. And while admitting that the illustration above of the electronic shield is far fetched and is in the. science-fiction tra244 - THIS BREAD IS MINE dition, the fact is we do not know what the market place could provide in the way of true defense. By occupying this area of human endeavor, the government has moved all competition out of the field.

We note that whenever a government invades any normal field of human endeavor, the tendency of human beings is to surrender that field and to make no further effort in it. Had market entrepreneurs been free all these ages to examine and explore adequate means of defense rather than relying upon the government to provide it, who can. tell what marvelous· means of protecting ourselves and our property might now be .available to all? And should this field suddenly be opened to man's amazing inventive and productive genius, who can say what might yet ensue? Perhaps the electronic force field is not as far-fetched as one might at first imagine. While it would be reasonable to claim that any human being has a right to purchase protection for his freedom and for his life and property, it is unreasonable to claim that all must pay for what some want. Logically, police protection is as PLAN OF ESCAPE - 245 socialistic when government provides it as are school lunches when governmen~ procures, cooks and serves them.

As a matter of fact, any socialist can find an excellent argu ment here. He can ask, "What is protection?" The word has never been defined with satisfaction to all concerned. Strictly speaking, all government actions are protective. The child receiving a government-provided education is being protected against ignorance. The same child who gets a government-paid for lunch is being protected against hunger. The farmer with his subsidies is being protected against the vagar~es of weather and pestilence and market fluctuations. The inmate of public housing is being protected against the elements. The welfare recipient is being protected against poverty, old age or both. The patient at a government clinic is being protected against ill health. To assume that it is proper and non-socialistic to provide police protection, and at the same time to assume that it is improper and socialistic to provide protection in these other forms, is inconsistent and unrealistic. Protection is protection.

246-THIS BREAD IS MINE The individualist would claim that protection is a service which should be purchased in the market place like any other service. Those who wish it, should purchase the amount they require and are prepared to pay for. Those who do not wish it at all, should not be coerced into paying for it. At this point, it is anticipated that the reader may cry out in alarm, the dreadful word ANARCHY! Is not this classifica tion of all acts of government as essentially socialistic in char acter, a call for the elimination of all government? If the reader is so inclined he might be reminded that his torically the anarchist is simply another socialist, as was pointed out earlier. Issue was taken with the Americana for excluding Proudhon from the socialist classification. Similarly, it might be advisable to recall that the word "government" is a misnomer for the political entity which wields power, for es sentially it is the nature of man to govern himself.

Two Types of Law and Order To emphasize this fact, it is necessary to point out that there are two broad plans for maintaining law and order. One PLAN OF ESCAPE-247 of these is government as it is generally known. The other is also a type of organization, which has demonstrated through the years a superior ability to prevent chaos and to accomplish all manner of human social relationships. Nor should we become confused by the use of the word "law" in this connection despite the fact that we tend to think of law as the exclusive prerogative of the artificial type of gov ernment. Law does not have to be formalized to make it effective. Moral precept, moral law, public opinion are all indica tions of an active ingredient in the nature of man which counsels a type or pattern of behavior consonant with man's true nature. For example, most men arise in the morning and go to bed at night. This action is conforming to man's own nature, for man is not a nocturnal animal. But there is no legal fiat that compels this type of action. Custom, public opinion, ordinary usage .bring about this pattern in human action. Nor do we throw a man in jail if he violates the pattern.

248 - THIS BREAD IS MINE However, governments have so far intruded into the regu lation of man's hours of wakefulness and slumber that already we have legalized "daylight saving time" which arbitrarily sets custom aside and declares for us that during the summer months five o'clock is really six o'clock. Additionally, in some cities there are curfew laws which apply to certain persons, and on occasion to all persons. If artificial government becomes a little more powerful and a little more socialistic, the day may come in which all men will be compelled to arise from their beds at a governmentally determined hour and any variation from this legal directive will be accompanied by the risk of arrest and punishment or the issuance of a special permit to cover the case. Still, it should be obvious that until such time as the gov ernment intervenes, man manages very well, indeed. The nor mal practice is a pattern or law of behavior. But it is a type of law not enforced by government - at least, not yet.

For the purpose of clarification, these two means of main taining law and order will be called artificial government and natural government.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 249 What is artificial government? The term is being used to indicate the type of organization we have in mind whenever we use the word government. Ar tificial government can consist of any possible combination of authorities whose purpose is to rule, to govern. These com binations include republics, democracies, monarchies, oligarchies, autocracies, theocracies, etc. What is natural government? Natural Association A natural government is rarely called a government. It is a natural association of people who get together not for the purpose of ruling or governing, but for some other purpose, yet whose association brings about a certain type of organiza tional structure which is conducive to law and order. There are five principal types of natural government. These are: 1. The family 2. The business group 250 - THIS BREAD IS .MINE 3. The non-government school 4. The church 5. Any other private organization, club, association or amalgamation Since these associations are rarely thought of as govern ing bodies, it is important that their characteristics as govern ing bodies be understood. The first characteristic should be emphasized. In all natural governments the prime purpose of the association is not to govern. In this, the natural associa tions are in harmony with the laws of man's nature, for man cannot be controlled; he can only control himself. Artificial governments, on the contrary, are invariably organized to ac complish the impossible and the unnatural, namely to control individuals.

The second characteristic of the natural government is that its prime purpose is always desirable to the members, else they do not associate with it. In contrast, the artificial govern ments have aims which invariably are out of harmony with the desires of a minority of those under their sway. Though PLAN OF ESCAPE - 251 they may appeal to a majority in some cases, they will be re jected by some of this same majority in other cases. The third characteristic is that natural governments rarely attempt and never succeed in bringing all persons within a specific geographic limitation under their sway. The possible exception here is the family and the particular home in which the family lives. But businesses, churches, schools and clubs, however universal their appeal, never succeed in attracting everyone. This is in harmony with man's individualistic nature. In contrast, an artificial government exercises its power over all within its geographic limits. The geographic limits are first prescribed and all human life within the claimed territory becomes subject to the governors of that territory. This is con trary to the individualistic nature of man.

A fourth characteristic is this: The individual who asso ciates himself in a natural governmental structure of whatever nature, and who then discovers that he is out of harmony with the rules, codes, tenets, policy or aims of that structure, is able to extricate himself from his predicament by the simple process 252 - THIS BREAD IS MINE of walking out. And once he is outside the confines, he is not immediately placed under the jurisdiction of. some other nat ural government. For example, the man who quits his work at the Ford Company does not find, on walking out the door, that he is automatically working for General Motors. The person who stalks from the Methodist Church in anger does not find him self a Catholic. The person who removes himself from the Kiwanis Club does not automatically become a Mason. Each person to so eject himself from some natural organization finds himself in neutral territory. He is free to seek another asso ciation. He is free to forego such association.

In contrast, the person under the control of an artificial government may not simply object to the rules and step out. Re is not able to step out without the permission and concur rence of the artificial government. And even if he were to succeed in separating himself from that control, he would find that he would have to leave the· territory. And leaving the territory he would promptly find himself under the control PLAN OF ESCAPE - 253 of another artificial government. In short, there is always escape from the natural governments. There is no escape from the artificial governments. Still another area of contrast is this: A person who dis obeys an edict of a natural government with which he is asso ciated may undergo punishment. But the most extreme form of punishment is, customarily, banishment. The church may oust him; the lodge may blackball him; the boss may fire him. Under an artificial government, death confronts him for dis obedience. And even if banishment were to occur, it would only be to move him out from under one governmental control to place him under the domination of another.

In every way it becomes apparent that natural governments operate in conformity to man's true nature and in harmony with the great laws which truly govern all of creation. It is also equally apparent that artificial governments function at cross purposes to nature. Artificial governments inevitably seek to control others; to equalize; to socialize.

254 - THIS BREAD IS MINE Since this line of approach is not generally undertaken, it might be wise to spend a few moments discussing some of the natural types of government. Among the most interesting and most ancient is the family relationship. Let us take it in its ideal form at the beginning. The Family Relationship The family begins with two persons, voluntarily agreeing to live and work together. In modern times the male member of the association will presumably be the breadwinner and the female member will presumably be the housekeeper. In economic terms it could be said that the relationship is a free enterprise relationship. The male provides the goods; the fe male, the services. So long as these goods and services are exchanged on a voluntary basis, the relationship is a free market relationship. And this is true even if the male is not as successful a breadwinner as the female originally imagined, or .if the female is not as splendid a housekeeper as the male may have originally anticipated.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 255 Let us suppose there. are children. Infants certainly are not physically capable of providing either goods or services in the normal course of events. Are they, then, a violation of the free market relationship? Actually, and still speaking idealis tically, they are not such a violation. Although the children may not provide either goods or services, they do provide a type of joy and satisfaction which is compensation enough for their parents. In other words, there is a free exchange in the family unit which is entirely compatible with human rights, human liberty and economic rules of supply and demand. What we have seen, however, particularly in recent years, is .a rise of dependency upon formalized law which affects the free market relationship of members of the family. Let us ex amine the status of the child primarily. Some years ago, the family which contained numerous progeny was considered to have an economic advantage in the commu~ty. The female children patterned their behavior after their mother. They learned by observation how to weave and sew, how to cook and grind meal, how to clean house and churn 256 - THIS BREAD IS MINE butter, and acquired even such refinements as music and song, all from the honorable practice of example. The little girl, even from a very young age, was an advantage around· the house.

She could look after younger members of the family~· She could pitch in with the dusting and cleaning. She could help prepare vegetables and meats for the table. She was an economic. asset almost from the start, helping to lift the heavy burden from the hands and shoulders of the distaff side of the family. And what of the little boy? He, too, became an adjunct to the productive capacities of the family. He trailed his paternal parent to the woods for hunting, to the fields for plowing and cultivating and harvesting. By the time he was seven or eight he was helping. And in his teens he performed as any other man, matching his strength against the might and the experi ence of his father. Education was by precept and individual patience. Economically, an exchange began as quickly as it could be engineered. But with the passage of time, laws were passed which presumed that a parent who would ask or urge his offspring PLAN OF ESCAPE - 257 to undertake labor of any kind, was cruel or unjust. Rather than permitting the young ones to earn their own way in a market economy, the law prescribed that a child was a depend~ ent. He could not become self-sufficient or even partially self sufficient without a special permit. Child labor laws helped to socialize the family unit.

Other laws, meanwhile, have corroded the sanctity of the home. The voluntary union of male and female in the ideal sense was buttressed about by legal force which placed enor mous coercion in the hands of either mate. Instead of seeking to enrich their own lives by increasing their ability to exchange their goods and services, the emphasis switched to the point where husbands could legally make certain demands upon their wives, and wives could make·certain demands upon their husbands. The development of mutual love and understanding was sidetracked into legal areas, with tax-supported "marriage counselors" substituting for the application of ordinary common sense.

258 - THIS BREAD IS MINE Many a wife now believes that she has been socialized because of her husband's position as the breadwinner. She feels dependent, helpless, a victim of a situation she did not dream could exist. But the male is no less put upon. He believes that his wife has the best of things. He provides, thanks to the creative abil ity of the market place, wonderful labor-saving devices for her so that the household services she performs are reduced to a minimum. But he believes that legally she has the last word, for he dare not stray away lest she haul him into court and obtain a divorce plus a monthly payment of alimony. The more severe and numerous are the laws enacted to sustain the family unit, the more temptation and pressure that arises to sunder the bonds of matrimony. Surely the incidence of divorce in these United States should establish the prevalence of shat tered marriages without undue elaboration here.

Ideally, then, it could be shown that the family .unit is a free market relationship, entered into voluntarily and main tained by an exchange of goods, services, satisfac~ions, joy an.d PLAN OF ESCAPE - 259 other tangible and intangible rewards, flowing to all members of the association. Practically, as time and the law have eroded the relationship, the family unit has become, at least so far as children are concerned, largely socialistic, with some elements of socialism (perhaps) adhering even to the basic male and female relationship. But this is caused by the intrusion of government force into what would otherwise remain a free and voluntary association. The strong opposition to the family provided by Plato, Marx and the modern "do-gooders" via legal decrees, gives us indication enough that the free market family unit is the core of the opposition to the socialist program. So long as voluntary, free market exchanges occur between men, women and children, the socialist program will fall short of fulfillment.!

1. Engels gives credit to Lewis Morgan, anthropologist, for Marx's position respecting the family. In his study, "Ancient Society," Morgan establishes that our concept of the family. relationship is the modern concept and has not always been prevalent. Morgan traces family relationships through five steps: The Consanguine Family; The PunaluanFamily; The Syndyasmian Family; The Patriarchal Family; The Monogamian Family. (cont. on page 260) 260 - THIS BREAD IS MINE At the present moment the family is under severe attack; its authority and influence undermined by the socialized government schools; by socialized legislation which prohibits child labor; by government clinics, juvenile courts, marriage counselors and a host of other devices. It is almost invariably shocking to the parent to learn, for example, that the abolition of child labor and the rise of government schools are an integral part of the communist program and among the basic dream components of the socialist fiction. "Free education for all children in public schools. AboHe shows that the two earliest forms date from barbarism, that the next two forms are transitional and result finally in the Monogam ian family, which is the modern form.

Marx accepted the Morgan thesis largely because of the inference drawn by Morgan that it is only with the Monogamian family that the concept of private property is possible. "The growth of the idea of property in the human mind, through its creation and enjoyment, and especially through the settlement of legal rights with respect to its inheritance, are intimately connected with the establishment of this form (Monogamian) of the family. Property became sufficiently powerful in its influence to touch the organic structure of society." Marx, convinced that he must destroy the concept of private owner ship, was quick to rally his arguments to oppose the modern family.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 261 lition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education and industrial production," etc., etc. (Communist Manifesto, point 10.) Socialist Family Objectives It is equally shocking for parents to learn that this program was in vogue in this country before Karl Marx was born. The first assumption of state responsibility for the education of children occurred in Massachusetts in 1648, only 28 years after the successful founding of the Plymouth Colony. But while we are on the subject of the family it might serve to bring out the socialist argument as Marx sets it down: "Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists. "On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form this family exists only among the burgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.

262 - THIS BREAD IS MINE "The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital. "Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty. "But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of rela tions, when we replace home education by social. "And your education! Is not that also social, and deter mined by the social conditions under which you educate, by the intervention, direct or indirect, of society by means of schools, etc.? The Communists have not invented the interven tion of society in education; they do but seek to alter the char acter of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the ruling class. "The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the. hallowed co-relation of parent and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of modern in dustry, all family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of·commerce and instruments of labor.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 263 "Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each others' wives.

264 - THIS BREAD IS MINE "Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common, and thus, at the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached with, is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legal ized community of women. For the rest, it is self-evident that the abolition of the system of production must bring with it the abolition of the community of women springing from that system, i.e., of prostitution both public and private." (Com munist Manifesto) This is Plato preserved in vitriol. Clearly, the author of these words and his multiplying followers in and out of the Fabian camp, have little conception of marriage as a relationship which contains other attributes than a license for sexual indulgence. The socialist is seen here in his most social and his least economic position. The complete alteration of the social structure is under his guns.

The individualist is not so constituted. He views marriage as a voluntary relationship which is based on a free market exchange and, additionally, contains a host of other elements PLAN OF ESCAPE - 265 that make life worth the living. He sees in the family a reser voir of love, devotion, sanctity, sacrifice, cooperation, self discipline and progress. To their credit, the Fabians have soft-pedaled family re form publicly. Still, the advance of the Fabian juggernaut through the medium of the public school, public clinic, public welfare, child guidance, juvenile courts, and so on, has quietly done much to undermine parental authority and influence. The family unit today is under severe attack and if it is to be pre served, it will be because, despite the Marxian arguments, it is superior to the state in providing a safeguard and a haven for our offspring. Let us once more underline the fact that the family is a voluntary unit. One parent may exercise a type of authority over all other members of the family. But the punishment of a child for disobedience is tempered by the parental role and does not lead to death. And the purpose of the parental role is not to perpetuate childhood but to prepare the child for ma turity. Thus, in contradistinction to all artificial governments, 266 - THIS BREAD IS MINE with the passage of time the authority over the child· wanes.

The infant may be dominated at each instant, the small child at frequent intervals. But the youth receives only occasional guidance, and the mature youth properly breaks away from the family of his rearing and seeks his own fortune as a free being. There is nothing in this relationship which is opposed to nature. On the contrary, this is the fulfilling of man's nature. Business Relationships Let us consider the business establishment. This, too, pro vides a type of natural government. The manager, whether an individual, a family, a board of directors or a partnership, exercises a type of authority over all other members of the establishment. Management provides the rules and the laws which all must obey. Failure to obey will result in banishment, but never in imprisonment or death. And, again, the association is voluntary. Before a person can join a business establishment, a mutual agreement must be reached. The employee finds that he can and will perform certain services or provide certain PLAN OF ESCAPE - 267 skills. The management finds that it will accept those services or skills and pay the employee in money or in some other way acceptable to both parties. Failure to reach an agreement means that the individual will not become an employee. Agree ment reached means that an exchange between the manage ment and the employee will be undertaken according to terms and conditions agreed upon beforehand.

This, too, is in keeping with the nature of things. There is no violation here either of economic rules or of natural law; the association is wholly voluntary. It can be broken off at any time by either party. These same conditions would be manifested in any kind of voluntary club or organization. (Note: Unions cannot be classed as voluntary.) They would also pertain in· any private institution such as a school or a church which was not under government control or domination. It is normal and natural for human beings to join forces for purposes of accomplishing specific objectives. So long as the joining together is accomplished without duress and .. 50 268 - THIS BREAD IS MINE long as a condition of voluntary exchange exists, there is no harmful socialism. The damage occurs, and it can occur in any natural government, whenever the natural and normal voluntary relationship is breached by the intrusion of force.

The employee whose employer is forced to pay him a "mini mum" wage has been socialized in that area. The member of the union who is forced to join and to pay dues, and to con tribute to the· welfare or pension fund, has been socialized, and the sums of money taken from such a member will in evitably be used in furthering socialist objectives, either through political or social action. These instances of violence and coercion, however, are departures from the norm. It is interesting to note that by far and away all rules and laws which govern society are formulated under these private and natural agencies. These associations build the moral code and social custom. On the contrary, all artificial governments function in a manner wholly unnatural and dis dainful of human rights. Under the rules promulgated by an artificially devised governing power, a minority will inevitably PLAN OF ESCAPE - 269 be oppressed. Disobedience to governmental edict is punishable by fine or imprisonment. And in the event of ultimate disobe dience, the rebel can be shot down in his tracks.

What should be seen is that the natural agencies which manage and conduct the affairs of mankind with outstanding success, contrive to keep order, provide for the livelihood, the pleasure, the education, the morality, and the general ad vancement of the race, and they do all these things with a minimum of cost and a maximum of result. Still, the artificial agencies are employed which endeavor to control human beings, which is contrary to the nature of human life; they perform with a notable lack of success, and through the years, aside from stirring up strife and discord, they produce minimal results for maximum cost. Business Conspiracies While we are engaged in a discussion concerning business as a natural agency, we may as well conduct an excursion into the often repeated accusation that businessmen· are not to 270 - THIS BREAD IS MINE be trusted. Let us concede that businessmen are human; they are subject to error; they are motivated by self-interest; and they are not above questionable practices.

It is not that men in business are a superior KIND of men compared to men in government. It is· rather that men in business, in order to succeed, MUST practice a kind of dis cipline and self-control whereas their counterparts in gov ernment may find. it to their political advantage NOT to practice discipline and self-control in the same degree or manner. The man who works for success in business must satisfy his customers in a superior fashion. Even while selfishly mo tivated, he can only hope for success by superior performance which pleases customers. Assuming a free market in which customers can express their preferences, the businessman must win the support of his customers every day. If he fails to please them, they will switch loyalties and patronize his com petitor. Hence, he must always be engaged in seeking to improve his product and to lower its price at the same time PLAN OF ESCAPE - 271 he makes his service better. Only by doing these things can he win customers, who are always free to forsake him.

The same man in political office would find an entirely different set of elements with which to contend. He must please a majority of persons during an election. This can be done readily on the basis of promises made. He does not have to deliver on the basis of his promise. The record of broken political promises speaks for itself. Once in office, the pleasing of his constituents is not a prime consideration. Until the next election the job of ousting him from office is so difficult as to render the process almost obsolete. And when the next election comes, he can always blame his failures to keep his promises on the political opposition. He can, in the interim, operate on the basis of authority with or without individual consent. He can, and frequently does, alienate many individuals in the course of his career. But his support is collective, his opposition is individual. And he can exert the power of his office to extend favors, to deal 272 - THIS BREAD IS MINE in patronage, to cater to large groups so that even though he may injure many as individuals, this fact need not adversely affect him in the next ballot contest.

But let us suppose that a group of businessmen enter into a conspiracy to fix prices or to limit wages. The accusation is frequently made. What would happen? During the reign of Louis XIV of France a group of Paris businessmen met for the purpose of setting a maximum rate for wages. These business leaders agreed that wage rates were rising; the superior worker was becoming hard to deal with, demanding ever more money; it would be "good for busi ness" if the major business concerns agreed among themselves that wages should never be permitted to rise above such and such a figure. Unanimously, the leaders agreed. When the meeting ad journed, several of the businessmen who had attended were the first to break the provisions of the agreement. Believing the other businessmen would be bound by the terms of the understanding, they quickly sought out a few superior workPLAN OF ESCAPE - 273 men and offered them higher wages in order to win a com~ petitive advantage. The effort to set maximum wages came to naught.

And this is only one illustration of a sequence of events that has repeated again and again without noticeable variation. Businessmen MUST compete. Although they may weep bitter tears over what they term "unfair" competition, they will still take any advantage that they can take competitively, in order to please their customers a little more. But there is a more melancholy note to be heard. Business men, finding that they did NOT stay bound to voluntary agreements of this nature, did try to develop ways and means of binding other businessmen permanently and without recourse. Businessmen did organize to persuade or pressure government to enact special bits of legislation to protect their own businesses (tax rebates, tax moratoria, tax exemptions) or to interfere with the businesses of others (tariffs, allocations, priority lists, embargoes).

274-THIS BREAD IS MINE Here we see the businessman forsaking the market place and the natural laws which rule there, hying himself to the government and the artificial restraints and compulsions which abound there. This is a great evil. Let us not blame the men in government or the men in business for this. Men are men and they are strange composite creatures containing individually much good and much bad. If we can, through education, teach free market economics; if we can understand the nature of man and the nature of man's government; then through knowledge we can yet learn to avoid government interference in the economy and to rely upon free market, voluntary actions. Were the government incapable of stepping into the mar ket place to favor some at the expense of others, no monopoly or "cornering" the market could take place. Whatever the in tentions of men may be, if they are impotent to secure exclusive privilege we have little to fear from them.

The government is a weapon ever at hand by means of which man can set other men against one another. The inPLAN OF ESCAPE-275 strument itself is the embodiment of this kind of evil. It should be abandoned for this purpose. The Nature of Competition Most of us object to monopoly. We dislike the idea that anyone person or firm would have so much control over any commodity or resource that all others would be barred. Yet, curiously, we trust government, which must be a monopoly. And we tend to distrust the market place, where monopoly cannot occur without government intervention. The supposition exists that an individual or a group of them operating exclusively along free market lines not only can, but probably would tend to establish a monopoly. Indeed, many persons contend that one of the principal services a government can provide is to be on hand to prevent the forma tion of monopolies or, at least, to break them up if and when they do occur. It was because of such thinking that the Sher man anti-trust law was first put on the books. It was because of an extension of this same fallacy that the Clayton act followed.

276 - THIS BREAD IS MINE To understand the real nature of monopoly in the market place, one must first understand there are four kinds of com petition. Each of these types of competition is natural and will exist unless or until government curtails or eliminates it. The four kinds of competition are as follows: 1. Direct competition. This is the kind of competition which occurs between the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Motor Company. Both firms make automotive vehicles in a number of styles, sizes and colors. They compete directly for the same customers. They appeal to customers on'the basis of price~ service, firm reputation, innovations, color, style, and a number of variables. There are thousands of other illustrations of direct competition. 2. Parallel competition. This is the kind of competition which occurs between the General Motors Corporation and Chris Craft. Or between Chris Craft, Beechcraft and General Motors. All of 'these firms are interested in transportation. They are competing for custom ers, but not necessarily the same customers in each case. The PLAN OF ESCAPE - 277 man who buys a Buick may elect to drive from Chicago to Buffalo, New York. The man who buys a Chris Craft may elect to go through the Great Lakes to the same destination. The man who buys a Beechcraft may elect to fly from Chicago to Buffalo. All firms here deal in transporting human beings.

But each has its own sphere of operation and its own sphere of influence. Perhaps a better illustration of parallel competition would be found in public transportation. We have bus lines, railroads, barge lines and airlines, all vying for the customer's dollar, both in· passenger and freight traffic. Still another illustration would be found in the entertainment field, i.e., theaters, moving pictures, dance halls, carnivals, circus performances, television, radio. In the advertising busi ness there are equally valid examples of parallel competition: newspapers, radio stations, television stations, magazines, bill boards, direct mail, etc. Competition between parallel com petitors can be just as vigorous and keen as competition between direct competitors.

278 - THIS BREAD IS MINE 3. Dollar competition. Economics deals always with things that are valuable be cause of scarcity. Inflated though· our currency is, the dollar is still of value because it is in short supply. Let everyone have all the dollars he can possibly spend and the dollar would quickly have no value. All persons in business are competing with all other persons in all other businesses, for dollars. There is always a short supply of dollars. The man who buys an um brella may not have enough dollars on hand to buy a new hat as well. The lady who gets a permanent wave may have to go without a new pair of shoes. The child who gets to see the latest full-length western may have to forego the ice cream sundae. This, too, is competition. 4. Finally, invisible competition. This is the most difficult to see, but it is one of the most powerful forces to operate in the market place. Let us assume, for the sake of illustrating our point, that A has established a bakery in the town of Y. It is the only bakery there. It has what some would call a monopoly position.

PLAN OF ESCAPE - 279 Let us suppose A has done such a superior job of provid ing bread and other baked goods for the citizens of Y that even the housewives stop buying flour because they can get better products from A for less money. A is certainly in an advantageous position. He has no direct competition. Even his parallel competition is waning. Dollar competition continues, of course. This is invariably pres ent unless government intrudes and compels purchase of a competitor's goods. Now, is there anything to prevent A from raising his prices sky high (the invariably expressed fear of monopoly) and thus make a financial killing on all the inhabitants of Y? Yes, there is. The deterrent is what we call "invisible competition. " In the market place there are two signals which fly invisi bly above, every place of business. One of these is the flag of price; the other, the flag of quality-service.

Every person interested in going into business or in ex panding existing business is always on the alert for those two 280 - THIS BREAD IS MINE flags. If he observes that the price flag of a given business begins to rise, he watches that business to see when he will be able to break into the business in competition with an advantage to himself. If he sees the flag of quality-service starting to come down the flagstaff, he is similarly motivated. The place where the en trepreneur does not dare intrude is at the place where the price flag is low and the quality-service flag is high. When the reverse occurs, assuming a free market and no government interference, entrance of direct competition is certain. What happens in the village of Y, then, when A's baker does a superb job? One of two things occurs if the market is free. Mr. A continues to keep his price flag low and his quality service flag high, thus showing he recognizes the chance of a real competitor if he does anything else. He is competing against the invisible competitor - the free market man who would be there the minute he slackened his vigilance.

If Mr. A seeks to take advantage of his position by lower ing his quality-service flag or by raising his price flag, or both, PLAN OF ESCAPE - 281 he will find that he is no longer competing against an invisible competitor, for his competition will have become real and tangible. This is the nature of competition in the market place. Only government, with its ability to tax, to padlock, to erect tariff barriers, to provide allocations of scarce materials, to grant exclusive franchises, and in the end to compel payment, can prevent competition from acting in some if not all of its normal ways of acting. We should have no fear of the market place if we fear monopoly. Competition is the natural resident of all free mar kets. Monopoly and special privilege are the prerogatives of governments only. No Harmful Socialism Without Force Socialism in its virulent and harmful compulsive form is totally dependent upon the artificial agency. There could be no socialism in any harmful capacity were it not for the government.

282 - THIS BREAD IS MINE It would appear that the best way to offset the present trend toward socialism would be to acquaint human beings with their own true nature and encourage them to be inde pendent of artificial government to as large a degree as possible. Marxism and Fabianism are impossible devices for at taining the socialist dream unless government force is used. It is useless and worse than futile to attack socialists as in dividual people. Almost all people are attracted to socialism in some degree. The only possible means of avoiding the col lapse of our present civilization under the pressures of socialist parasitism, is through education.