INDEX

Adams, John, 174

Administration, the, defined, 8–9;

control of, 23–25; 155–156

Agora, 12,13

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), 90–91, 104

Agricultural Department, expenditures compared, 118

Aldrich, Nelson W., 114

American Federation of Labor, 127

American Revolution, 5, 20

Andreae, Johann Valentin, 60, 146

An Economic Program for American Democracy, 96

A New Deal, 52

A Planned Society, 51

Athens, Republic of, 12–13

Babeuf, François Noel, 62

The Ludwig von Mises Institute

THE WILD WHEEL

Garet Garrett

PANTHEON BOOKS, NEW YORK

Copyright 1952 by Pantheon Books Inc.
333 Sixth Avenue, New York 14, N. Y.

First Printing
February, 1952

The author and publishers express herewith their thanks to the Free Library, Philadelphia (Automotive Collection), the Ford Motor Company, Dearborn and New York, and Wide World Photos Inc., New York, for kind permission to reproduce photographs from their collections.

LAISSEZ FAIRE was a religion that grew to full size in the American environment and never anywhere else. It was founded on the doctrine of Adam Smith’s unseen hand, the mysterious power of which was to bring it to pass that the individual, freely pursuing his own selfish ends, was nevertheless bound to serve the common good, whether he consciously intended to do so or not, or ever thought about it at all. It was cruel in the way that nature is cruel to weak and marginal things; but it worked.

IT WAS Sunday. We were making up the forms of “The Annalist” in the composing room of the New York Times when Mr. Ochs appeared, threading his way toward us between the turtles. His arms were held a little out, as if he were bearing a load on his chest, and his eyes were wide and staring. By these signs we knew his mind was buzzing. When he spoke it was hardly above a whisper, saying:

“He’s crazy, isn’t he? Don’t you think he has gone crazy?”

FOR the grand mechanics work was play. If it had not been play it would have killed them. They were as men possessed. They often forgot to eat. As they drove the workers, so they drove themselves, only much harder; and machines they drove until the metal ached.

THE jigsaw itself was a little crazy. You may identify the interlocking pieces. They are five, and you may name them as the car, the time, the idea, the method and the man; but when you have fitted them together you find something like a key piece missing. This you may call the X piece. It will turn out to be not a fact but a truth, touching the acorn.

So first the car.