Ideas on Liberty

BY PERRY E. GRESHAM

H. L. MENCKEN had a law something like Murphy’s Law. Mencken’s Law was “For every complex question there is a simple easy-to-understand wrong answer.” Liberty involves a very complex question. Consequently, there are many wrong answers. The most obvious wrong answer is precipitous political action. The political process deals with power, and power is derived from public opinion. Politicians merely exploit the opinions that people already hold. If the people value and want liberty, then the political approach is possible. The question becomes “How can we interest the public in freedom?” Another wrong answer is that people are persuaded by argument. Political opinion is not turned by logical argument.

A partial right answer is education, but education is more than courses, lectures, libraries, and classes. The education which really makes a difference is individual learning. After fifty years of university teaching, I am convinced that nobody ever taught anybody anything. The truly great teacher is the person who catches the interest of the student and inspires the search for discovery. When the student feels the thrill of the quest for knowledge and discerns the dim outline of a new vision for liberty, then the process of learning is truly realized.

In one of Plato’s dialogues, a student asks Socrates, “Can virtue be taught?” After much exchange of opinion and some cross-questioning, Socrates answers, “No, virtue cannot be taught, but if the gods are gracious, the young may learn virtue.” Liberty cannot be taught, but if God is gracious, the student, the citizen, and the public may learn something of the value, the meaning, and the delights of liberty.

The truly great teachers are those who inspire their students, their colleagues, and the public to discover, learn, understand, and practice liberty.

Books, learned journals, seminars, university courses, public lectures, and opinions of thoughtful leaders have their place in promoting the freedom philosophy. Teachers, however, deserve special recognition for the role they play in starting the process of self-improvement which comes about as one studies and learns something of the meaning of liberty. Teachers can truly make a difference.

From many teachers I know, I have selected three who represent the powerful influence of great teaching. None of the three is still living. They have, in George Eliot’s words, “joined the choir invisible of those immortal dead who live again in lives made better by their presence.” Each one was a frequent contributor to The Freeman, and all were friends of Paul Poirot.

The economic legacy of Ludwig von Mises stands like a tall tower calling the universities of the world to learning and truth; his profound philosophy, his amazing wide-ranging knowledge of economics and human affairs, and his great intellect make him a paragon among those who inspire and teach graduate students and who determine the intellectual destiny of our age.

Benjamin Rogge exemplifies the noble tradition of college classroom teaching along with lecturing to business people, civic clubs, executive seminars, and consultation in the field of economics. Rogge spoke to the young and to the active participants in world economics and world affairs.

Leonard Read was the genial genius who startled the world with his versatility, his charm, his managerial skill, his facile pen, and his ability to inspire everyone who met him, whether it was face to face or from reading his engaging essays on freedom. FEE is the lengthened shadow of Leonard Read, lengthened further by his two teacher friends.

Ludwig Edler von Mises (1881–1973)

The exigencies of that dreadful Second World War caused one of the great Continental scholars and philosophers to leave his secure post as Professor at the University of Vienna and at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. He came to America in 1940. With him came a solid philosophy of human existence which will serve as a touchstone for oncoming generations. He, in conjunction with Friedrich Hayek and Joseph Schumpeter, formed the great triad of Austrian economics in America.

The Mises bibliography is very impressive. The Theory of Money and Credit was published in 1912. Socialism (1922), Liberalismus (1927), NationalOekonomie (1940)—all these were published in Europe before he came to America. They still have readers throughout the Continent.

The world brotherhood of scholarly people made the Mises journey to America much easier. Henry Hazlitt, the famed economist, author, and columnist for Newsweek and The New York Times, had read something of Mises. Hazlitt and his close friend Larry Fertig helped Mises establish himself in New York City. Mises eventually obtained a teaching position at New York University. There he finished out his career as a visiting professor of economics and a lecturer to the great scholars of our time.

In 1949, the most famous of the Mises books, Human Action—A Treatise on Economics, was published by the Yale University Press. FEE subsidized the printing, and—in the pages of The Freeman—Leonard Read and Paul Poirot kept Mises before the public. The book is more than economics; it is an engaging philosophy of life.

Devoted students have much to do with the effectiveness of a teacher. The students of Adam Smith helped to make him famous. The students of Ludwig von Mises have carried the message throughout the land. Israel Kirzner is not only one of his most devoted disciples, but one of his most perceptive critics. Kirzner put together a handsome volume, Method, Process, and Austrian Economics, which is the result of his initiative to honor Mises on the 100th anniversary of his birth, September 29, 1981. This book includes the papers delivered at the C. V. Starr Center for Applied Economics at New York University. Eighteen papers and formal comments from students, colleagues, and critics of Mises constitute an impressive and persuasive collection of ideas in behalf of freedom. Kirzner summed it up when he said, “If we are the fortunate witnesses to a modest Austrian revival, this must certainly be attributed to the powerful influence of Mises’ immensely persuasive teaching and writing.”

Murray Rothbard, a devoted student of Mises, has made a considerable name for himself as a representative of the Austrian School of Economics. Some of the great lecturers at FEE and at other forums of freedom are former students of Professor Mises. They include Hans Sennholz, who has brought renown to Grove City College, and Bettina Bien Greaves, who, with her late husband Percy L. Greaves, Jr., has carried on at FEE the important lessons she learned at the feet of Ludwig von Mises. A beautiful biographical note comes from Margit von Mises, who shared the Mises pilgrimage. My Years With Ludwig von Mises is her moving story of a rare intellectual marriage and companionship.

Ludwig von Mises was denied, throughout his lifetime, the recognition which he deserves. He was not as widely known as a great university professor as he might have been had he taught at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Chicago or any such prestigious university. He was given no world prize, such as the coveted Nobel. He had no organization to lengthen his shadow. He operated in a world climate in which socialism had cast a magic spell over many of the intellectuals. Yet, in his quiet way, he rediscovered the individual in economic thought. He brought America out of the miasma of the fascination with Marxism and the interventionist philosophy of John Maynard Keynes.

Benjamin Arnold Rogge (1920–1980)

I was attending a conference of businessmen, educators, and clergy sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers in Bermuda. One of the speakers was Benjamin Rogge. I was completely enchanted by the clarity of his powerful mind, the delightful surprise of his ready wit, the persuasiveness of his flawless logic, and the easy and articulate quality of his presentation. I forgot all about the beautiful out-of-doors and began to think about the persistent problems of the world economy. The president of NAM wanted to hire Ben Rogge on the spot. He graciously declined. Almost his entire career was invested in teaching at Wabash College.

Later, I shared the platform with Dr. Rogge at FEE seminars and at various business association meetings. We were natural friends from the beginning. We played golf together. Our wives were both fond of dancing and we attended many dances together. We were fellow board members of The Foundation for Economic Education.

I discovered that Ben Rogge had been born on a farm near Trumbull, Nebraska. Many farm boys then did not go to college, but Ben’s teachers saw the promise of his bright mind and encouraged him to attend Hastings College, a college of liberal arts and sciences which had the advantage of offering an opportunity to learn without a great deal of expense and travel. He was such a success at Hastings College that his teachers and colleagues encouraged him to continue graduate study at the University of Nebraska. At the University, a wise and perceptive teacher identified Ben Rogge as a young man of unusual promise. The renowned School of Economics at Northwestern University was an opportunity for the young scholar to become a first-class economist certified by the diploma, Ph.D.

After a little time at the University of Nebraska and at the University of Wisconsin, he settled down at Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he was the very soul of economics at Wabash College. Business leaders from all over the world came to hear his lectures. His students were enthralled and went on to make names for themselves in the great universities. He was political scientist, philosopher, economist, and, for a short while, dean of the faculty. He was urged to become president, but graciously refused. Ben Rogge was a teacher. He would have been successful at administration, but it would not have been his natural talent, and he was shrewd enough to avoid the fearsome responsibilities that devoured some of us who made the mistake of spending years as college presidents.

Dr. Rogge was an early member of the Mont Pelerin Society. It was at a meeting in Switzerland that he met Leonard Read, the Founding President of The Foundation for Economic Education. Read heard Rogge’s opinions on the subject, “Financing Higher Education in the United States.” He was so taken by the young teacher/scholar that they became warm friends. Read incorporated Rogge into his Foundation for Economic Education; in fact, Rogge was practically the official lecturer for that institution.

On important anniversary events, Read always tapped Rogge to do the honors. He did them well and with precision. When he spoke, Adam Smith came to life and his “Natural Liberty” became self-evident.

Ben Rogge enjoyed lecturing and teaching more than writing. His solid book, Can Capitalism Survive?, is a collection of his able and appealing lectures. He narrated the films for “The Adam Smith Bicentennial,” and for “The Incredible Bread Machine.” With John Van Sickle, his Wabash colleague, he wrote an economic textbook which was used in many American colleges.

Rogge, like Mises, based his economic theories on individual responsibility for human action. He wrote,

each man must be free to do what is his duty as he defines it, so long as he does not use force against another. . . . Each man [is] ultimately reponsible for what happens to him. True, he is influenced by his heredity, his environment, his subconscious, and by pure chance. But I insist that precisely what makes man man is his ability to rise above these influences, to change and determine his own destiny. If this be true, then it follows that each of us is terribly and inevitably and forever responsible for everything he does. The answer to the question, “Who’s to blame?” is always, “Mea culpa. I am.”

He went on to underscore the vital connection between economic and noneconomic freedom. According to Rogge, the noneconomic elements in total freedom—freedom of speech, of religion, of the press, and of personal behavior—“are not likely to be long preserved in a society that has denied economic freedom to its individual members.”

Rogge did not harangue people, nor talk down to them. He challenged them to discover, to weigh and to consider. He had the confidence of John Milton that “as long as truth is in the field, we need fear no error.” His life was not long. At sixty a malignancy had done its deadly work, but his influence continues in every one of his students, in all the business people who heard him speak, and in those of us who were his companions in the adventure toward understanding liberty.

Leonard Edward Read (1898–1983)

Some philosophers and savants who write history argue that times of great need bring forth great leaders. The cause of liberty was in such a time when the Second World War ended. The long administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt had introduced America to the interventionist ideas of John Maynard Keynes. F.D.R. surrounded himself with Keynesian leaders. Among them was a popular economist named Stuart Chase, who was beguiled by the vast learning and winning prose of Lord Keynes. Socialism was popular in the United Kingdom, and the ideas came across the Atlantic.

George Santayana, in his book, Character & Opinion in the United States, wrote of the American, “When he has given his neighbour a chance he thinks he has done enough for him; but he feels it is an absolute duty to do that. It will take some hammering to drive a coddling socialism into America.”

That hammering was apparently accomplished during the Depression and World War II. America was in a socialist mood. Planning was the vogue. Social scientists talked of technocracy, whereby a few great brains could manipulate all the rest of us. Laissez faire was a very dirty word used to discredit anyone who believed in the market. The time was ripe for leadership.

Leonard Read, the organizational genius and the charismatic leader of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce talked the problems over with a few people, such as W. C. Mullendore, and broke away from the Chamber to start his own Foundation for Economic Education. Read was a truly great teacher, but unlike Mises and Rogge, he was not the product of the universities. His education, though adequate, was not remarkable. His greatness lay in the fact that he knew how to sense issues, gain perspective on the times, and institute action. His talents were numerous and amazing.

Will Rogers said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” It could be said of Leonard Read that he met no one who didn’t like him. He was so versatile, attractive, genial, and persuasive that the greatest leaders of America were drawn to him. Everywhere he went he inspired people to improve themselves in the study of liberty. Sometimes it would be on an airplane, where he logged a million miles and more; sometimes it would be in a conference; more often in one of his FEE seminars, where he gave that unforgettable lecture, “The Miracle of the Market.” Everyone who met him was somehow involved in liberty.

He was unusual in that he would not argue. He had definite standards. He felt that a human transaction of ideas should involve learning; either he could learn from his interlocutor, or the companion could learn from him. There was no occasion for argument.

He did not try to be profound and learned. He laid hold of a few simple truths and held to them with the determination and strength of a pioneer defending his very life. On the day that I met him in Detroit, he was making a few remarks to the chief executives of the automobile industry. B. E. Hutchinson, financial executive of the Chrysler Corporation, was hosting the party. Present at the meeting were K. T. Keller of Chrysler, C. E. Wilson of General Motors, and Ernest Breech of the Ford Motor Company. Read’s opening remark was, “Here are the three great moguls of the automobile industry, and not one of you knows how to make an automobile!” He went on to explain that nobody can really make anything without the division of labor.

This smashing point was beautifully developed in his little essay, “I, Pencil.” This document alone covered the entire world. One of my academic colleagues who teaches in South Africa told me that it was even translated into Swahili. Milton Friedman made much of it in his popular book, Free To Choose. While Adam Smith gave long discourses on the manufacture of pins to demonstrate the division of labor, Leonard Read took a lead pencil and described it in such a way that no one who read or heard his remarks could ever forget.

I have said that Read attracted people. Some of the world’s great labor leaders met him, heard him, and were inspired. He was particularly effective in winning powerful business executives to the cause of freedom. Even though he did not belong to the Groves of Academe, he was a hero to the mighty among the world’s economists.

Coming to lecture at his foundation were such celebrities as Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, David McCord Wright, Leo Wolman, Henry Hazlitt, Lawrence Fertig, Israel Kirzner, Yale Brozen, and a dozen others.

His appeal to celebrities brought such diverse and remarkable people as Maxwell Anderson, William F. Buckley Jr., Max Eastman, Russell Kirk, David Rockefeller, Henry Wriston, and Ronald Reagan to his cause. These people knew somehow that Leonard Read had gained rare insight into liberty, and they all wished to join in the search for more understanding.

Read wrote more than two dozen books; some of them very remarkable and important, such as The Free Market and Its Enemy, Anything That’s Peaceful, and The Coming Aristocracy. Through his books he managed to convey the same intimate personal appeal that characterized his presence. His great sense of humor shines through the print. His perceptive and selective mind appears in the quality of people from whom he drew quotations.

One would expect a man of this quality to be versatile. He played golf very well and loved it; he won prizes for curling; he was a talented dancer; he was even talented as a gourmet cook!

He was a great conservationist; he loved every creature on this little blue planet. He romped with his dogs, fed the birds, refused to hunt, and even trained a pet skunk!

The change in the mood of America was somewhat influenced by the work of one man who explained that a person need not write, argue, and contend for liberty; but each person could advance the cause by simple self-improvement. My friend, Leroy Garrett, a philosophy teacher who publishes a small paper, wrote, “He never tried to reform others, only himself. Continual self-improvement was his rule, and he never stopped learning. He lived an exuberant life, mainly because he lived in a world of ideas, ideas that enriched and improved his life.” Continued self-improvement was Read’s rule, and he never stopped learning.

Small wonder that when Leonard Read died, pen in hand and still learning, President Ronald Reagan wrote, “Nancy and I send our heartfelt condolences on Leonard Read’s death. We share your sorrow at the loss of a man whose dedication to our cherished principles of liberty burned brightly throughout his life. Our nation and her people have been vastly enriched by his devotion to the cause of freedom, and generations to come will look to Leonard Read for inspiration.”

Legion are the teachers who join in the quest for liberty. These three great teachers I have mentioned are symbols of all teachers everywhere who make this world a freer and better place. It is small wonder that Marcus Aurelius, great stoic philosopher and emperor of Rome, began his book, Meditations, with a tribute to his teachers. Those of us who love liberty join in a tribute to all teachers everywhere who know what it means to be free.

Dr. Perry E. Gresham is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor, Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia.