The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-03-08

upon freedom of the press?
I grant you it is possible to
try Mr.. Schlesinger's democratic
socislism if any party in power
can seize the means of prOduc-
ton. But there are many inner
ent reasons why even if it were
possible. the implied question,
rs it preferable to the enter
prise SyStem? should be can
SWered in a reSOmding mega
tive. What governmental eco
nOmic function do you know
that is performed today that is
hot an Infringement of freedom
and that is performed with dis
patch and efficiency? The Brit
ish. after their government had
seized the ownership of the steel
mills in the 1905, returned
them to private ownership and
private management because
this sinew of national power was
hopelessly throttled in :nefflci-
ency in the government bu-
reaucracy.
What freedom would we have
if the government owned all the
means of production and told
me I could not be a banker even
though am in the banking
business because love it?
What reason would you have to
think that the government would
not tell you you could not be a
school principal but must work
in an automobile factory?
Thirdly, the author says,
g. it tthe transition must be
parliamentary; it must respect
civil liberties and due process
of law :" All, how the form
can be made to seem like the
substance! Did the Founding
Fathers prepare the three
branches OF the government for
purely capricious reasons? OF
course not. They knew it would
be cumbersome, but they trust
ed no man and no group of men
with the sum total of power
including economic power-over
them. Where in history can we
find that socialism has in two
and a half centuries brought
nation to such power as America
has today and its total people
to the benefits the American to-
day enjoys? And I submit that
socialism in which the state is
the total economic power is an
infringement on human liberties
not to be countenanced by free
and literate men.
This intellectual bombardment
is subtle in its appeal to both
the humane trait of the big
heart, lie, we want to see no
human suffer in a business de-
preston, and the more obvious
trait Of greed for greater power,
l.e., ever bigger government.
This thinking of Mr.. Schlesln-
gers might be termed orbital
thinking. I happily join in the
thirst for knowledge of the uni
verse, the exploration Of The
physical sciences. and the specu-
latlon of man in his philosophi-
cal musings. But where we are
dealing with the history of man
kind, where We are dealing with
lngralned human traits, l take
my stand on the side of rooted
thinking which appreciates that
the tree, of course, does grow
and changes as it thrusts itself
into the sun of time. l a1preci-
ate that the limbs can be cut
off and the top of the tree can
be shaped and that man does
have capacity to control and
form his institutions, bu. man is
indeed small in the womb of his
tory, and he is always rooted in
his nature and his past.
You have rightly concluded
that 1 feel this insidious line of
thought can be combated only
through education in economics
and that economies is the out
growth of history and human
nature. that economics has no
meaning that will hold true I'M
less always related to the his
tory of mans efforts - his sue
cesses and his failures - and
the knowledge of mans nature
his greed for money and his
greed for power. And let it new
er be forgotten that the greed
for money and the greed for
power are the same whether
they come to light in the enter
prise system or whether they
are hidden under the canopy of
vast government bureaucracy
swollen so that the eyes can
hardly perceive socialism in all
its grandeur. You can throw
the raScals our" when rascality
is revealed in the enterprise sys-
tenn. The infection that comes
with rascality is limited in the.
enterprise system. 1t is not at
all pervasive. It is the devil to
throw the rascals out of gov
eminent. Look at Massachusetts.
Look at New York City. The in
lection from rascality is per-
vasive in direct proportion to