My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

He was working with the Air Force on problems specific to flying.
He traveled five or six hours every Thursday to attend Lu's seminar,
even when the roads were icy and dangerous. He never missed
an evening.
A good friend of mine is Phebes Tan, a very gifted, beautiful
young Philippine woman, who wrote her doctoral dissertation
with Lu and later married Edward Facey, another student of Lu's.
Now they are both teaching at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
Another participant in the seminar was William Peterson, who
for some time was professor of economics at NYU and is now
teaching at the American Graduate School of International Management
in Glendale, Arizona. His wife, Mary, a very gifted,
charming woman, also attended frequently. She later became wellknown
through her book reviews in the Wall StreetJournal.
Once, in June, 1955, the Petersons brought their children to a
seminar arranged by the Foundation for Economic Education and
conducted by Lu at Buckhill Falls Inn in the Poconos. The seminar
was held in a special building on the beautiful grounds of the
hotel. The conference room was large, with a long oval table. I took
my place, as usual, somewhere in the back. The first day of the
meeting Lu spoke about the gold standard. Mary also sat in the
back with her two children. According to the lecture notes of Bettina
Bien-Greaves, during his speech Lu said:
There will be one day a period of history in which the government
will leave the butter price as it is and people will be in a position to
eat butter at the lowest possible price. This little girl, sitting so
quietly in the back of the room, who is listening without too much
interest to what we are saying, will perhaps live in a world where the
butter price will be left to the free market. But this will certainly not
happen if we. don't study these problems and if we don't tell the
result of our thinking about these problems to the people.
This clearly shows that Lu had noticed the children.
The next day, Mary sat down at the table between her two children,
directly opposite Lu. I was flabbergasted. I could not imag-'
ine these small children staying quiet for two hours. I was afraid
they would disturb Lu. But Mary knew what she was doing. She
had given them books and drawings, and the children behaved as
if they were glued to their chairs, turning the pages of their books,
glancing at pictures, drawing, never looking up. Only towards the
end· of the lecture did they get restless, fidgeting about on their
chairs, pulling at their mother's sleeves, whispering into her ears.
Lu had hardly spoken the l(fst word when Mary jumped up and
rushed out of the room, holding a child at each hand, looking
neither right nor left!
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