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

with his family. In 1964 he founded a college of liberal arts, the
University of Plano, twenty miles north of downtown Dallas.
Since the buildings had not been completed, the first semester was
conducted in Dallas. Bob Morris asked Lu to come to Dallas for
some guest lectures, which would mark the beginning of a course
on economics and which could then-on Lu's recommendationbe
continued by Percy Greaves. The first year, 1965, Lu gave two
lectures. I looked through the few little notes he had made. In the
first lecture he spoke about the origins of capitalism, the conflict
between private and public ownership of the factors of production,
and about underdeveloped countries. In the second lecture he
told the students how the system works and what it means to have
a capital shortage. He also spoke about the danger of inflation, and
one of his notes reads: "The Croesus of the past-the common man
today."
As usual this lecture was followed by a question period, and Lu
kept the written questions of the young students. Some of them are
interesting: How would the world be made safe for foreign investments
in view of the socialist governments of most underdeveloped
countries? Do you think that there is a possibility of economic
collapse in this country as bad as the crash in 1929? How
clearly Lu must have shown them (in 1965) the dangers of
inflation!
We returned to Plano in 1966, 1967, and 1969. Sometimes Percy
Greaves came with us, sometimes he arrived later, but he always
continued the course.
One day I called Lu's attention to a little story in a magazine,
which reported that so many call girls nowadays are college girls.
"It lifts their profession," remarked Lu, "but it will degrade the
colleges."
Once Lu told me about a professor who, during his lectures,
always looked at one and the same person. Asked why he did this,
he answered, "Before I start my lecture, I look for the face that
seems to me the least intelligent. When I see a glimpse of understanding
and interest in this face, I know I am presenting my
subject in the right way."
Over the years Lu was recognized and honored in many ways.
Austria, the country he had loved so deeply that he never could
shrug off or forget the stabs and bruises he had received, Austria,
the land of his birth, in 1956 sent him through the dean of the
University of Vienna's faculty of law and political science a parchment
renewing his doctorate of 1906. This was, according to the
dean's letter, a special honor, given only to the most meritorious of
Austrian doctoral recipients:
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