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

met Leonard Read for the first time-Leonard Read, who was to
play such an important part in Lu's future. I would like Leonard to
tell about this first meeting in his own words:
It was during World War II, about 1943, that I first met Dr. Mises.
As General Manager of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, I
had invited him to address a meeting of our board. Mises outlined, in
his talk, the inevitable path of government intervention. He pointed
out how government regulation leads to problems and misfortunes
its advocates had not anticipated. If they do not realize that the
causes of this mischief rest on the intervention of force by government
in the market, they propose another and still another government
intervention. Each such law [is] enacted in the attempt to cure
the ills caused by the point of view of its proponents, until finally the
only opportunity that still seems open is to take the final steps leading
to a completely controlled economy of the Nazi or Russian type.
It was a pessimistic picture that Mises painted in that lecture. Each
of us in the audience could see a parallel between the theory he
presented and the path our own government was traveling-with its
wartime price and wage controls, priorities in the allotment of raw
materials, rationing of consumer goods, and the like. After the talk,
one of the audience questioned the speaker. "It is a depressing prospect
you have outlined, Dr. Mises. Considering the program our
politicians have adapted and its inevitable disastrous consequences,
what would you do, if by chance, you were made dictator of this
country? What first step would you take, Dr. Mises, if you could do
just exactly as you wished?" Mises' eyes sparkled and quick as a
flash, he replied with a grin, "I would abdicate!"
With this statement Mises endeared himself to me. Here, I realized,
was a truly consistent libertarian, one who really did not believe in
using the power of government to band people to his way of
thinking. #
Lu often wrote me from the West, if only a few words. On the
train near Salt Lake City he wrote on October 15: "Darling, everything
is OK. It is awful to travel alone. I am sorry you are not with
me. I love you. Kisses, Lu." On the eighteenth he wrote: "Darling,
I am through with 3 of my 6 speeches and now I can rest a little. I
was rather disappointed that there was no letter of yours here in
the hotel. ... Why? What does it mean? Tomorrow I have luncheon
with Anderson. I kiss you...." The next day I got only three lines:
"you mean everything to me. Without you there is no sun shining
for me any more...."
He was happy to come home again, and I think the greatest
~From an article, "Ludwig von Mises," by Leonard E. R.ead, written to be translated
into Spanish and published in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April or May,
1959.
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