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

offered him a chair. That Dean Collins was a great friend and
protector of Lu's from the first day of their meeting was clear. So
was Dr. Dorau. But the attitude of the other professors was cool.
They were very, very respectful, but Lu was not a man of their
kind. He was a stranger to them. I saw this with my own eyes.
Often I came to see him in his office-he later had a secretary and
an assistant-and I noted the respect with which his colleagues
treated him-but also the lack of personal warmth.
One of the few exceptions was Professor Lewis H. Haney, who
once asked Lu to read the first chapter of his forthcoming book,
History of Economic Thought, and "do me the great favor of making
a critical examination of the chapter," which Lu, of course,
did.
Lu's courses at NYU were sometimes very exciting. One of his
former students, whose wish to remain anonymous I have to respect,
told me: "Four or five students had formed a group in order
to protect the professor against dissident students who opposed his
views. They occupied a table ahead of the class next to the professor
in order to be ready to protect him against any possible violence.
But actually it never came that far."
This was not the only change brought about in 1945. That year,
Lu's official connection with the National Bureau of Economic
Research came to an end, though Lu -always remained on friendly
terms with the NBER. This is part of a letter from William J.
Carson of the NBER: "The National Bureau has been glad to extend
its hospitality to you, and to have contributed in this way to
carry forward your studies of the economic factors and policies
involved in the European crisis. When you are in the vicinity of
the National Bureau at 1919 Broadway or at Hillside I hope you
will always feel free t().st0I.:?~li!flPd.see us. Indeed, we hope you
will make every effort to call when you can."
Also in 1945, Leonard Read left California for New York to
become vice president of the National Industrial Conference
Board. Read's purpose in coming east was to spread the libertarian
ideas which he was convinced were the only means to keep America
and the world going. He only stayed with the Conference
Board for a year. He soon discovered that the flow of ideas for
individual liberty was restricted by the influence of labor union
leaders. So some close friends, including Howard Pew, B.E.
Hutchinson, a vice president of the Chrysler Corporation, and
H.W. Luhnow, president of the Volker Fund, got together and
decided to establish their own institution to spread libertarian
ideas. They bought a beautiful estate in Irvington, New York,
where in 1946 Leonard Read established the Foundation for Economic
Education (FEE) and became its president.
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