The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

146 THE FREEMAN MarchAggravated by SympathyThe expressions of sympathythat came from the privilegedclass itself only aggravated thesituation:The very men who had most tofear from the fury of the people declaimedloudly in their presence onthe cruel injustice under which thepeople had always suffered. Theypointed out to each other the monstrousvices of those institutionswhich had weighed most heavilyupon the lower orders: they employedall their powers of rhetoricin depicting the miseries of the commonpeople and their ill-paid labor;and thus they infuriated while theyendeavored to relieve them. 7Tocqueville went on to quote atlength from the mutual recrimi-7 Ibid., pp. 329-330.nations of the king, the nobles,and the parliament in blamingeach other for the wrongs of thepeople. To read them now is to get.the uncanny feeling that they areplagiarizing the rhetoric of thelimousine liberals of our own day.All this does not mean that weshould refrain from taking anymeasure truly calculated to relievehardship and reduce poverty.What it does mean is that weshould never take governmentalmeasures merely for the purposeof trying to assuage the enviousor appease the agitators, or to buyoff a revolution. Such measures,betraying weakness and a guiltyconscience, only lead to more farreachingand even ruinous demands.A government that payssocial blackmail will precipitate thevery consequences that it fears. ~IDEAS ONLIBERTYThe "Law of Sympathy"BUT AID and sympathy must operate in the field of private andpersonal relationships under the regulation of reason and conscience.If men trust to the State to supply "reason and conscience,"they so deaden themselves that the "law of sympathy"ceases to operate anywhere. Men who shrug off their personalobligations become hard and unfeeling, and it is small wonderthen that they are entirely willing to go along with hard andunfeeling politics. It is when he decides to "let the State do it" thatthe humanitarian ends up by condoning the use of the guillotinefor the "betterment" of man.FROM JOHN CHAMBERLAIN'S REVIEW OF SUMNER'SWhat Social Classes Owe to Each Other,September 1955 issue of Ideas on Liberty.