The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 THE BEWILDERED SOCIETY 637Turning to GovernmentInstead of trying to solve theirproblems by voluntary associationand individual ingenuity, however,the American people allowed themselvesto be seduced by the ideathat Big Government could beutilized to control and regulateBig Business in such a way thatthe little competitor would have achance. For a time, "trust-busting"beguiled the common man. Butthe Populists, the Mugwumps andthe Progressives discovered totheir chagrin that business had anuncanny way of dominating thevery State machinery that wassupposed to give protection to the"public" or to the "consumer."Theodore Roosevelt tried to distinguishbetween "good" and"bad" trusts and wound up in thearms of George Perkins of theHouse of Morgan. To fight WorldWar I, Woodrow Wilson had tocall Bernard Baruch and otherWall Street tycoons to Washingtonto head up the war productionagencies. The bankers soon learnedhow to make use of governmentcreatedpaper to enrich themselves.As Dr. Roche tells the story,"reform" could not stay the processesthat led to ever greater "enmassment."The New Deal attemptsto save the small farmerended by giving superior help tothe big farmer, who used the universalizedbenefits of the AAA tobuy machinery that his little competitorcould not afford. Insteadof halting the movement to thecentral city, our "progressive"agriculture reforms hastened it.Wartime InterventionsTwo big wars and a couple ofsmall ones .completed the centralizingprocess. Education wasforced into line when the government,in order to fight the wars,had to subsidize the universitiesto provide research and developmentfor the so-called militaryindustrialcomplex.In spite of everything, Dr.Roche has not lost his nerve orhis sense of proportion. His historicalchapters are enough tomake anybody a pessimist, but, ina sudden right-about-face, ourhitherto gloomy analyst discoversthat only some "twenty-five percent of all goods and services areproduced by the 500 largest industrials."Controverting ProfessorGalbraith, Dr. Roche says thismust mean that "seventy-five percent of our goods and services arenot produced by 'the technostructure.'" Continuing his explorationof the factors that are currentlyworking to halt the processes of"enmassment," .Dr. Roche notesthat the big producers need thesmall producers just as much asthe small businessman needs the