The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 ON RE-READING THE LAW 81to middle management in educationalenterprises. Managers arenever partners in concerns vvhichare without entrepreneurs. Educatorsare men of means, not ofends, and the means at their disposalare collectivism, centraliza,;.tion, and compulsion.Bastiat made a vvild and vvonderfulsuggestion to us: "Let usnow try liberty."Away with the whims of governmentaladministrators, their socializedprojects, their centralization,their tariffs, their governmentschools, their state religions, theirfree credit, their bank monopolies,their regulations, their restrictions,their equalization by taxation, andtheir pious moralizations!In my latest reading of The Lwwthere.emerges a classic frameworkof freedom: the belief in a harmonyin human nature, the knowledgethat individual aspiration ifleft unfettered contributes to thegeneral good, the sober understandingthat man is not God.The story is told that at themoment of Fredric Bastiat's passinghe whispered something. Thesound vvas virtually inaudible, butthe listening. priest thought thevvhisper vvas,. "Truth, truth. "What else could it have been! ~From PRICE CONTROLPERCY L. GREAVES, JR.PRICE control has been often tried.It has been strongly enforced. Yet,it has consistently failed to producethe desired results. Our an-Professor Greaves is now a free-lance economistand lecturer. This article first appeared inChristian Economics, May 20, 1952.cestors learned the follies of papermoney and price control the hardvvay. They learned a lesson vvhichmany present-day Americans seemto have forgotten. Price controlsalmost vviped out our independencein the first years of our existence.