Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1627

Carbon of a letter from Heath to V. Orval Watts, Altadena, California.

July 15, 1957

 

 

Dear Dr. Watts:

 

     I am exceedingly pleased at the contents of your letter of June 29^th, and the more so that you are reading my Citadel, Market and Altar and making stimulating and constructive comments on it.

 

     It is my belief that the democracy of the market is the only true democracy and is the fundamental freedom on which all other freedom in society depends. I am in substantial agreement with you that the same definition covers both freedom and democracy.

 

     I stand corrected in your fourth paragraph for having given grounds to infer that services other than by the administration of property are not included under the term “economics.” This, as you very properly surmise, was an oversight on my part. I am amending this definition to include all services for recompense as well as administrative services for profit.

 

     I was very happy only yesterday to receive a letter from Leonard Read commenting enthusiastically upon my “The Practice of Christian Freedom,” which I read at the Annual Meeting of the Christian Freedom Foundation, the first of May. I think I sent you a copy of this, but am not sure; so I am enclosing another. I am happy to be in personal contact with Dr. Kershner and his associates from time to time, as well as with the personnel at the Foundation for Economic Educa­tion in Irvington. They seem at present to be somewhat divided in their fundamental attitude towards taxation. Dr. Harper, with whom I am on very friendly terms, seems to think it cannot be defended on principle and that there must be some manner in which it can be outgrown. Dr. Sylvester Petro, of New York University, holds much the same view. I am very much in hopes that Citadel, Market and Altar can be a great aid in resolving this matter.

 

     Now for the most important contents of your letter. I refer to the twenty-seven-page report, “When Will Prices Stop Rising?” I have read and re-read this with great admiration. It is the clearest and most dispassionate presentation of the fiscal quagmire caused by government intervention that I have ever seen. It presents the historical background, showing how we got that way, and then it shows without any undue emotion just what a bad way it is that we are in. I think your exposition of the whole matter is precisely what businessmen, and especially businessmen concerned with finance, most need. I hope the Southern California Edison Company will have it reproduced and give it wide circulation. I think also it would make a wonderful article for The Freeman Magazine. If your book as a whole lives up to this sample — as I dare say it will — it is going to have a very great influence in the world of private and public finance.

 

     It was very kind of you to send this to me in advance, and I hope it will not be amiss if I allow two friends in New York privately to read it, one of them being the head of a Wall Street investment house and the other an officer of the U. S. Trust Company.

 

     With many best wishes,

                            Cordially yours,

 

 

                             

                              Spencer Heath

 

SH/m

Encl: “The Practice of Christian Freedom.”

 

P.S. While my grandson and I were guests at The Foundation for Economic Education in attendance at their recent Seminar, we were told that they are looking about for a good article on the money system. It seems to me your article, and possibly also your book, is just about what they are looking for.