Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1584

Carbon of a letter from Heath to F. A. Harper, The Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY.

August 10, 1956

 

Dear Dr. Harper:

     I must thank you for your letter of July 24th, with its inquiries and your kind and interesting references. I remember the Dewey and Dakin book on cycles from some years ago. I found it interesting as to information but without any suggestion as to fundamental theory, which most interests me. Professor Williams’ book, Free and Unequal, I have obtained from the library but have not yet looked into. And I have asked Dr. Grebe for information how to obtain his articles on science, its frontier and philosophy.

     I owe you a very special thanks for your reference to Professor Donald H. Andrews, Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins. My grandson and I had a most delightful visit with him the day before yesterday. Rarely have I ever met a man with whom I was so favorably impressed and by whom so much entertained. I hope to count him a friend for a very long time. He was kind enough on parting to give me a copy of his article reprinted from Main Currents for May, 1955, entitled, “The Harmonic Dimensions of Nature,” based on “…New Faith in Percep­tion of the Integral Order of Nature.” He has a truly creative mind in which the rational (quantitative and mathematical) and the esthetic (intuitional and inspirational) happily reside, each still retaining its own.

     My remarks on slavery, personal violence and public and private credit were based on general knowledge and observation and not specifically documented. However, the article on Sweden in Britannica, Ninth Edition, makes reference to slaves in ancient Sweden. I quote as follows (page 744):  “Slavery was not unknown in ancient Sweden, but it did not form an important element in social life. The vast majority of the people were free.” This para­llels the condition in England at the time of the Con­quest, which has caused expressions of wonder on the part of Professor Vinogradoff and others, how it was that slaves in Saxon England always seemed to work out of their slavery and into freedom. He does not seem to realize that slavery is uneconomical where the physical conditions impose the necessity of interfunctioning among men. Moreover, under the proprietary mode of public administration which generally prevailed in Saxon England, there was no political sovereignty and, thereby, enforce­ment of pro-slavery laws.

     As to the prevalence of personal violence in the warmer latitudes, it is a matter of general information that absolutism has but little elsewhere prevailed. And the statistics of private crimes involving violence like the statistics involving poverty, are heavily weighted towards the more clement climes. But I have no scholarly references at hand.

     As to the public and private interest rates dimin­ishing from the tropics towards the poles, I made some examination of this a good many years ago, but I drew my information chiefly from the rating of bonds as listed currently by brokerage houses and investment authorities. I had no thought at the time of publication or any perm­anent record. If you would like to look into this again, I think I can get the information from our right-wing friend, Col. Archibald Roosevelt, who conducts a bond brokerage business in Wall Street, also from one of the trust companies, and probably also from one of the chief officers of Dunn & Bradstreet with whom I have had some friendly acquaintance. I do not know of this informa­tion having been published in collected form.

     I want especially to thank you for your reference to John Howland Snow. He is eager to manage the pub­lication of Citadel, Market and Altar for me, and I am favorably inclined. I hope to be able to obtain more information, especially from persons who have had extended dealings with him. Could you help me, confiden­tially, in this direction? I will certainly appreciate it if you can.

     With all personal good wishes to you and all yours,

 

                            Sincerely yours,

 

SH/m