Free Social-ization

Spencer Heath, a venerable gentleman of eighty-one. was known during World War I as the producer of 75 per cent of the airplane propellers used by our government. Prior to that he was chief patent counsel and technical aid to Christopher and Simon Lake, in connection with submarines and early aircraft.  

 

In his busy past his occupa­tions included research engineer, patent attorney and manufac­turer. His present one is that of an author, who has just written “Citadel, Market and Altar” (Science of Society Foundation, 259 pp., $6), which expresses an articulate philosophy of free enterprise and is hailed by many of his readers as “a bible of the free enterprise system.”

 

 This particular bible contains none of the racy tales con­tained in the Old Testament. It is thoughtful and provocative, and is recommended for the reader who will take time to ponder.

 

 The foreword to the book was written by John Chamberlain, author, and member of the ed­itorial staff of “The Wall Street Journal.” He notes that Mr. Heath insists on what should be axiomatic to us in these days of cold war, that ownership is what confers freedom.

 

 “To be a free man,” Mr. Chamberlain says, “one must have the right to a home base, something to stand on without asking any politician’s permis­sion. But there is more to free­dom — and to ownership — than that. One cannot be truly free unless the product of one’s en­ergies can be exchanged for other products in an uncoerced relationship. Free exchange de­pends on contract, and without ownership there can be no con­tract. Ownership, contract and exchange are thus inseparable links of a chain. Since exchange is the social part of economics (as production is personal and physical), ownership and con­tract are  precedents to free social-ization.

 

 Mr. Heath feels that we are in a precarious balance between two contrasting modes of conducting our affairs. One is through political administration. The other is through the voluntary engagements we call free enterprise, in which all parties are doing for others in the manner they wish to be done by.

 

 This is the golden rule of free enterprise, he holds. It has brought us into abundance and into a Land of Promise, yet into the midst of growing dread and fears. For we have practiced this modern creative way of life only in the conduct of our private affairs, not in our public and common business.

 

 It is the author’s purpose to show that our public and common business could be equally as profitable as our private affairs. Mr. Chamberlain comments that his system does not have to be pushed to its logical extreme, but that “great advantages would undoubtedly accrue to everybody, landlord ad renter alike, if a large number of municipal services (now so sloppily and inefficiently rendered) could be brought under the law of the free market.”

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