The Honorable Mr. Denton is State Representative from Sullivan County, Blountville, Tennessee.
Manned flight to the moon has brought a rash of statements to the effect, “If we have the knowledge and money to go to the moon, we should also be able to solve man’s problems on earth.” It would seem that we have not yet mastered the laws and principles applicable to earthly economic and social conditions.
The universe is subject to certain natural laws. In the classic sense, scientists discover these natural laws, and engineers apply them to make items man can use. They are said to be natural laws because one can depend on specific results under given conditions. If air is heated in a confined space, its pressure will increase. Sound travels at a certain rate through air, and under the same conditions will travel at the same rate day after day. Otherwise, one would have little use for the horn on his car. Today it would work fine, but tomorrow the sound might not travel fast enough to attract attention. Aluminum transfers heat faster than steel. This will happen today, tomorrow, and every other day. Bodies attract each other in proportion to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to their separation squared. Most people do not question these natural laws.
Natural laws, however, are not confined to the realm of material things as many would suppose. There are numerous natural laws, just waiting to be identified. There are natural laws concerning sociology and economics, and some of them have been found. It is a natural law that the number of poor will not decrease by making poverty easy. It is a natural law that prices will increase if more money is generated. It is a natural law that the demand for an item will affect its price. It is a natural law that labor will be encouraged by letting the laborer keep the fruits of his labor. The free market is self regulating… eminently orderly; that is the first law of economics.
Why are the natural laws of human freedom so much more difficult to accept than are the ones which apply to landing on the moon? In this area of human action and reaction, men continue to behave as though the world were flat. Improvement will come only as we see and understand the need to be free.
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The Individual and Society
Each one of us, as his awareness grows,
Perceives the structure’s vague outlines,
And wonders where he is.
“What level am I on?” you ask,
“How many floors are up and down from here?”
Your fellow occupants are glad to help
And show you many escalators, all marked DOWN.
How easy it is to tour the lower levels,
Being joined by millions in your search!
But going up, where truth and rationality prevail,
How hard that is!
You must run fast, and dodge or push aside
The hordes who bar your way.
And if your energy is equal to the task,
You face the loneliness of those deserted halls.
RICHARD L. ROPIEQUET, President Alta Industries, Inc., Portland, Oregon
