Self-Reliance
THE GREAT CAUSE for alarm is not that the “planners” want to plan our lives but that we are allowing them to do so. and the most tragic aspect of it all is that so many of us, who should be more far-seeing, are helping them, by scurrying to Washington every time our own “security” in the form of special favors is endangered, every time we ourselves want some “planning”—subsidy—from the government. This country was not built by men who relied on somebody else to take care of them. It was built by men who relied on themselves, who dared to shape their own lives, who had enough courage to blaze new trails—enough confidence in themselves to take the necessary risks. This self-reliance is our American legacy. It is the secret of “that something” which stamped Americans as Americans. Some call it individual initiative; others backbone. But whatever it is called, it is a precious ingredient in our national character-one which we must not lose. The time has come for us to reestablish the rights for which we stand—to reassert our inalienable rights to human dignity, self-respect, self-reliance—to be again the kind of people who once made America great. Such a crusade for renewed independence will require a succession of inspired leaders—leaders in spirit and in knowledge of the problem, not just men with political power who are opposed to communism, or to diluted communism, but men who are militantly for the distinctive way of life that was America. We are likely to find such leaders only among those persons who teach self- reliance and who practice it with the strict devotion of belief and understanding.
—J. Ollie Edmunds
THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.
IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 10533