For a Moral Revolution
Almost everywhere politicians and “do-gooders,” by camouflaging ill-considered or bad enactments as welfare or defense measures, are enticing their peoples down the path of dalliance into systems of state interventionism. They are leading them to eventual destruction. They are concentrating power in Washington under a bureaucracy already expanded beyond manageable dimensions and which increasingly resorts to uncontrolled extravagance and extravagant controls. They are murdering the nation. Can there be greater treason? Too many laws create confusion, unwise laws corruption. Together they nurture absolutism and criminality. There are, for example, many enterprises which could not operate profitably were they to obey, to the letter, a complexity of laws and regulations, which sometimes almost seem to have been enacted with malice aforethought. As a result, these businessmen are easy prey for gangsters and crooked officials, both high and low, who exact tribute for what they call “protection.” In these cases the quickest prophylactic would be to do away with the unwise laws and regulations. Jefferson once remarked that a revolution every so often is a good thing. This country desperately needs a moral revolution right now. I pray that it comes soon, before it is too late. I pray that it will be brought on by an outraged public opinion, resulting from each individual reassuming his personal responsibilities and then joining with others to make their voices heard. Such a revolution will return the United States to morality and straight thinking, and thereby resolve the crisis which now confronts us.
—Spruille Braden
THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.
IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 10533