May 1945 – Safeguarding Free Enterprise: Reflecting on Freedom Amid Wartime Controls

People who read this publication are Americans and businessmen. As such they believe in the system of free enterprise upon which this country was founded and on which it has progressed for nearly 170 years. The weakest spot in our armor, however, seems to be the universal habit of taking our freedom and our progress for granted. 

It is not often that we stop to think of the comparative ease with which we conduct our daily affairs until we are confronted with government restrictions such as those we have today. Since our entry into the war we have readily accepted many of these regulations as part of our patriotic duty, but how many of us realize that they may become something more than temporary emergency measures? That they may even become peacetime shackles? 

The recently published book, “The Road to Serfdom” by Friedrich A. Hayek, world famous economist, has compelled the attention of thousands of thinking Americans. The editors of Reader’s Digest, probably the most widely read magazine in the country, signified its importance by publishing a condensation* as the lead article in their April issue. 

To quote Professor Hayek, “Individual freedom cannot be reconciled with the supremacy of one single purpose to which the whole society must be entirely and permanently subordinated. The only exception to the rule that a free society must not be subjected to a single purpose is war and other temporary disasters when subordination of almost everything to the immediate and pressing need is the price at which we preserve our freedom in the long run.” 

We particularly recommend this book to every business man whose inclination is to “let George do it” when it comes to thinking about planned economy or any other form of collectivism. It covers the fundamental questions of our time.