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400 lines
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IS THIS AN UNTAMPERED FILE?
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This ASCII-file version of Imprimis, On Line was packaged by
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Imprimis, On Line -- June 1992
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Imprimis, meaning "in the first place," is a free monthly
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publication of Hillsdale College (circulation 375,000
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worldwide). Hillsdale College is a liberal arts institution
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known for its defense of free market principles and Western
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culture and its nearly 150-year refusal to accept federal
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funds. Imprimis publishes lectures by such well-known
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figures as Ronald Reagan, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Tom Wolfe,
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Charlton Heston, and many more. Permission to reprint is
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hereby granted, provided credit is given to Hillsdale
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College. Copyright 1992. For more information on free print
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subscriptions or back issues, call 1-800-437-2268, or 1-517-
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439-1524, ext. 2319.
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------------------------------
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"I, Pencil"
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by Leonard E. Read, Founder,
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Foundation for Economic Education
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------------------------------
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Volume 21, Number 6
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Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
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June 1992
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------------------------------
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Preview: Nearly 10 years ago Imprimis featured a
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reprint of a 1958 essay called, simply, "I Pencil." We
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continue to believe that it is one of the finest defenses of
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the free market ever written and have reprinted it again
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here.
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It is an essay that invites wonder. Wonder at the
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countless bits of human knowledge and raw materials
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spontaneously organized by our global market economy in the
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making of an ordinary wooden pencil. Wonder at what one
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individual can achieve for millions of his fellow men
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through a lifetime of dedication to principle. And wonder,
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most of all, at the everyday miracles made possible by a
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political and economic system that dares to have faith in
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free men.
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------------------------------
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I am a lead pencil--the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to
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all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. (My
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official name is "Mongol 482." My many ingredients are
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assembled, fabricated and finished by Eberhard Faber Pencil
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Company, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.)
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Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that's
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all I do.
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You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to
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begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a
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mystery--more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of
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lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who
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use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background.
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This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the
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commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in
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which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, as
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a wise man, G. K. Chesterton, observed, "We are perishing
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for want of wonder, not for want of wonders."
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I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your
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wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact,
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if you can understand me--no, that's too much to ask of
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anyone--if you can become aware of the miraculousness that I
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symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so
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unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I
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can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an
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airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because--well, because I
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am seemingly so simple.
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Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this
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earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn't
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it? Especially when you realize that there are about one and
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one-half billion of my kind produced in the U.S. each year.
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Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much
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meets the eye--there's some wood, lacquer, the printed
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labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.
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Innumerable Antecedents
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Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, so
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is it impossible for me to name and explain all my
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antecedents. But I would like to suggest enough of them to
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impress upon you the richness and complexity of my
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background.
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My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a
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cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California
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and Oregon. Now contemplate all the saws and trucks and rope
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and the countless other gear used in harvesting and carting
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the cedar logs to the railroad siding. Think of all the
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persons and the numberless skills that went into their
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fabrication: the mining of ore, the making of steel and its
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refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing of hemp and
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bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope;
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the logging camps with their beds and mess halls, the
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cookery and the raising of all the foods. Why, untold
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thousands of persons had a hand in every cup of coffee the
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loggers drink!
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The logs are shipped to a mill in San Leandro,
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California. Can you imagine the individuals who make flat
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cars and rails and railroad engines and who construct and
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install the communication systems incidental thereto? These
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legions are among my antecedents.
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Consider the millwork in San Leandro. The cedar logs
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are cut into small, pencil-length slats less than one-fourth
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of an inch in thickness. These are kiln-dried and then
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tinted for the same reason women put rouge on their faces.
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People prefer that I look pretty, not a pallid white. The
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slats are waxed and kiln dried again. How many skills went
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into the making of the tint and kilns, into supplying the
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heat, the light and power, the belts, motors, and all the
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other things a mill requires? Are sweepers in the mill among
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my ancestors? Yes, and also included are the men who poured
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the concrete for the dam of a Pacific Gas & Electric Company
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hydroplant which supplies the mill's power. And don't
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overlook the ancestors present and distant who have a hand
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in transporting sixty carloads of slats across the nation
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from California to Wilkes-Barre.
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Complicated Machinery
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Once in the pencil factory--$4,000,000 in machinery and
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building, all capital accumulated by thrifty and saving
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parents of mine--each slat is given eight grooves by a
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complex machine, after which another machine lays leads in
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every other slat, applies glue, and places another slat
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atop--a lead sandwich, so to speak. Seven brothers and I are
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mechanically carved from this "wood-clinched" sandwich.
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My "lead" itself--it contains no lead at all--is
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complex. The graphite is mined in Ceylon. Consider the
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miners and those who make their many tools and the makers of
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the paper sacks in which the graphite is shipped and those
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who make the string that ties the sacks and those who put
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them aboard ships and those who make the ships. Even the
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lighthouse keepers along the way assisted in my birth--and
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the harbor pilots.
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The graphite is mixed with clay from Mississippi in
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which ammonium hydroxide is used in the refining process.
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Then wetting agents are added such as sulfonated tallow--
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animal fats chemically reacted with sulfuric acid. After
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passing through numerous machines, the mixture finally
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appears as endless extrusions--as from a sausage grinder--
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cut to size, dried, and baked for several hours at 1,850
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degrees Fahrenheit. To increase their strength and
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smoothness the leads are then treated with a hot mixture
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which includes candililla wax from Mexico, paraffin wax and
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hydrogenated natural fats.
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My cedar receives six coats of lacquer. Do you know all
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of the ingredients of lacquer? Who would think that the
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growers of castor beans and the refiners of castor oil are a
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part of it? They are. Why, even the processes by which the
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lacquer is made a beautiful yellow involves the skills of
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more persons than one can enumerate!
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Observe the labeling. That's a film formed by applying
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heat to carbon black mixed with resins. How do you make
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resins and what, pray, is carbon black?
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My bit of metal--the ferrule--is brass. Think of all
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the persons who mine zinc and copper and those who have the
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skills to make shiny sheet brass from these products of
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nature. Those black rings on my ferrule are black nickel.
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What is black nickel and how is it applied? The complete
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story of why the center of my ferrule has no black nickel on
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it would take pages to explain.
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Then there's my crowning glory, inelegantly referred to
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in the trade as "the plug," the part man uses to erase the
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errors he makes with me. An ingredient called "factice" is
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what does the erasing. It is a rubber-like product made by
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reacting rape seed oil from the Dutch East Indies with
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sulfur chloride. Rubber, contrary to the common notion, is
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only for binding purposes. Then, too, there are numerous
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vulcanizing and accelerating agents. The pumice comes from
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Italy; and the pigment which gives "the plug" its color is
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cadmium sulfide.
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Vast Web of Know-How
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Does anyone wish to challenge my earlier assertion that no
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single person on the face of this earth knows how to make
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me?
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Actually, millions of human beings have had a hand in
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my creation, no one of whom even knows more than a very few
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of the others. Now, you may say that I go too far in
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relating the picker of a coffee berry in far-off Brazil and
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food growers elsewhere to my creation; that this is an
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extreme position. I shall stand by my claim. There isn't a
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single person in all these millions, including the president
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of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny,
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infinitesimal bit of know-how. From the standpoint of know-
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how the only difference between the miner of graphite in
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Ceylon and the logger in Oregon is in the type of know-how.
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Neither the miner nor the logger can be dispensed with, any
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more than the chemist at the factory or the worker in the
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oil field--paraffin being a by-product of petroleum.
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Here is an astounding fact: Neither the worker in the
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oil field nor the chemist nor the digger of graphite or clay
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nor anyone who mans or makes the ships or trains or trucks
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nor the one who runs the machine that does the knurling on
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my bit of metal nor the president of the company performs
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his singular task because he wants me. Each one wants me
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less, perhaps, than does a child in the first grade. Indeed,
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there are some among this vast multitude who never saw a
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pencil nor would they know how to use one. Their motivation
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is other than me. Perhaps it is something like this: Each of
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these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-
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how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or
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may not be among these items.
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No Human Master-Mind
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There is a fact still more astounding: The absence of a
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master-mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these
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countless actions that bring me into being. No trace of such
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a person can be found. Instead, we find the Scottish
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economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith's famous
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"Invisible Hand" at work in the marketplace. This is the
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mystery to which I earlier referred.
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It has been said that "only God can make a tree." Why
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do we agree with this? Isn't it because we realize that we
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ourselves could not make one? Indeed, can we even describe a
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tree? We cannot, except in superficial terms. We can say,
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for instance, that a certain molecular configuration
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manifests itself as a tree. But what mind is there among men
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that could even record, let alone direct, the constant
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changes in molecules that transpire in the life span of a
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tree? Such a feat is utterly unthinkable!
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I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles; a
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tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these
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miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more
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extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of
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creative human energies--millions of tiny bits of know-how
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configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to
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human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human
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necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-
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minding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only
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God could make me. Man can no more direct millions of bits
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of know-how so as to bring a pencil into being than he can
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put molecules together to create a tree.
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That's what I meant when I wrote earlier, "If you can
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become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you
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can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing."
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For, if one is aware that these bits of know-how will
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naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into
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creative and productive patterns in response to human
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necessity and demand--that is, in the absence of
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governmental or any other coercive master-minding--then one
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will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom:
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a faith in free men. Freedom is impossible without this
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faith.
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Once government has had a monopoly on a creative
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activity--the delivery of the mail, for instance--most
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individuals will believe that the mail could not be
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efficiently delivered by men acting freely. And here is the
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reason: Each one acknowledges that he himself doesn't know
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how to do all the things involved in mail delivery. He also
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recognizes that no other individual could. These assumptions
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are correct. No individual possesses enough know-how to
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perform a nation's mail delivery any more than any
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individual possesses enough know-how to make a pencil. In
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the absence of a faith in free men--unaware that millions of
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tiny kinds of know-how would naturally and miraculously form
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and cooperate to satisfy this necessity--the individual
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cannot help but reach the erroneous conclusion that the mail
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can be delivered only by governmental master-minding.
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Testimony Galore
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If I, Pencil, were the only item that could offer testimony
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on what men can accomplish when free to try, then those with
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little faith would have a fair case. However, there is
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testimony galore; it's all about us on every hand. Mail
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delivery is exceedingly simple when compared, for instance,
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to the making of an automobile or a calculating machine or a
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grain combine or a milling machine, or to tens of thousands
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of other things.
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Delivery? Why, in this age where men have been left
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free to try, they deliver the human voice around the world
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in less than one second; they deliver an event visually and
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in motion to any person's home when it is happening; they
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deliver 150 passengers from Seattle to Baltimore in less
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than four hours; they deliver gas from Texas to one's range
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or furnace in New York at unbelievably low rates and without
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subsidy; they deliver each four pounds of oil from the
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Persian Gulf to our Eastern Seaboard--halfway around the
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world--for less money than the government charges for
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delivering a one-ounce letter across the street! (Ed.: Some
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things have changed since this essay ran in 1958 and 1983!)
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Leave Men Free
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The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative
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energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in
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harmony with this lesson. Let society's legal apparatus
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remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit creative know-
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how to freely flow. Have faith that free men will respond to
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the "Invisible Hand." This faith will be confirmed. I,
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Pencil, seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of
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my creation as testimony that this is a practical faith, as
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practical as the sun, the rain, a cedar tree, and the good
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earth.
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------------------------------
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Remembering Leonard Read, Warren Brookes and F. A. Hayes"
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by George Roche
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"All of the darkness in the world," Leonard Read once told
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me, "cannot overcome the light shed by a single candle." His
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great passion was to feed the flame of economic opportunity,
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political freedom and moral responsibility. In his essay "I,
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Pencil," reprinted in this issue, he did so with marvelous
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distinction. Two men who shared Leonard Read's passion
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passed away recently: Detroit News syndicated column-ist
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Warren Brookes (1929-1991) and Nobel economist F. A. Hayek
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(1899-1992).
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Brookes wrote hundreds of newspaper articles as well as
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special features for Forbes, Reader's Digest, the Wall
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Street Journal and National Review. His 1982 book, The
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Economy in Mind, is an enduring statement of one fundamental
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principle: that the wealth of nations lies not in material
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resources but in the minds and hearts of free men. Hayek was
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best known for his own 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom, which
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warned that socialism was a dangerous illusion (later he
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would call it, memorably, "the fatal conceit," in his final
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book). Socialism, according to Hayek, promised equality
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among men, but it delivered equality of servitude--to the
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state.
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Leonard Read, Warren Brookes and F. A. Hayek--all long-
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time friends of Hills-dale whose work appeared in Impri-mis
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and the Hillsdale College Press many times over the last two
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decades--were truly champions of liberty. As the preview to
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this issue points out, they dared to put their faith in free
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men--and they challenge us to do the same.
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###
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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End of this issue of Imprimis, On Line; Information
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about the electronic publisher, Applied Foresight,
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Inc., is in the file, IMPR_BY.TXT
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