The Seabee Speaks of Freedom

Statism emerges from a state of mind. When a people seek escape from the demands of self-reliance and release from the standards of self- respect, they will of their own accord submit to a condition of servitude. Indeed, they will vote themselves into the yoke of Communism. And if they are completely possessed by the myth of heaven-on-earth- through-political-action, they will equate Communism, or any other form of statism, with freedom. For the dichotomy “liberty or death” will have ceased to have meaning.

This, in brief, is the motif of nine speeches made by Ben Moreell, currently chairman of the board of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, better known as the Admiral who organized the fabulous Seabees of World War II. The collection, under the title of The Admiral’s Log, is published, significantly, by the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists, Lafayette Building, Philadelphia, Pa. (Cloth, $2.00; paper, $1.00). I say it is significant that this organization should have sponsored the publication because, despite the fact that the Admiral addressed himself to industrialists, the collected speeches turn out to be a textbook on freedom; the students who read it will have spelled out for them the underlying principles of freedom—in economics, in politics and particularly in ethics.

Statism emerges from a state of mind. When a people seek escape from the demands of self-reliance and release from the standards of self- respect, they will of their own accord submit to a condition of servitude. Indeed, they will vote themselves into the yoke of Communism. And if they are completely possessed by the myth of heaven-on-earth- through-political-action, they will equate Communism, or any other form of statism, with freedom. For the dichotomy “liberty or death” will have ceased to have meaning.

This, in brief, is the motif of nine speeches made by Ben Moreell, currently chairman of the board of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, better known as the Admiral who organized the fabulous Seabees of World War II. The collection, under the title of The Admiral’s Log, is published, significantly, by the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists, Lafayette Building, Philadelphia, Pa. (Cloth, $2.00; paper, $1.00). I say it is significant that this organization should have sponsored the publication because, despite the fact that the Admiral addressed himself to industrialists, the collected speeches turn out to be a textbook on freedom; the students who read it will have spelled out for them the underlying principles of freedom—in economics, in politics and particularly in ethics.