The Workman Still is Greater Than His Work

Henry J. Foley

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, January-February 1939]

There must be some reason why, of all the works of God and man, human society is the only one which is apparently incomprehensible, unworkable and unsolvable. The planets have moved in their orbits for millions of years with perfect regularity, plants and animals develop into symmetry and beauty, and individual man stands at the summit of creation, "the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals." But the greatest work of man, society, is another name for chaos.

These lords of creation, on an earth which is a storehouse of riches, and equipped with all strength and wisdom to turn these natural riches to the satisfaction of every desire, stand more helpless than a tethered animal, more helpless than the trees of the forest, and die of hunger or live in wretchedness on "charity" and doles. But this helplessness comes only with the development of society. Perhaps the reason for this chaos in society is that society has been organized upon a principle which is absurd, and therefore incomprehensible and unworkable.

As the Declaration of Independence recites, and as common sense perceives, "governments were instituted among men," that is, instituted by men. Governments are the work of men, men are the workmen, the makers of governments, and "The Workman Still is Greater than His Work."

By what distortion of human intelligence can we now build a society on the principle that government is the master, that the province of government is to direct human activity, and that human activities may be carried on only subject to the approval of government? When men create governments and then endow them with power to direct the activities of men, they have created a Frankenstein monster which can only drive men to destruction. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Governments were made by men, for the uses of men. Men were not created for governments, to be the puppets of government.

The doctrine that the work is greater than the work- man, that governments were instituted to control the lives of men, is as ancient, as honorable, and as absurd, as the doctrines that the earth is flat. No man can serve two masters, and one must be supreme. Either man is the lord of creation and government is his work and his servant, or government is supreme and men's province is only to be ruled.

Men who have turned over to government the direction of their lives can have no reasonable grounds to object to any form which that direction may take. They must willingly accept the mode of life laid down by their government, whether it be fascist, communistic, or nazi. If government wisdom must direct the economic lives of men, how much more important that government direct men rightly in the matter of religion and in the realm of thought.

A government which has been given power to bar its citizens from the natural resources of the earth and from a place to work, a government which, in consequence, must either watch its citizens starve, or institute a system which directs every act of employer and employee, must end in a totalitarian state which controls the thought and the religion of its "subjects."

The justification for government interference with personal freedom is the helplessness of the poor, and the poor are helpless because government has sanctioned the appropriation and the control of the earth's resources by individuals. Populations are barred from any chance to employ their labor, their labor is "dumped," and government can save them only by interfering with employers. This is a vicious circle which will never be broken except by throwing open the natural resources of the earth on equal terms to all. A government which would rent the lands, the patrimony of all the citizens, on equal terms to all, would collect such ample rents that it would have no occasion for taxes, and every man's earnings would be left to him in their entirety.

In a society where all men were free on equal terms to the earth's resources, and where government was barred from interference with any man's work, and above all, barred from piecing out the earth to the more successful, every man would be employed, he would employ himself or take employment where his work would produce the maximum in wealth or services, and he would exchange this maximum of wealth for the forms of wealth he desired. There is no imaginable interference of government which could increase this man's comfort and happiness; but it could put an end to his work and conduct him to the bread line.

The root of all evil in the society of men is that men, the lords of creation, have abdicated their lordship, and of government, the work of their hands, they have made a golden calf before which they fall down and worship, a Frankenstein monster which will grind them to powder. Government is absolutely necessary for the protection of human rights against the assaults of the criminal. When government goes beyond this duty and assumes control of human life, and interferes with the natural rights of men, it can produce nothing but the infinity of mischiefs we see around us.

No laws which legislators may enact will ever make human society workable; nothing but a fundamental change in the constitution of a state, restricting the duties of government to guaranteeing the complete and equal freedom of all men, and prohibiting interference by government with the natural rights of any man. This sounds radical, and it is. When a pyramid is standing on its point, when a tree is planted with its roots upward, nothing less radical than a complete reversal will restore them to their normal functions. When men have been reduced to the status of cogwheels in a tractor, when intelligent human beings have placed the direction of their lives in the care of a bodiless, soulless, mindless abstraction, the work of their hands, the inevitable chaos can never be restored to order except by a complete reversal, with every man as the sole arbiter of his destinies, and government protecting him against any interference with his freedom.

I appeal to:

Americans who see communist, nazi, fascist, and twelve other varieties of terrorism, tearing apart the Americanism we used to know.

Victims of religious, race, and class persecution.

The man out of work.

The man whose income is too low to provide decently for his family.

The high school and college graduate for whom the world has nothing to offer but the park bench.

The employer who is burdened with income taxes, capital gains taxes, and a hundred other taxes, with sitdown strikers, and with 15,000 government "regulations," until he does not know how a business can be run.

Those who would like to keep the money they make, instead of being the target for the next tax raid.

Those who believe that government could be run on business principles, paying for what it gets, and getting what it pays for.

The man who is willing to work for what he wants, rather than to live on the labor of others.

The man with a sense of fair play, willing to take his chances with a fair field and no favor.

I appeal to every man except the men who have monopolized the earth and its resources, and who make a living by keeping the world out of work.

WE CAN HAVE PROSPERITY AND PEACE WHEN WE WANT THEM

There is no reform which can correct the evils of society so long as government stands upon the necks of men; no "back to the land," no old-age pensions, no wage and hour laws, no New Deal can correct the evils which will pour in an endless stream from the mindless, soulless abstraction, government, so long as government is given the power of direction. A government authorized to direct will direct, it will set its own bounds to the limits of its direction, and the sky will be the limit.

Every evil from which any of the above-mentioned [unreadable] is suffering is one form of perversion of government functions, and there is not one of the evils which would not be cured automatically by the restriction of government to its function of protection, and the restoring to men of their natural rights. In the limits of this article it would be impossible to go into these manifold evils, but the writer would be glad to correspond with any one who should feel that the above claim is in error. Liberty would cure every evil of society as surely as the sun lights every nook and cranny of the earth.

The day on which these classes decide to forget their classes, and join in one universal demand for the restoration of men's natural rights and the restriction of government to its proper function, will see the end of all persecution, religious, race, and class, the end of unemployment and exploitation. It will also sound the death knell of wars, because there would be nothing for which nations could go to war. And nothing else will ever end these abominations, because an absurd system can produce nothing but abominations.

Perhaps, among the classes I have mentioned, may be found a new Moses who will lead us out of the wilderness and into the daylight of human freedom, where man will be once more the lord of creation, and government his able assistant, helping him to heights beyond "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome."