By Mary Sennholz
The Foundation for Economic Education
May 1996


In 1946, the eyes of most Americans were on the U.S. Congress debating
full employment, higher minimum wages, extended social security
benefits, price and rent controls, public housing projects, and
government health insurance. Many Americans were eager to follow in the
footsteps of the British Labour Party which, having won an overwhelming
electoral victory, was busily nationalizing various industries and
enacting a comprehensive Social Security system, including a national
health service; but they did not dare call their aspirations
"socialism," as the Labour Party openly proclaimed; instead, Americans
called it just another deal, a "Fair Deal," which, in the years to come,
was to have its essential parts enacted by both popular political parties.

Unbeknownst to the political world, the former manager of the Los
Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Leonard Edward Read, was laboring in
Irvington-on-Hudson to rally the remnants of old-fashioned liberalism
and prepare for an intellectual counteroffensive. Read was an
entrepreneur par excellence, confident, ambitious, and courageous, who
could have launched any enterprise to which he had set his mind. But for
reasons no one will ever know, he chose to enter the world of thought
and ideas, of ideologies and philosophies, and create the Foundation for
Economic Education.

Leonard's passion had not always been for ideas and ideologies. For much
of his adult life (1928-1945) he had been a business and trade
association executive, a vocal Chamber of Commerce spokesman who
faithfully defended the official Chamber position, which at that time
was sympathetic to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and his
attempts to pull the economy out of depression by organizing business,
regulating prices, and stimulating bank credit through monetary
inflation. His moment of reformation and conversion came in the fall of
1933 when, after hearing that a prominent California executive had been
criticizing the Chamber, he arranged a visit to set the businessman
"straight." The businessman was W. C. Mullendore, an official of
Southern California Edison Company. Having made the Chamber of Commerce
pitch, he was then obliged to listen to Bill Mullendore patiently
explaining individual liberty and the private property order and
refuting the New Deal contentions. Until his dying days Leonard swore
this explanation had been his best lesson ever-it had removed the
blinders from his eyes.

Leonard was a self-educated man who learned much not only from books but
from a great deal of experience. Leonard's practical education began
when most children are still preoccupied with mastering the Three R's.

Already by the age of twenty he had faced an unusual share of challenges
which shaped his lofty spirit, empowered him with knowledge, and became
the kernels of an industrious adult life. By the age of 48 he had
achieved remarkable success in two endeavors when he brought forth his
greatest creation, the Foundation for Economic Education.

Formative Years

Leonard Edward Read was born September 26, 1898, on an 80-acre farm just
outside Hubbardston, Michigan. He was the firstborn of Orville Baker
Read and Ada Sturgis Read. The family labored from dawn to dusk to wrest
a meager living from the bounty of nature. Leonard's father had come
there from Watertown, New York, a descendant of a long line of farmers
who immigrated from England early in the eighteenth century. Leonard's
mother often spoke of her Grandfather Sturgis, who was the first settler
in Shiawasee County. Both families truly were pioneer folk with pioneer
attitudes-venturesome, hardworking, willing to share, thankful for their blessings.

When Leonard was barely eleven and his sister Rubye nine, tragedy
struck. Their father died at the age of forty from septicemia, commonly
called blood poisoning. His death changed the life of the family
dramatically, leaving Leonard the man of the family who now faced adult
responsibilities. He helped his mother sell the farm and establish the
first boarding house in town. To supplement the family income, he at
times worked sixteen hours a day, milking cows at Uncle John's farm and
working in the village store.

A boy is said to be more trouble than a dozen girls. But Leonard had
little time for play and trouble. He labored diligently and yet did not
neglect his school work, hoping to become a physician. Because
Hubbardston High was a rural public school with limited resources, he
had to look elsewhere to complete studies necessary for college and
ultimately medical school. The nearest accredited school that was well
known for its excellence in college preparatory instruction was Ferris
Institute in Big Rapids. Founded in 1884 by Woodbridge Ferris (later to
become Governor of Michigan), it was a poor child's private school with
more than 1,200 pupils. A poor boy could earn his tuition by working for
the school. At Ferris Institute, hard work and severe discipline were
the rule. Any student failing in his academic subjects or violating the
tough rules of conduct and behavior was expelled immediately, before the whole assembly.

When Leonard was seventeen his mother let him go. To work his way
through Ferris Institute he would fire the furnace (at 5 a.m.), carry in
wood and water, rake leaves, mow lawns, shovel snow, and so forth. He
charged every new difficulty, in both studies and living conditions,
with every ounce of his energy. He tackled his most uncongenial subjects
and conquered them. He read and studied fervently and graduated a year
later, in June 1917. "One way to check whether you ought to be doing
this or that," he was to say later, " is to feel your zest pulse. If
it's low, chances are you should be elsewhere or doing something else.
My zest pulse seems to be high in everything."

The "War to End All Wars"

World War I had been raging in Europe since August 1, 1914; the United
States had joined on April 6, 1917. Soon after his graduation Leonard
enlisted with the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps. He hoped to
become a pilot, but on the very day he was to be transferred to a
training program his Squadron was ordered to leave for New York and
embark for France. Leonard was so eager to go to war that he declined
the pilot training. Much later, in another war, his two sons, Leonard E.
Read, Jr., and James Baker Read, were both to become pilots and flight instructors.

Many young men are attracted by the glamour, pride, and glory of war. In
times of war they would think poorly of themselves for not having been a
soldier who tested his courage in battle. Soldiers rarely question the
justifiableness of war, or virtue and righteousness. Leonard Read was
skeptical of President Woodrow Wilson's pronouncements that the war was
the "culminating and final war to end all wars. " He wondered about
Theodore Roosevelt's oration that he was to fight "in the quarrel of
civilization against barbarism, of liberty against tyranny. " To
Leonard, it was not his business to question, but to fight.

In France, Leonard became a "rigger," who assembles and services planes.
He always kept in mind that the pilot's life depended on the care and
accuracy of his work, which made him labor hard and give scrupulous
attention to detail. He bought books on aerodynamics, which he studied
in the evening and learned the refinements of his craft. He later was
able to boast that no flyer ever lost his life because of structural
failure of a plane that he had rigged. When his reputation for knowledge
and capability grew, he became a natural teacher as other ground crews
sought his guidance. He learned two lessons which remained with him
throughout life: (1) whatever you do, it is of paramount importance to
pay attention to detail; (2) when you improve your own learning and
understanding, others will seek you out for knowledge and advice.
Upon discharge from the service in July 1919, Leonard was eager to go to
college and earn a degree so that he could proceed to medical school.
But his severance pay would barely see him through the freshman year. He
had to seek employment which would permit him to save for his college career.

Husband, Father, and Entrepreneur

After he had worked in several bookkeeping and cashier positions that
were disappointing, he set out to establish himself in the business he
knew best, the farm produce business. For more than five years Leonard
struggled to build his Ann Arbor Produce Company. While other young men
of his age were attending college, Leonard built a thriving business
with six employees and better than a quarter of a million dollars in
gross sales, which in today's minidollars would be more than three
million dollars. He even found time ' to marry petite, vivacious Gladys
Cobb-later affectionately called Aggie. They soon were blessed with two
strong and energetic sons - Lenny, Jr., and "J.B. " At the age of 25
Leonard was a well-known and highly respected businessman in Ann Arbor,
owning a stately home in a prosperous neighborhood.

Yet, there is an element of fate that shapes man's ends. Leonard's
situation so radically changed through the advent of chain stores that
he was to liquidate the Ann Arbor Produce Company, forever leave the
produce business, and move to California for an entirely new career.
What had begun as a step toward medical school had yielded valuable
experiences and many joys, and ended with a step forward into the next
phase of his life.

A great talent is often lost for the want of a little courage. For
Leonard it took a great deal of courage to give up his business, a
lovely home in his native state, and move 2,000 miles in order to find a
new beginning. And yet, a stirring restlessness, nourished by growing
doubts as to the future of his Ann Arbor Produce Company, prompted the
difficult decision and took the Leonard Read family to California, the Golden State.

Seeking More Light

Success in life is a matter of concentration and service. Step by step,
little by little, bit by bit-that is the way to success. Unbeknownst to
himself, Leonard was about to enter a phase of his life that would take
him to the very summit of accomplishment. He would succeed above his
fellows because he would continue to grow in strength, knowledge, and
wisdom. He would seek more light, and find more the more he sought.
Leonard Read was to become one of those rare individuals who take and
give every moment of time.

He spent the next eighteen years with the Chamber of Commerce, serving
as manager of Chambers in four locations: Burlingame, Palo Alto, the
National Chamber's Western Division in Seattle, and finally, as General
Manager of the Los Angeles Chamber. Here he directed a staff of 150
serving 18,000 members.

Leonard grew in many fields and branches of knowledge. In time he became
a vocal critic of policies that would limit the scope of individual
freedom and expand the powers of government. There were many local
issues on which the Chamber of Commerce was expected to take a position
such as the "Production for Use" movement, the popular "Ham and Eggs"
scheme, "End Poverty in California," and many other programs. In
hundreds of speeches and pamphlets Leonard Read opposed these welfare
schemes with some success. "After six years of these 'successes,"' he
later wrote, "it became evident that if the intellectual soil from which
these fallacies sprung were rancid, new ones would spring up in their
places. Only the labels would be different. What I had been doing was
comparable to proving only that the earth isn't flat. The positive
knowledge of someone discovering that the earth is a spheroid has rid us
of the whole collection of fallacies about the earth's shape. While it
is necessary to understand and explain fallacies, that's less than half
the problem. Finding the right is the key to salvation, for the wrong
can be displaced only by the right."

Leonard felt a sense of duty to speak out clearly and courageously. He
raised his voice against any abuse of power and especially against
injustice committed in the name of law. His devotion to the cause of
freedom caught the attention of many people in high places. Virgil
Jordan, the President of the National Industrial Conference Board (NICB)
in New York, had the wisdom to invite Leonard Read to achieve with NICB
on a national scale what he had accomplished so admirably at the L.A.
Chamber. And so, on May 15, 1945, Leonard Read became Executive Vice
President of the National Industrial Conference Board and was looking
forward to launching a nationwide educational program for the
restoration of individual freedom and the market order.

As was his wont, Leonard poured his full effort and energy into raising
money for the great task he was about to undertake. He was "on the road"
most of the time, calling on prospective donors and presenting his
ambitious program. However, NICB's policy was to organize public
meetings at which "both sides" of an issue were presented. Leonard
opposed this policy. How do you represent "both sides" when "one side"
is all around you? How do you state your case for individual freedom and
the private property order when the other side is monopolizing the stage?

After eight frustrating months with NICB, Leonard resigned his position.
Since he had raised many thousands of dollars for a cause he was unable
to promote fullheartedly, he felt obliged to visit the donors and
apologize for his failure. One of these men was David Goodrich, Chairman
of B.F. Goodrich Company in New York City. When Leonard brought him the
sad news of his failure, Mr. Goodrich raised a simple question: "If you
had an organization of your liking, what would it look like?" Leonard
went home, dazed and puzzled, with renewed courage and hope. He went to
his typewriter, and between 3 p.m. and midnight wrote a description of
the organization he envisioned. On that day in January 1946, the idea of
the Foundation for Economic Education was born. To join all its pieces
it would take a few more months, but a great idea had come to the world
and now was pressing for admission.

The Founding of FEE

On March 7, 1946, seven founders of the Foundation met in the office of
Dave Goodrich for the inaugural meeting. They were Leonard Read,
Donaldson Brown of General Motors Corporation, Professors Fred R.
Fairchild of Yale University and Leo Wolman of Columbia University,
Henry Hazlitt of the New York Times, Claude Robinson of Opinion Research
Corporation, and Goodrich himself.

The founders were convinced that New York City, with its splendid
education and financial facilities, provided the ideal setting for FEE.
But rent control had created a painful shortage of office space while
confiscatory income and estate taxation had forced luxury homes and
mansions to the market, which were now being sold at fractions of their
original construction costs. When a thoughtful real estate agent showed
Leonard a property at 30 South Broadway in Irvington-on-Hudson with its
badly overgrown grounds and a mansion that showed evidence of neglect,
he knew he had found the ideal home for his fledgling organization. Here
he could set out to complete his mission "to discover, gather and to
fasten attention on the sound ideas that underlie the free market
economy which, in turn, underlies the good society."

Leonard sought to surround himself with men and women of excellence,
seekers of knowledge and students of liberty. Throughout the years his
senior staff consisted of scholars who combined in a common effort and
with energy and industry sought to serve the cause. Most of them spent a
few years in Irvington and then moved on to other important pursuits in
industry and education. Some were to become captains of industry,
founders of enterprise, or famous educators. They all became wiser for
their years of learning at FEE and their association with Leonard.
Ludwig von Mises was associated with the Foundation from the day FEE
opened its doors to the day of his death in 1973. Read and Mises formed
a team of discovery, united in the love of liberty and truth, succeeding
in all they undertook, and whose successes were never won by the
sacrifice of a single principle. Their association and friendship, which
began for an end, continued to the end. Their joint efforts were to make
the Foundation in Irvington-on-Hudson the intellectual center of the
freedom movement.

In time The Freeman was to become the flagship publication of the
Foundation. It came to FEE in 1955 when it ran into financial
difficulties. In the dreary world of political strife The Freeman brings
new hope to the weary mind and instills new strength.

In the early days of FEE, Leonard himself responded to all requests for
lectures and speeches explaining the freedom philosophy. His friends and
members of the board of trustees would invite him to speak to their
service clubs and other groups. As the request for lectures and speeches
continued to grow, the senior staff, too, was called upon to explain the
work of the Foundation. Leonard and his colleagues traveled thousands of
miles, from Maine to Hawaii, Manitoba to Miami, in order to explain the
benefits of freedom. The growing popularity of the FEE speakers,
finally, pointed to the need for short courses or "seminars" lasting one
or two days. Throughout the year they conducted seminars at the
Foundation in Irvington, attended by eager students of liberty from many
parts of the country and world.

Leonard was always aware of the ethical and religious dimensions of
human liberty. American institutions and the American way of life, he
believed, ultimately rest on the tenets of the Judeo-Christian religion.
It is from this source that we derive our convictions as to the meaning
of life, the nature of man, the moral order, and the rights and
responsibilities of individuals. The American system, as it was
originally conceived, is a projection of this religious heritage, and
the American dream has an implicit religious content.

Leonard used what he knew about nature as evidence for his belief in
God. Nature reveals certain qualities that are characteristic of an
intelligent mind which designed nature for a purpose. In his own words:
"There is the Mind of the Universe- God from which all energy flows.
Individuals are receiving sets of this Infinite and Divine Intelligence.

Although Leonard Read published numerous tracts on political economy,
his chief contributions to social thought lie in what he added to the
philosophical, ethical, and psychological basis of human action. He was
essentially a social philosopher who was more interested in moral and
psychological principles than in economic theory.

A Commitment to Principle

For the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, the meaning of
education was of crucial concern and occupied his mind from FEE's
beginning. In The Coming Aristocracy (1969) he stated his concern in
simple terms: "Intentionally working on others takes the effort away
from self. It has no effect on others, unless adversely; and the
unevolving self is always the devolving self. The net result is social
decadence-and has to be. The corrective for this is to rid ourselves of
the notion that Joe Doakes must stand helpless unless he be made the
object of our attention. Joe will do all right-and the same can be said
for you and me if we'll just mind our own business, the biggest and most
important project any human being can ever undertake!"

This message is repeated in several of his 27 books, written largely
between 1954 and 1982, sometimes two volumes in one year. He did not
compromise in matters of principle no matter how the world censured him
for his strict and unyielding position. His answer was uncompromising:
"Principle does not lend itself to bending or to compromising. It stands impregnable."

Leonard kept a journal of his labors and principles, never missing a day
of entry since he began on October 16, 1951. In his journal entry of
9/5/54 he explained his reason for this activity. "Recording what one
does and thinks each day is more of a discipline than one would at first
suspect. Not that it isn't possible to do or think what one does not
record. But there is a forceful tendency to act only in ways that are
recordable." On the 22nd anniversary of his first entry, he reminisced:
"I have kept you faithfully for all of these years, never missing a day.
In a word, you are a joy to me or this would never have been accomplished."

Among his achievements, Leonard was proud of his performance and
accomplishments in his favorite sports: golfing and curling. He learned
to play golf as a young Chamber of Commerce executive in Seattle and
later played when time and weather permitted the rest of his life. He
sometimes declared that the most important lesson which golf may teach
its devotees is the "magic of believing." In belief lies the secret of
all valuable exertion and success.

It should not surprise us that a man who found so much fun and pleasure
in life on the golf course and the curling rink, as did Leonard,
displayed a great deal of interest in the practices of the "good life."
He took his cooking stove, saucepans, and pantry seriously and believed
that dinner tables should be ever pleasant places in an otherwise and
world. With his love of innovation and experimentation Leonard
transformed the Read cuisine into a gourmet's laboratory, ever searching
for exclusive culinary delights for the benefit of soul and body.
Because Aggie, an excellent cook in her own right, didn't care to be
called upon to pare the potatoes or chop the vegetables while he put on
the finishing touches, they agreed that each one would prepare his or
her dishes from beginning to end. For many years, Leonard used to don a
cook's hat and prepare his Chicken Livers Leonardo for appreciative guests.

Until his death at the age of 84, Leonard continued to combine a
youthful sense of wonder and curiosity with the profundity and erudition
that are the fruits of many years of experience and labor.
In the early hours of May 14, 1983, Leonard E. Read died peacefully in
his sleep. He had spent the day before at his desk, preparing for the
annual meeting of the FEE Board of Trustees scheduled for the following
week. At the age of 84, he left his grand creation, the Foundation for
Economic Education, in sound condition intellectually and financially.
He left his family as he left the Foundation, well ordered and well instructed.

Leonard Read was one of the most notable social philosophers of our
time. His name will forever be associated with the rebirth of the
freedom philosophy. The Foundation for Economic Education constitutes an
enduring monument to his energy and talent.