Everyman's Dossier; F. Walker

Apparently there is little recognition of the possibility that the fat dossier of Everyman is an incontestable hold on him if there ever occurs an administration in WashMr. Walker,puhlic relations consultant and writer from Media, Pennsylvania, is experienced in the workings of government agencies and statistical and testing organizations. [217 ] ington unscrupulous and detennined to have power regardless of methods used. In troubled times there is always this possibility, and the late Huey Long remains a portent of what might happen. Precooked, prefabri cated, processed in his file, Everyman is now at the mercy of any group of politicians who attain power without fanatical concern for their own integrity. So far, the process has been relatively painless. After wrestling with his individual income tax return, Every man-when his personal annoyance has passed-is apt to forget how many forms are accumulating in his dossier.

The burden of the expanding dossier falls on his em ployer, the ever-growing groups of civil servants and governmental employees, the vast private agencies en gaged in testing, measuring, recording, analyzing, devel oping the thoughts, wants, needs, intelligence, and status of Everyman. Little Protest, So Far Like creeping inRation, our dossiers, stuffed with facts and figures, envelop us as quietly as a fog in the night. Painless and smooth, this development so far has pro voked hardly an audible protest. ""Security" from womb to tomb neatly guaranteed by a Welfare State leers on our horizon, but at the price of freedom and boldness, daring and initiative-the very factors which brought the American republic to its present position of eminence. It must be remembered that America once offered more freedom, hence more privacy, than ever existed before; and it is well to ask where this freedom is today.

[218 ] Paper Civilizations Our civilizations are increasingly paper civilizations. When British doctors recently wanted an increase in salaries, they threatened to refuse to fill out death cer tificates. The traditional method of the strike was ignored. Instead, the doctors chose a lethal weapon refusal to add to the paper forms which are the very lifeblood of a modem State. Once the average American citizen was covered by a most slender dossier. His citizenship was recorded as a voter. His church and fraternal memberships were listed. If he owned property, he possessed recorded deeds. If he had been in military service, he had a certificate of discharge. The forms were simple and necessary but not inclusive. It was generally assumed that a man's business and affairs were his own concern. Look at today. From the time of his entry into the world until his departure, the life of Everyman is re corded on paper. Birth certificates; school records; draft records; Social Security numbers and recordings; income tax returns; psychological and physical examinations from school and job; property records; military service records; all organization memberships; F.B.I. records (25,000,000 Americans according to reports); driver"s licenses and accident reports; state and municipal statis tical records;· fIngerprints; passport applications; state and city income tax forms; often, police department rec ords; innumerable questionnaires by organizations seek ing to learn Everyman's needs, wants, opinions, and sex [219 ] life; and finally, the death certificate beyond which even the statistical madmen and Internal Revenue Collectors cannot go.

Paper, paper, everywhere I Employers are forced by the federal government and some states and cities to act as tax collectors against their employees. Innumerable small taxes are devised by our politicians based on the present popular theory that true statesmanship consists only in constantly increasing the costs of our various governments. Each new tax means more paper. Candi dates for high office rely on public opinion surveys to formulate their policies and platforms-paper reports on what is popular, not what is necessary. Measurables and Immeasurables Magazines test readership opinion for editorial guid ance. Corporations test employees through every known examination. Our youth are classified and earmarked as so many animals of varying degrees of quality by the most elaborate series of tests ever devised by man. It is noteworthy to add that the formulators of these tests are fond of pointing out that some of the world's greatest geniuses and leaders would never have passed them. The results are all embalmed on paper. Advancement and promotion almost everywhere are based on paper sym bols emphasizing education, length of service,personal habits, and attitudes, and discounting entirely those qual ities of boldness, daring, intelligence, and imagination through which expansion, development, and growth are [220 ] possible. Such imponderable factors cannot be measured and filed on paper.

Commenting on our statistical madness as it applies to the religious life, The Christian Century had this to say: "Does the campaign have a statistical objective, as, for example, that of exceeding the largest number of converts announced at any previous Billy Graham meet ing? Forty thousand would do it, since the London cam paign got almost that many. (Where are they now?) Or perhaps it is intended to beat Billy Sunday's record of some 40 years ago in New York, which would take 100, 000. (What difference did Sunday's 98,000 converts finally make in New York's civic life, in the ethics of Wall Street, or even in the vitality of her Protestant churches?) Statistics, even when they are totaling num bers of converts, admittedly constitute a very poor yard stick by which to measure spiritual gains. Then why are they used?" Danger Ahead Paper, it is well to remember, is a most delicate mate rial. It is easily destroyed by fire, water, insects, trans portation, age, or weather. Yet such is our faith in it that it is now our paramount symbol. Even our money, once based on gold (Who can remember our handsome gold pieces of exchange?) is now made of paper; and the result, increasingly evident every day, is not happy.

Our present money constantly tends to depreciate in value. [221 ] Enough is enough! We have built our values on paper, and we get paper values in return. The human spirit can stand so much, and then it goes into reverse. There is evidence that such is occurring today. There is now a slowly developing awareness of the dangers of a paper civilization and its menace, for its ultimate end is the Welfare State, totalitarianism, the Marxian goal, nowhere better stated than by T. Coleman Andrews, former United States Collector of Internal Revenue, in his criti cism of the Internal Revenue laws and policies. Mr. Andrews, from his inside knowledge of the income tax machinery, feels that "it Houts the constitutional right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures." Continuing, Mr. Andrews held that the income tax law has "opened our homes, our papers, and our effects to the prying eyes of government agents and set the stage for searchers of our books and vaults, and for inquiries into our aHairs, whenever the tax men might decide, even when there might not be any justification beyond mere cynical suspicion."

The Need for Privacy The rights of Everyman to his privacy and a life unmo lested should be respected. This will mean far-reaching revisions in our present policies and paper mania. Yet it can and must be done if we are to escape tyranny and totalitarianism. The great imponderable qualities of na ture which toss up men and women gifted with genius, [222 ] courage, imagination, and vast ability must be recog nized. These great qualities of the human spirit which result in our finest achievements and accomplishments cannot be measured by any known tests, fitted into any system of files, or placed on paper and controlled by rules and regulations. Return to Everyman his privacy and freedom, and the fruits of genius, uncurbed, will follow. It was Meister Eckhart, one of the greatest mystics of the West, who said: "N0 one can strike his roots into eternity without being rid of the concept· of number.

The human spirit must go beyond all number-ideas must break past and away from ideas of quantity and then he will be broken into by God."! 1 From Meister Eckhart by Franz Pfeiffer, translated by C. deB. Evans. London: Watkins, 1924. [223 ] TODAY'S SCHOOL PROBLEM tv Bellina Bien "To many Americans, education is one of the re ligions they really believe in. It has its orthodoxy, its pontiffs, its noble buildings. Education is the Established Church of the United States." THERE is much truth in this observation by the late British educator, Sir Michael Sadler. We Americans do have almost a religious faith in education. We want the highest quality instruction and the best possible educa tional opportunities for our youngsters. We recognize that the well-being of individuals and of our nation depends upon true knowledge and a thorough under standing of basic principles which can be gained only through sound education.