I Like Butter; J. Raley

I LIKE BUTTER A HIGH REGARD for truth compels me to admit, in the very beginning, that this investigation was motivated by personal, perhaps even selfish reasons. However, the facts illuminated here may be of some interest to you. The whole thing started because I like butter. Not the type one employs to soften up the boss, preparatory to that important request, but the kind one spreads on bread if he can afford such luxury. I developed a taste for butter in my youth, only to find it beyond my means in these more prosperous middle years. My helpmate and I have discussed this matter at great length. The whole truth is we could afford to splurge and buy a pound of real butter on special occa sions (like Christmas and Thanksgiving if they didn't come so close together), but the genuine article is definitely not a good buy. At 50 per cent above the price of a substitute spread there would be reasonable grounds to mount a defense. At 150 per cent, no. After all, we have to live within a budget, since we have no authority to levy taxes.

Mr. Raley is a freelance author, speaker, philosopher from Gadsden, Alabama. 354 I LIKE BUTTER 355 To say that I have learned to like it would be rank hypocrisy, but through the years I have learned to ac cept the fact that a substitute spread is more practical and much more in line with our after-taxes income. That is, I had learned to accept this fact with reason ably good grace until the "down and Duters" moved in across the street. A few days after these people moved in I opened the refrigerator one evening and received a severe shock. Most of one shelf was filled with butter-one pound sticks, stacked like cordwood. After a brief period of confusion, which any family man can visualize better than I can tell, the wife made me understand that the butter was "surplus commodity" and belonged to the peo ple across the street. It seems they received more butter than they could store, so the lady of the house made a deal with my wife for storage space. In return we could use all the butter we needed, since the supply was more than ample and sure to be replenished regularly.

I am, by nature, a quiet, perhaps even meek person, not given to raising my voice any place and especially not in my own home; but this was too much. I counted to ten three times, very slowly and then erupted. Later I entered the study, shut the door, put aside the critical paper I was doing on classical metaphysics, and began a systematic search for facts in the most provoking mat ter that has been forced to my attention since TVA. Actually the "down and outers" are no more than contributing factors, vessels as it were, who have be come willing wards of the state. In many ways this par356 JESS RALEY ticular family appeared to be as nice as one could hope to meet. The wife and five children are sociable and in telligent. The man doesn't beat his wife, gamble away his welfare check, or drink excessively. He takes the family to church, plays with the kids, likes all sports, is always present when surplus commodities are handed out, and will sometimes do odd jobs for people in the commu nity if they promise not to inform the welfare depart ment. Even though they live in an apartment built with tax money, draw monthly checks, obtain food, school books, lunches, and the like from the same source, they are the least repulsive parasites I have met.

At this juncture, I assume you may be about to cast me as a Scrooge; may I assure you such would be a grave injustice. In all truth I have absolutely no quarrel with the gay troubadour, jug of wine, loaf of bread type. It's their life: let them live it. Butl When I am forced to pay for the butter that goes on their bread, while hav ing to settle for a less desirable spread myself-that I don't like. What Really Happens With all the persistence and order of thought gener ally reserved for matter and form, I pursued the illu sive truth about butter: "surplus commodity" is a mis nomer for a product that has been supported off the market. This is what actually happens: Everyone earn ing a salary is separated from a part thereof by the powers that be. Said powers buy butter with some part I LIKE BUTTER 357 of this money, at a price well above what it might bring in a free market. Obviously, they are using the people's money to maintain the price beyond those means left to the wage-earner's discretion. This unnatural course of events tends to cause huge accumulations of butter.

In casting about for the ideal disposition, the powers apparently decided to add insult to injury by giving the butter to those least likely to have paid any taxes to ward its purchase. In a matter of this magnitude, one must approach the apparent conclusion from every conceivable angle. For this reason I hesitate to submit as absolute truth the apparent fact that the ox has been muzzled by the theory of: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." On the assumption that my reason in this case may have been swayed by my fondness for butter, I launched a minute examination of our tendency toward welfare statism. A.ccording to my congressman, the public has been brainwashed for so many years to accept the proposition that all free-loaders, foreign and domestic, must and should share the fruits of American labor that no sane man would dare raise his voice in protes t.

Rabid enthusiasts of the proposition, that all men should lower their aim to conform to the lowest among them, claim that compassion pure and simple is their prime motivation. They insist the way of life which built the greatest country on earth was founded on the preamble of "every man for himself and let the devil 358 JESS RALEY take the hindmost." In this enlightened age, they pro pose to remedy this by herding the win, place, and show entries into the gutter with the "also rans." The Emotional Appeal The rapid advance of this theory is due, in part, to the able manipulation of its sponsors and, in part, to the gullible acceptance of "we the people." Armed with the illusion of compassion, the equalizers have shown us the hungry child begging for food, the aged and in firm seeking shelter, the farmer toiling in rags. The burden of responsibility is too heavy, they have said; your government must relieve you of this great weight.

Their noble theory deals in opinions, not facts. It proposes to eliminate want, but without want there is no incentive to strive. It hopes to strike out fear, ignor ing the fact that fear of failure breeds pride of success. No one shall know hunger, an enticing phrase, but the ox cares not who fills his manger-the ward of the state is little concerned whether his master wears an eagle or a hammer and sickle on his hat. Government is re sponsible for your welfare; this theory speaks loud and clear. But without responsibility there can be no self respect. Lack of self-respect removes the opportunity to attain freedom. Freedom alone is able to ignite that vital spark of greatness in men and nations. All this notwithstanding, the superficial philanthro pists continue to preach compassion and win converts: in government, business, labor, education, and particuI LIKE BUTTER 359 larly among the coming generations. One must admit it sounds good-so good, in fact, I might have been con verted had it not been for the butter episode. This caused me to look beneath the surface.

Subverting Our Youth A tendency of human nature to take the easy path (even though you hate yourself for it), aided and abetted by progressive taxation (to feed the drones), composes a very seductive siren's song. How can the youth of to day fail to be tempted to sell their birthright for a bowl of pottage and take a seat on the receiving end of the line? As a citizen of a Republic, I am unable to conform happily with this wonderful new concept of progress. No doubt the cruel, inhuman, insensitive methods em ployed by our schools in those Dark Ages of the past are responsible to some extent! Looking back, I can see that many teachers of those days actually encour aged the more intelligent students to "show off" before the dumber ones. In many cases this created a complex among the slower students, causing them to work their brains unmercifully to prove they could learn. Far too often this offensive urge to equal or surpass the leaders of their classes was so firmly instilled in even the laziest, that they found it impossible to stop on graduation day, but continued to drive themselves without mercy to become leaders in business, industry, and politics.

The youth of today are assumed to be most fortunate 360 JESS RALEY in that they may enjoy the economic fruits of the old inhuman competitive period without being forced to compete themselves. In fact, we have found in this era of enlightenment that it is kinder to teach the zealous to loaf then to encourage the lazy to work. What better place to start a child right than in the schoolroom? There have been a few disgraceful instances of students rebelling against the utter boredom of this wonderful new system. One such uprising was put down master fully by a principal who forbade a student-organized debating team to compete. He feared the winning team would feel they had presented a better argument than their opponents. We must not allow such seeds to be scattered in our schools if the students are to live hap pily ever after in the protective shade of this wonderful welfare tree we are growing.

All the advantages of this wonderful new way are sweet to contemplate. The tree of compassion casts a beautiful shade. The element I (old fogey that I am) find most difficult to grasp is: When all have become enlightened and have demanded their rightful place in the shade, who will gather and distribute nectar from the flowers that grow only in the sun?