The Mises I Knew

0:00In the first place, I want to thank you most warmly for the honor which you have bestowed upon me. I particularly appreciate it, since it came from a university which is dedicated to the ideals of one of the truly great men of our century. I value it also more particularly Since I had the privilege of knowing him in two phases of his life and of appreciating him in sometimes very difficult situations. My first meeting with Ludwig von Mises was during the Second World War. For the Austrians in the United States, while they had very faithful friends, it was also a time of great difficulties. Not all of the other Austrians The Allied leaders, despite the obvious evidence, were ready to recognize Austria as a victim of Hitler, on the contrary, inspired as they were by certain political fanatics of some of the neighboring countries of Austria, but also, unfortunately, by some minor Austrian politicians in exile, who were no longer eager to re-establish the independence of their country.

1:25They had regretfully access to some of the American mass media and politicians and we had to weather a bad storm. And here may I just make one remark which independently from the subject of Mises, I have very much on my heart. You see, this university is in the great state of Alabama and I will never forget one fact When we started this hard work, and it was a hard work, for the independence of Austria here in the United States, and especially when we tried to get the support of the American Congress, it was a congressman from Alabama, the first who supported us in our efforts, Mr. Pete Jarman of one of the constituencies where there is today the University of Alabama.

2:22And I want to remember this because it was at that time an act of real courage and generosity, especially since he was not of Austrian origin. He just was one who represented in the world the ideals of that great state of yours. Others followed thereafter. The next being a senator Others followed thereafter. The next being a senator from Florida, Claude Pepper, a congressman

2:52from New York, Saul Bloom and several others. I won't mention them all. We had some good friends too and they all needed a lot of courage to support the cause for which Mises was fighting. In this storm which we were in, unfortunately, many of the Austrian emigres either went into hiding or even sided with the hostile forces. Some others, amongst them, leading persons like Ludwig von Mises, stood firmly by their country. Murray weathered the storm and finally was successful. In the struggle he was as solid as a rock. So I had the opportunity of being a witness to some of his major characteristics.

3:44The first one was an absolutely straight line. Ludwig von Mises was not an opportunist and dared to speak his mind even though this was considered as untimely. He was backed by his his great personal courage, that moral courage which unfortunately is all too rare and which one hence doubly appreciates. Finally, he was a great patriot. Of course he was loyal to the United States and grateful that they had accepted him when his own homeland fell under Totalitarian Invasion. But he also never forgot that he was an Austrian, that he came from Vienna, and that he owed his old country support as a reward for the intellectual possibilities which Vienna has afforded Ludwig von Mises as long as it was independent. All this made him, in the dark days of the emigration, a real beacon of light. And permit me here And to add another remark, which was the consequence of a conversation I had today. And somebody asked me, how did Mises get his title of nobility? Who gave it to him? Well, I can tell you that

5:08in Austria, thank God, there was a time under Emperor Franz Josef when finally it was understood It was understood that nobility, that is to say the elite in a country, had a title and one of reward, not in material sense, but in a moral sense. This so-called verdienstadel, this honor, this nobility of reward for independent action was one that was very important and that reminded me of a tradition which I think was very useful in Japan. In Japan also there were noble titles, but those who received for a great achievement a noble title, it was not their children who afterwards had the right to carry the title, but all the ancestors who received the title because of the gratitude of Japan for the achievements that they had a son who had done such a great service.

6:15And somehow I feel that in the times of Emperor Franz Josef, it was quite clear that gradually this new type of nobility was rising, and Ludwig von Mises was one of the great noblemen of that time. That's why he received his title, in my opinion, and that was one thing which of course ended in tragedy, because most of these people were murdered afterwards when when the Nazis came in, but indeed created that new sense of nobility which for the future can be of very great significance for all of us, whether we are living in a republic or in a monarchy or in any other sort of political system, and that here we have something which has been often criticized but which I submit to you is a very useful way of rewarding public Service. The second time I had the opportunity of seeing Professor von Mises was in the Montpelerin Society that important, I must admit almost call it decisive organization, created soon after the Second World War in order to reestablish in the universities of Europe the idea of

7:35The idea of a free economy as a basis of individual freedom. He was there with the great men of his time, like Professor von Hayek, Röpke, Machlub, Ludwig Erhard and Eugen. I do not mention many others who fought with them for the same ideals. They dared to try to bring back, starting from Germany and Switzerland, the old ideals of the Economic School of Vienna, as against the allegedly modern ideologies which began with a beverage plan and continued through certain personalities like Keynes, who had certainly great literary abilities but economically were trying to lead Europe down the road to serfdom, where here the Montpellier society endeavoured to gather the leading spirits on the side of freedom and to return to Europe those values which had been driven mostly overseas by the horde of National Socialism. The Montpellierin Society had started as a small but very important group. All of them were distinguished professors. I was the only one in that group who didn't have this high academic title. Later on I discovered the

8:59This is the reason why I was invited to join this illustrious society. Professors usually live in order to teach the ignorant. When they started to work, there was no ignorant amongst them. I happened luckily to pass by during a meeting, not even knowing that I was at a meeting of the Montpélran society. Thereupon I was invited to join, since obviously the professors were eager to have at least Just one ignorant to educate. I must tell you that I gained a lot from my membership in the Montpelerin Society. It gave me that knowledge of the basics of economics, which is indispensable, especially when one is ready to start on a political career. Only, when Only, when I joined somewhat later, due to the European elections of 1979, the group of Euro-parliamentarians did my presence at the Mont Pelerin Society become rare.

10:06The main reason was not lack of interest. God knows, but the fact that the Mont Pelerin Society's meetings always take place in the first week of September. Now, we politicians In the first week of September and I, having become a parliamentarian, had the absolute obligation to be present. If I wanted to work effectively, I have always and deeply regretted this. But by the same token, I was year after year profoundly grateful to that society, and especially to its great personalities like Ludwig von Mises, for what he has done. What they had given me in the preparatory period. Indeed, we had the great privilege to participate within the framework of the Mont Pelerin Society in that fight for freedom, which was both tough and victorious. At least, I did not realize at that time that we were just starting on a major campaign for freedom and were just in the preliminary stages. The main battle The battle was to come later.

11:23Permit me now to speak as a European parliamentarian out of that experience and how I see from this level the big battle which is being fought in Europe and as it is to a more or less equal degree in other parts of the world. I strongly feel that no decision has yet been made to have been reached and that we have now to face an even more dangerous challenge than was the case at the time when the battle was won against the creeping socialism at the end of the Second World War. Our situation today in the world is determined, I submit to you, by the enormous discoveries of our scientists at the end of the nineteenth and in the first half of the twentieth century.

12:22Whoever had the opportunity of following the events knows that the world, as it existed only a few decades ago, has changed fundamentally. The acceleration of this change is going is going to be felt even more strongly in the times to come. A person who has reached my old age when looking back on the period of his youth will realize that we have undergone a true, though unbloody revolution which has altered almost all the data of our life. This has not been easy for many of us. Thus, I remember Winston Churchill's I remember Winston Churchill's first visit in the United States after the Second World War. He was invited to visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the many journalists who followed the great hero on his triumphant trip to the United States were banned from for entering, because he was admitted to those two top secret places, where some elements of the future were under preparation.

13:39The stay of Churchill lasted two hours, and when he came out, the newspaper people ran to him, asking him what his impressions were. His answer was, gentlemen, as you know, I I am not a very religious man, but inside there, and he indicated the door which had just been closed behind him, I prayed in order to thank the Lord that I am 70 years old. The main changes in our life, at least in the perspective of a politician, are threefold. In the first place, there is the fact that the old idea of autarky has completely vanished.

14:27It was not so very long ago, just a little more over a century, when in the framework of a village, economy, almost everything that was needed to the inhabitants could be produced. Before the Second World War, Adolf Hitler was able to boast that he would create a German and self-sufficiency, and as the events of the war have proven, he almost succeeded. And today, the only form of autarky, of which we can still speak, is to be indispensable for others, as they are indispensable for us. The world globalization is today a tangible is today a tangible reality. The interdependence has become worldwide and this has deeply affected the economy of each one of our countries.

15:25When people, especially among politicians, complain today about the fact that factories are leaving one country to take up production in another, This is perhaps very effective in public meetings, but certainly does no longer correspond to the reality. Mobility in world economy has become one of the major characteristics, as was wholly the mobility within a single large country, for instance in your United States only a few The second most important characteristic with direct impact in our lives is the expansion

16:18of international travel facilities. I still can remember, and vividly so, the times when the United States were only from Europe, at best four days, but generally much more removed. Today, thanks to Concorde, one can go in the morning from Europe to the United States and return in the evening even with a very big jet lag, but still one has come back. This mobility has also created a migration of the population which already significant and by the end of the national autarky has now become a global phenomenon. Recently I had a personal experience which showed me drastically how things change.

17:08I was in a major subway station of Munich and there were quite a number of colored people passing by. I suddenly realized that if only 15 years ago a single colored man had walked through his station, All the children would have turned around to stare at him. Now, they don't even take notice. He's a completely normal sight. This acceleration of traffic has also signally reduced distances within a country or between continents. In politics, this has led to what one might call the pendulum diplomacy, which was inaugurated in our times by Henry Kissinger and nowadays This is increasingly becoming a normal form of diplomatic intercourse.

18:00It also creates serious problems in numerous countries, which are more and more frightened by the wave of immigration, that rising tide which the politicians use, but for which they see no remedy. We shall have here serious problems in the future, which if we do not resolve them in and Time are bound to create international tensions of an unbelievable magnitude. Finally, and perhaps most effective from the point of view of the citizens' private lives is the explosion of information. Not so long ago, it could be said, as Bismarck had formulated it one day in the German Reichstag, what are we interested in him if people beat each other are far away in Turkey. Today Turkey is a few hours from Europe and indeed from the United States. The events have an entirely different impact from the one they had in the past. Not so long ago, news about an outrage, a bomb, a catastrophe took some time to reach the other parts of the world. The speed of the telegraph was compared to today's possibility

19:19is very slow, and the result was that when the news reached their destiny, they had cooled down. They had no longer that lively impact, which is felt when you assist to an event. A bomb exploding at the other end of the world is today, thanks to global television, exploding is changing simultaneously in the rooms of everyone who owns a television receiving set, and this is in no times being the majority of humanity. Therefore, we all are affected by incidents and events in quite a different way than was the case in the days of any of the preceding or even of the now still living generations.

20:12This is changing fundamentally all the facts, including those of the political life. With that we must realize that this is just a part of the event. We go through an acceleration which will alter our lives even more. People feel this, although an answer to the problem itself is not forthcoming as yet. All this is called progress and certainly there is some progress if we look for instance at the medical science. What has been achieved here even in the last years is staggering. On the other hand, its impact on the life of humanity, the political sense, the question of freedom and democracy, has not yet been fully assessed and will be felt strongly in in the non-too-far distant future. There is also the added fact, especially in the political life, that it is very hard to transmit the experience of the generation to the next. Each generation must acquire its own experience, and this of course means a new system of teaching whereby the teacher must be the person itself affected by the event.

21:36Politically, one of the most significant elements in the rise of the superpowers, which started with the Second World War and now is becoming a normal phenomenon. Some of the countries have superpowers in their own right, and for instance, the United States, who by this fact are able to master the events more easily than those who have still to draw the consequences from their smallness in the face of world events. We have therefore here the rapidly progressing federations of small countries.

22:21It is led by the European Union, which has a longer past because of the geographical data of the European continent. The present tendency for enlargement will in the end create a truly united Europe. We find similar phenomena in the organization of African unity, in the The Organization of African Unity, in the efforts of the Latin American nations to find unity as shown by Mercosur, and last not least in the efforts of the Asiatic nations, especially those of South East Asia in the Asian bloc. That these political unifications are taking in some time is obvious. On the other hand, one can already note certain phenomena. Here,

23:23the great danger emerging from freedom and democracy is a tendency towards centralization. This is being felt in the European Union, increasingly in other areas, and creates serious and creates serious problems which are not yet sufficiently studied. Centralism is leading at the same time to big government which are by nature inefficient.

23:53This can be shown in the smallest details. I can tell you of a personal experience characteristic In 1994 we had European elections. The European Commission in Brussels had the reasonable idea of sending out buses all through Europe in order to distribute material and to explain to the people the issues at stake. They also sent to all the candidates the schedule of these buses to their respective areas. I usually did not go to these bus stops because I had some better matters to deal with.

24:42On one day, however, I had a few hours break and since it was indicated that the bus would to be stopping in Munich at such and such an hour, I went there to see what would happen. I found this bus standing on a very place in the big city where in all likelihood nobody would pass. This was for me an excellent illustration of centralism. Even a Munich dimwit could have told that this would be false because he had some personal experience while an academic A politically graduated bureaucrat in Brussels, on the other hand, would choose the place on his map and this would be the result.

25:30It is a practical experience of politics that the closer you bring a decision to those it affects, the greater the likelihood that the decision will be good. Federalization is leading also to the new feudalism now being created in the name of efficiency. Bureaucracy is today the cancer of political institutions and seems to be on a move towards ever greater expansion. If successive governments come with the promise of reducing bureaucratic services, only very few of them are successful. In the end, under the pretext of efficiency, new bureaucracies are being established.

26:18When recently new governments were formed in Europe, in Great Britain, in France, in Germany and in Italy, all the promises of reducing bureaucracy were forgotten. Indeed, the number of bureaucrats continues to rise. Today, there are already countries in Europe where 25% of the population are on public and government services. It is also a frightening fact that in recent opinion polls, it was found that when young people were asked what their professional goals in life were, a majority A majority had answered to enter government service. People no longer seem to see the great personal accomplishments as an achievement, achieving excellence, but only one security, which on the one German political leader recently stated, is leading directly from government The greater our states become, the less efficient and the more expensive they are.

27:42Thus, we are on the road to serfdom, of which Professor von Hayek has so ably spoken. When knowing what dictatorship of the desk means, one sometimes comes to believe that

28:01in the long run, more dangerous it is than the individual dictatorship. The arrogance of bureaucracy is in many countries reaching a point which explains the population's deep-rooted Fear when facing governments. The lonely crowd is today a reality. This means a direct danger for democracy. One of the most perilous features of our times is the confusion of language. A true Tower of Babel, the less efficient and the more expensive they are. Thus, we We are on the road to serfdom, of which Professor von Hayek has so ably spoken. When knowing what dictatorship of the desk means, one sometimes comes to believe that in the long run more dangerous it is than the individual dictatorship.

29:05The arrogance of bureaucracy is in many countries reaching a point which explains the population's deep-rooted fear when facing governments. The lonely crowd is today a reality. This means a direct danger for democracy. One of the most perilous features of our times is the confusion of language, a true Tower of Babel, though today it is mainly locked in on the East River in New York. Especially in Europe, we find almost everywhere that justice and equality are being considered identically, although in fact the enforced equality is one of the greatest injustices one can visit upon a person or a nation.

30:05This is particularly felt in politics with our electoral system. People in countries with proportionate representation and party lists of candidates no longer know who their representative is. Amongst my colleagues in the European Parliament, those who have been elected on a national list, as is the case in France, in Spain or in Greece, do do not know who elected them. The true contact between elected representatives and the people themselves is diminishing and so it is justly claimed increasingly that we have no longer democracy but we have party-tocracy.

30:52That is the government parties which unfortunately in some cases leads to a new notion which which is called kleptocracy. It is the rule of thieves. This is creating a mounting criticism

31:11of the democratic system, which I feel you Americans are still lucky enough to escape because of the fact that you still have the direct election of your representatives and of Your Senators. Here people at least know who their representative is, or at least have an ample opportunity to know it. Democracy still has a human face. In Europe, unfortunately, we are approaching the stage of abstract democracy, where it is no longer possible to establish Where it is no longer possible to establish a living link, as shown by the fact that in Great Britain too, the movement to abolish the direct election of members is increasingly advanced.

32:07And here may I just tell you that this is one of the most dangerous sides of the picture, Because exactly there is no longer any life. And I, who have been 20 years in Parliament and believe that I have a little experience on that, I know what this means, to be estranged from one's electorate and it has been always my effort to try to get as close as possible to my voters and indeed in many instances it was my voters who brought that initiative which led me to bring some in, some out. This is creating an increasing skepticism on the part of the population is clear. Here too, I can give you a personal experience. It is only since 1994 that in meetings and being asked by younger people whether I would not agree that democracy is a bad system, that it is inefficient, and that it would be a blessing if some spread of skepticism A strong person rose to put the house in order. We, the older people, who have known these

33:21strong persons, cannot be tempted by such pseudo-logic. The youngsters, who have not the same experience as we have, are increasingly attracted by what the French political thinker Jean-Francois Revelle has called the totalitarian temptation. This, in my opinion, has become is becoming an increasing danger which not only threatens Europe but also many of the other democracies who by their devotion to alleged justice are abolishing the human face of democracy and are making of it a system which is the more endangered since a young generation is taking over which has never known either totalitarianism or global warfare.

34:08Almost against this danger and threat, we in Europe have an instrument which I hope will be used, although I am sometimes worrying about the way in which especially the national governments, who still hold excessive power in the European Union, are trying to brush it aside, namely the principle of subsidiarity in the Treaty of Maastricht. One of the most important steps in this Maastricht Treaty is the fact that the principle of subsidiarity can now be used in the European Court. So far this has not taken place. As you know, subsidiarity, which is a difficult word to translate to the people, means in In more simple terms, that the greater entity can never take over a task which a smaller entity can fulfill in a satisfactory manner. In other words, municipalities have basically more rights than territorial units, as for instance, counties or states. This is also an effective defense against the temptation of using the harmonization which we have to I want to carry out, in order to live in the present world in a human way, as a means to

35:34extend the power of central government. I know that it is a truly human characteristic that those who are bearers of bad news are unpopular. It was indeed a very human system in old Turkey that if bad news were brought to the sovereign, the news would be accepted Today, fortunately, one no longer executes bearers of bad news, but on the other hand it is hard to get them across and to make people understand that some of the hopes which are being entertained quite generally today are unjustified. One should never forget that good politics consist in always being prepared for the worst.

36:24If it does not materialize, one can't thank the Lord, but if it comes, one is ready. Today, unfortunately, when too many politicians are thinking of saying what pleases the masses in order to be re-elected, There is some very real danger that the courage to admit dark perspectives vanishes so that all too many persons no longer know what is really at stake. Here, the so-called perfect democracies of the proportionate representation and the rigid list of candidates are much more threatened than are those where the people know their representative.

37:10People who have personal contact with their representative consequently trust him more than they can do to those who aren't, except perhaps in seeing them from time to time on

37:30television. At least for us in Europe, this shows our task since freedom is once again are again endangered. We must dare to speak of this. We must realize that freedom must be saved and must be protected. At the same time, we must also understand that freedom is best established in the small entities. Its basic root is the family, then the municipal life and so on. The great countries, our great federations of the future, will be big houses It is in this perspective that we have to see the potentialities of the teachings of Mises,

38:20one of his greatest contemporaries for the future of our common life. This is not an academic game or a scientific preoccupation. It is today a very important and very humane and Human Fact. We are not here in order to dream or to follow intellectual pursuits, but dedicated to a truly important task. Let us not forget that in the end, as past decades have shown, it is the work at the universities and in the intellectual community that is long-range decisive. When one sees in these terms the tremendous success which Professor We know that today, when the dangers are still ahead and still can be avoided, it is the work at the universities which is decisive. We ought to be able to teach the people that that freedom is worth fighting for, that the basis of freedom is the political freedom, and that the prosperity of the future depends on the achievement of peace.

39:40I know that there are many who say that we should not talk of the defense of peace at a time when peace allegedly is assured since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Let us not be mistaken, this is not the case. When we see certain figures who are politically quite successful and who remind us of the Hitlerite and Stalinist times, such as Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic, when we see that they are able to challenge great world powers which do not dare to put an end to their inhumane rule, we know that the time has come when we must act again as did our for predecessors like Ludwig von Mises at the end of the Second World War.

40:28More than many years ago, we are called to defend freedom and to promote sound notion of democracy. More than once, we must make people recognize the tremendous dangers of centralism and of centralized bureaucracy. More than once, we should mobilize the people to mobilize the forces of freedom in the fight for the defense in our times. This is a task which is given to the younger generation, but in which the older generation can render significant service. It is from our decision of today that the future of the next generation depends.

41:14Mises did that in his time. We who are dedicated to the ideas for which this great man has started and lived are called upon to act in our days so as to be worthy of our great predecessors. I thank you.