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Franklin and Freedom

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YALE UNIVE

An Address by Joseph Fels to the
^'Poor Richard" Club of' Philadel
phia, January 6th, 19 10 Jt ^ I M/Y28

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Single Copies, Five Cents ; ten or more. Three Cents each

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UNTIL philosophers are kings, and the princes of this world
have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness
and wisdom meet in one, cities will never cease from ill —
no, nor the human race as I believe^and then only will our state have
a possibility of life, and see the light of day. — Tlato.

Franklin and Freedom
An Address by Joseph Fels to the
"Poor Richard" Club of Philadel
phia, January 6th, 1910. j& j&

The City of Philadelphia is indebted to an honored merchant,
Justus C. Strawbridge, for a beautiful statue of her first citizen
and adopted son, Benjamin Franklin. The statue is in the high
est degree pleasing, and itself appears well to match the encom
ium by Washington which, with dignified simplicity, graces the
pedestal : Venerated for benevolence,
Admired for talents,
Esteemed for patriotism,
Beloved for philanthropy.
He who knows Benjamin Franklin only from his extraor
dinary, varied and persistent services to his country, state and
city; his observations and pioneer work in gathering secrets
from Dame Nature; and the homely and quaint maxims of
"Poor Richard," has not sounded the depths of his feelings ; has
not yet learned the whole worth of the man. There are three
subjects which engaged Franklin's thoughts which, I am sure,
he would emphasize, could he converse with us from his pedestal
by the Post Office. His counsel might not be welcomed by the
people of Philadelphia, but I am sure none could take ofifence, for
his benevolence was innate.

Gb'BS.'^OS

"His statue in Boston was placed," said his eulogist, "to
receive, and I had almost said, to reciprocate the daily saluta
tions of all who pass."
In such kindly spirit I wish to speak of three subjects which
engaged Franklin's thoughts. They concern the questions of
trade, peace and the tenure of land.
A FREE TRADER
Franklin opposed the doctrine known as "protection,"
sometimes defined as "public taxation for private purposes." He
was not of that timid class known to-day as tariff reformers. He
did not even believe in tariff for revenue. He believed that any
governmental interference between buyer and seller was wrong
and productive of evil. He was uncompromisingly a free trader.
The importance of the subject will justify quotations at length.
(From "The Internal State of America.")
And when the government had been solicited to sup
port such schemes by encouragement in money or by impos
ing duties on importation of such goods, it has been gener
ally refused, on this principle, that if the country is ripe
for the manufacture, it may be carried on by private persons
to advantage; if not, it is folly to think of forcing nature.
 The governments in America do nothing
to encourage such projects. The people by these means are
not imposed on either by the merchant or mechanic.
I make no comment further than this; we have progressed
since then, yet complaints of imposition to-day are widespread.
In 1775, when the colonies were restive under the restric
tions imposed by England, Franklin suggested the following pro
posal : Whenever she (England) shall think fit to abolish her
monopoly . . . and allow us a free commerce with
all the rest of the world, we shall well nigh agree to give
and pay into the sinking fund 100,000 pounds sterling per
annum for the term of one hundred years.
To counteract the proposed restraining acts of Parliament.
Franklin moved in Congress, July 21st, 1775, as follows:

That all custom houses in the colony shall be shut up
and all officers of the same discharged from the execution
of their several functions, and all the ports of the said col
onies are hereby declared to be henceforth open to the ships
of every state in Europe that will admit our commerce and
protect it 
Franklin's biographer, the lamented Albert H. Smyth, of
our Central High School, said: "Franklin's freedom of trade
was based on a natural right." Personally I am a free trader. I
respect every man's right to buy or sell to the best advantage,
believing that "mind your own business" is the best part of the
Golden Rule. May I respectfully suggest to my fellow citizens
that, if Franklin's theory be unsound, their settled judgment of
Franklin's wisdom must be revised? The revision must include
also in its disapproval the opinions of Washington, Jefferson,
Madison, Patrick Henry and all the signers of the Declaration of
Independence; for therein is an indictment of George III "for
cutting off our trade with all parts of the world." It must also
question the wisdom of that provision of Magna Charta which de
clares : All merchants may safely and without molestation de
part from England and come to England as well by land as
by water, to buy and to sell, free from all evil duties . .
It is interesting to note that the just and gentle founder
of Pennsylvania, that "holy experiment," did, for the general
good, refuse a great financial temptation (entirely legal) for a
monopoly of trade with the Indians. Penn has recorded his feel
ings that Pennsylvania had been given him to honor the Lord's
name, and to serve his truth and people, that an example and
standard might be set up to the nations ; therefore, "I determined
not to abuse his love, nor to act unworthy of his providence, and
so defile what came to me clean."
Although Franklin's opinions were radical, they were ex
pressed with so much moderation, kindness and persuasiveness
that further quotations are tempting. In a letter to Peter Col-
linson, he wrote:

In time, perhaps mankind may be wise enough to let
trade take its own course, find its own channels, and regulate
its own proportions, etc. At present most of the edicts of
princes, placaerts, laws and ordinances of kingdoms and
states for the purpose prove political blunders; the advan
tages they produce not being general for the Commonwealth,
but particular to private persons or bodies in the State who
procure them, and at the expense of the rest of the people
In 1784, in a letter to Vaughn, he wrote:
I am sorry for . the overturn you mention of those
beneficial systems of commerce that would have been exemp
lary to mankind. The making England entirely a free port
would liave been the wisest step ever taken for its advan
tage. There are hosts of sincere protectionists who fear the ruin
of their country if traders be allowed to fetch and carry without
let or hindrance. To them 1 respectfully commend Franklin's
words written in 1774:
It were therefore to be wished that commerce were as
free between all the nations of the world as it is between
the several counties of England : so would all by mutual com
munication obtain more enjoyment. These counties do not
ruin one another by trade; neither would the nations.
Cobden, whose mind, Smyth says, was fertilized by Franklin.
held that the moral progress and elevation of a people depend
first of all, upon a removal of carking care, and upon the ability
to secure with reasonable labor, the loaf, the coat and the roof.
It was clear to Franklin, as to Cobden, that free trade best pro
vided for the certainty of these conditions for his countrymen
but his interest was broader than the colonies; it embraced the
world. In a letter to the Englishman, Hume, he writes :
I have lately read with great pleasure the excellent es
say on the jealousy of commerce. I think it cannot but have
a good effect in promoting a certain interest too little thought
of by selfish man, and scarcely ever mentioned, so that we
hardly have a name for it ; I mean the interest of humanity,
or common good of mankind. But I hope, particularly from
that essay, an abatement of the jealousy ... of the
commerce of the colonies.

This "interest of humanity or common good of mankind" for
which Franklin sought a name, shall we call it cosmopolitanism —
a citizenship of the world? It is that for which saints have
prayed, and philosophers have taught, and poets have sung. Yet
with clear vision Franklin saw in the trader, however humble,
however selfish or prosaic, yet unconsciously its missionary, a
courier for civilization, a promoter of peace on earth and good
will among nations. Instead of "setting the dogs upon him," he
advised that the trader should be welcomed with open arms.
"Many." said the prophet, "shall run to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased." It is the demand of the trader which re
moves barriers separating mankind ; witness the Atlantic cables
the Suez' Canal, the Simplon Tunnel, and the brave attempt at
Panama, appalling in difficulty. Success to them all, workers
together for good! Well has Stephens said: "Trade is the
Peacemaker of God, and in her service shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, 'Every valley shall be exalted, and
every mountain and hill shall be made low ; the crooked shall be
made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.' "
That Frankhn's desire for the general good was not mere
sentiment is shown by his refusal to patent several successful
inventions. Disapproving privilege in others, he would not profit
by it for himself. "I declined," said he in his Autobiography,
"from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such oc
casions, viz., that as we enjoy great advantages from the in
ventions of others, we should be glad to serve others by any in
ventions of ours, and this we should do generously and nobly."
And the last public paper by Franklin, within two months
of his death, was a plea for the liberation of the blacks.
WAR AND PEACE
However tempting the subject may be, let us leave it to con
sider briefly Franklin's testimony against war. • In 1783, after
the return of peace, he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks as follows :
I join with you most cordially in rejoicing at the re
turn of peace. I hope it will be lasting, and that mankind
will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures,
have reason and sense enough to settle their differences

without cutting throats; for, in my opinion, there never was
a good war or a bad peace. What vast additions to the
conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have
acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in
works of public utility I What an extension of agriculture,
even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered
navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges aqueducts, new
roads and other public works, edifices and improvements,
rendering England a complete paradise, might have been ob
tained by spending those millions in doing good, which in
the last war have been spent in doing mischief ; in bringing
misery to thousands of famihes, and destroying the lives of
so many thousands of working people, who might have per
formed the useful labor.
"Never a good war or a bad peace !" — an amazing conclu
sion ! However much you or I may differ with Franklin let us
realize the breadth of his sympathies. Perhaps we, as a people,
are mistaken in our alarms and preparations for war. Perhaps
it may not be necessary or advisable t6 prepare the Big Stick and
the Dreadnaught. Perhaps by a scrupulous respect for the rights
of all men, white, black, brown or yellow, they may come to love
us, and never dream of harming us I So thought William Penn ;
his "holy experiment" was successful. So also thought Lycurgus
the Spartan, — "for he did not fence the city with walls, but forti
fied the inhabitants with virtue, and so preserved the city for
ever." So also thought Ulysses S. Grant (alas! that his thought
was too late). On his return from his voyage round the world,
he said : Though I have been trained as a soldier, and partici
pated in many battles, there never was a time when in my
opinion, some way could not be found of preventing the
drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a
great recognized committee of nations will settle internat
ional differences, instead of keeping large standing armies as
they do in Europe.
Before, therefore, we approve of another war, let us pause
to think of the advice of Franklin; let us look beyond the pomp
and circumstance of war ; rather let us in imagination look upon
devastated fields, upon bereaved households, upon broken moth
ers, sad eyed widows and helpless children. The glory is trans
ient; the grief is permanent. 6

THE LAND QUESTION.
What were Frankhn's thoughts upon the land question?
— a question which, slowly here, but swiftly in England, is en
gaging political thought, and promising dramatic developments.
The question was not in his day pressing, as the question of trade
had been. The settlements on the seaboard were trifling; behind
them lay a continent untouched. Franklin has, however, record
ed interesting observations. I quote from his "Internal State of
America." We are sons of the earth and sea, and like Antaeus in
the fable, in wrestling with a Hercules, we now and then re
ceive a fall; the touch of our parents communicates to us
fresh strength and vigor to renew contests . . . The
truth is that though there are in America few people so
miserable as the poor of Europe, there are also very few that
in Europe would be called rich. It is rather a general happy
mediocrity that prevails. There are few great proprietors
of the soil, and few tenants ; . . very few rich
enough to live idly on their incomes.
We pride ourselves upon having progressed since that day.
We have milhonaires and multi-millionaires, also we have tramps
and paupers. The strain of business life is increasing. Women
and children are pressed into the ranks of labor; the fireside and
the playground are drafted for the machines. And on our streets
at night I see sadder sights than these. We ,have progressed.
Let us quote from Franklin's "Observations on the Increase
of Mankind" :

Land being thus plenty in America, and so cheap that
a laboring man that understands husbandry can in a short
time save money enough to purchase a piece of new land
sufficient for a plantation whereon he may subsist a family,
such are not afraid to marry, for if they even look far enough
forward to consider how their children when grown up, are
to be provided for, they see that more land is to be had at
rates equally easy, etc.,  but, notwithstand
ing this increase, so vast is the territory of North America,
that it will require many ages to settle it fully, and till it is

fully settled, labor will never be cheap here, where no man
continues long a laborer but gets a plantation of his own.
Those hopeful words were written in 1751 by a man thought
ful, careful and restrained in the use of language. Franklin did
not foresee. The lapse of time is far from having been "many
ages," yet to-day Labor is cheap — dirt cheap. That being whom
the Psalmist declared to be a little lower than the angels, whose
possibilities are boundless; that being whom Shakespeare apos
trophized so gloriously as "in apprehension so like a God" — is a
drug upon the market. When you built your new opera house,
such beings fought for a chance to dig its cellars. To meet the
needs of the poor, so vast is the problem that charity finds it
necessary to be "organized" and statistical; and the quality of
mercy has become strained. We read, and forget^ that the bread
line at the Bowery Mission has increased from 1500 to 2000 men
— not vagabonds, says the Mission Superintendent, but men out
of work. And newspaper accounts of suicides because of de
spondency are common. The vast territory which was to be a
safeguard against poverty for "many ages" is but sparsely set
tled. Yet stories of distress are commonplace, perennial and
alas ! "tiresome." We dismiss them with a shrug.
Last January Secretary Garfield submitted information of
32,000 cases of aheged land frauds, mainly in States west of the
Mississippi. The fact is ominous. Lowell saw that destruction
lies that way, as destruction had waited for Rome,
Where Idleness enforced saw idle lands.
Leagues of unpeopled soil, the common earth,
Walled round with paper against God and Man.
In our own favored land monopoly is making its stealthy
way. There are scores of individual and syndicate holdings
ranging from 20,000 acres each to 20,000,000 acres each. Yet
we wonder at the increase in the cost of living, and the "drift
to the cities"; and we cry, "Back to the land!" Let the slum
dweller who would work in the Master's vineyard go back to the
land if he will and if he can ; he will find ample room unoccupied,
but owned, "held for a rise." He must make terms with mono-
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poly; and between the landlordism of the slums and the land'
lordism of the fields he is between the Devil and the deep sea.
A philosopher has told us that in Nature there are no punish
ments ; there are only consequences. In Nature, as in mathe
matics, two and two make four, yesterday, to-day and forever.
But, when we consider the remedies which we apply to the con
sequences, the words of John Stuart Mill cannot be too often re
peated: "When the object is to raise the general condition of a
people, small means do not merely produce small effects ; they
produce no effects at all." The good intentions of our Good
Government Clubs and our Municipal Leagues are acknowledged,
but — "hell is paved with good intentions." Addressing them
selves to effects instead of causes, their labors are as those of
Sisyphus. We complain that the men in the bread line sell their votes ;
what else have they to sell? Neglecting equity, we defraud and
disemploy them ; we do not attend to the public business ; the
public business is neglected, and the consequences annoy us.
"Drive thy business," says Poor Richard, "or it will drive thee."
Had similar conditions existed in Franklin's time, I think he
would have studied them ; he would have been put upon inquiry ;
his benevolence was of a kind that walks with open eyes, that
traces effect to cause, that seeks remedy, and is not satisfied with
palliatives. But at that time the question was not urgent, and
the public demands on Franklin's time were constant. Other
wise, I think he could not have failed to concur in the opinion
expressed by Thomas Jefferson. Being in France thirty-four
years afterward, and observant of the causes which soon after
brought to pass the French Revolution, Jefferson wrote :
Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands
and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property
have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The
earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live
on.

THE SINGLE TAX.
The last letter which I shall quote is most pleasing and most
important ; a fitting finale. It was written in 1768 from London
to Du Pont de Nemours in France; that Du Pont whose sons
founded the powder works near Wilmington, Delaware :
I received your obliging letter of the loth of May, with
the most acceptable present of your "Physiocratie"
There is such a freedom from local and national prejudices
and partialities, so much benevolence to mankind in general,
so much goodness mixt with the wisdom in the principles
of your new philosophy, that I am perfectly charmed with
them, and wish I could have stayed in France for some time
to have studied at your school, that I might by conversing
with its founders have made myself quite a master of that
philosophy . . I had, before I went into your coun
try, seen some letters of yours to Dr. Templeman, that
gave me a high opinion of the doctrines you are engaged in
cultivating, and of your personal worth and abilities which
made me greatly desirous of seeing you . . , .
I am sorry to find that that wisdom which sees in the
welfare of the parts the prosperity of the whole seems yet
not to be known in this country. It is from your philosophy
only that the maxims of a contrary and more happy conduct
are to be drawn, which I therefore sincerely wish may grow
and increase till it becomes the governing philosophy of the
human species as it must certainly be that of superior beings
in better worlds.
Like most strong men, Benjamin Franklin was careful and
moderate in his language, as we have seen. It is therefore worth
while to examine doctrines of which such a man says, "I am per
fectly charmed with them," and for which he hopes such growth
and increase that they may become the governing philosophy
of the human species.
The physiocrats were philosophers and political economists
who lived in France in the reign of Louis XVL The most prom
inent members of the school were Turgot, the King's Minister
of Finance, and Quesnay, his favorite physician. Their doctrine
was, in a word, the narrow one that government should do no
more than to protect and preserve the rights of life and property,
10

and to administer justice. Governmental interference with pro
duction and exchange was not allowable. Trade was to be free,
and the entire revenue, the "impot unique," was to be taxed from
the rent of land. This proposal of Quesnay to substitute one
single tax upon ground rent for all others was praised by the elder
Mirabeau "as a discovery equal in utility to the invention of writ
ing, or the substitution of the use of money for barter."
Do these words appear to be extravagant? That I regret,
tor extravagance is weakness. Yet they are as moderation itself
when compared with those of one who is notably calm, philo
sophical and moderate. It was of this philosophy that Franklin
wrote, "I am perfectly charmed with it:" it was of this philoso
phy that he expressed the hope that it might finally govern the
whole race; it was this philosophy that he thought worthy of
superior beings in better worlds.
The philosophy which so charmed Franklin, and from which
lie hoped so much, was unhappily placed. It was making pro
gress, undoubted progress, when the storm of the French Revolu
tion broke ; it was overwhelmed, and became naught but a mem
ory to the students of history. It is a curious fact that this doc
trine should have been independently thought out and revived in
after years by a young man who knew nothing of the great
Frenchmen who preceded him ; a young man, moreover, who was
born in Franklin's loved city of Philadelphia, a reader of Frank
lin's works, and an eager attendant upon lectures at the Franklin
Institute; like Franklin, too, a printer, a philosopher and a free
trader. He wrote what John Russell Young characterized as "a
solemn message to mankind." The message was "Progress and
Poverty," couched in masterly English worthy of the subject. But
as of old, so to-day, a prophet is not without honor, but in his
own country and among his own kin. Lightly regarded in his
native city and land, his revived doctrine of the "impot unique,"
the doctrine which had so charmed Franklin, here known as the
"single tax," is, in the Antipodes, in Germany and in England
marching apace. I think the time will come when Henry George'.^
birthplace on Tenth Street will rival in attractive power our In
dependence Hall. 11

Benjamin Franklin once wrote of his gratification in the
thought that his works were respectfully quoted by others. But
I acknowledge more than a feeling of respect; I have had a keen
pleasure in thus spreading further the pure" and peaceable coun
sels of this printer, philosopher and statesman.
When next I pass the statue by the Post Office I shall be
mindful of the advice of Franklin's eulogist at Boston. ' I shall
tip my hat, and shall almost e.xpect the face of bronze to light with
pleasure. In conclusion, if I have given but scant attention to a great
subject, it is because my time is short, and because the explana
tion is in every library ; moreover, "a. word to the wise is enough,"
as Poor Richard says.

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