EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChihon Wilhamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnChristine HaynesrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnJohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.j.rnBrown, Katherine Dalton, SamuelrnFrancis, George Garrett,rnE. Ghristian Kopff, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrn]anet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman, JohnrnShelton Reed, Momcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnCOMPOSITION MANAGERrnAnita FedorarnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offiees:rn934 North Main Street, Roekford, IE 61103.rnEditorial Phone: (815)964-5054.rnAdvertising Phone: (815) 964-5811.rnSubscription Department: P.O. Box 800,rnMount Morris, IE 61054. Call 1-800-877-5459.rnFor information on advertising in Chronicles,rnplease call Rochelle Frank at (815) 964-5811.rnU.S.A. Newsstand Distribution by Eastern NewsrnDistributors, Inc., 1130 Cleveland Road,rnSandusky, OH 44870.rnCopyright © 1994 by The Rockford Institute.rnAll rights reserved.rnChronicles (ISSN 0887-5731) is publishedrnmonthly for $28 per year by The RockfordrnInstitute, 934 North Main Street, Roekford,rnIL 61103-7061. Second-class postage paidrnat Rockford, IL and additional mailing offices.rnPOSTMASTER: Send address changes tornChronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mount Morris,rnIL 61054.rnThe views expressed in Chronicles are thernauthors’ alone and do not necessarily reflectrnthe vievv’s of The Roekford Institute or of itsrndirectors. LTnsolicited manuscripts cannot bernreturned unless accompanied by a self-addressedrnstamped envelope.rnChroniclesrnVol, 18, No. 6 June 1994rnPrinted in tlic United States of AmericarnPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESrnOn the Middle AmericanrnUprisingrnChronicles does like to keep a goodrndebate going. Samuel Franeis’s bugle eallrn(“A Banner With a Strange Device,”rnFebruary 1994) for eeonomic nationalismrnwas another interesting alignmentrnof Main Street conservatism with the dirigisternleft. Come the Middle Americanrnpolitical uprising, I’m still wondering,rnwhat sort of policymaking might we actuallyrnexpect? Is vour model France?rnJapan? India? America of the high-tariffrnera? Please provide a better road map.rnI understand that your shopkeeperrncapitalism is distinct from the corporaternvariety. But isn’t it at odds with the entrepreneurialrndynamic as well? Mr. Francisrnwants to protect the high-wage jobs ofrnhis fellow Americans. You can’t do that,rnin a static sense, without barring thernmold-breakers who at least temporarilyrndiminish the value of traditional output,rnand I doubt vou could do that even ifrnyou wanted to. The Postal Service paysrnwell, but its days as a dominant carrierrnare numbered—even with a legal monopolyrn—if you consider electronic transmissionrnas a competitor. In the end, thernonly real countervailing force to capitalismrn(in whatever form we have it) is thernstate, and even with you as its curiousrnally, the state is losing.rnYour nostalgia for a former America isrnone that many of your fellow citizens—rnthough certainly not all—would share.rnBut it’s likely to be preserved only in arnmuseum. All living organisms change;rnthe economic forces reshaping the worldrncan be delayed, but with perverse effect.rnCorrect as you may be in damning therndestruction of the old, you cannot stoprnit. You can not stop it.rn—Tim W. FergusonrnWall Street JournalrnLos Angeles, CArnThe Editors Reply:rnThe real issue is the federal principle:rnthe right and duty of nations to protectrnthemselves against other nations andrnempires like the U.N. or the E.C.; thernright of states to guard their interestsrnagainst national and international governments;rnthe right of families and individualsrnto mind their own business withoutrninterference from any governmentrnagency—in other words, an entirelyrndecentralized political and economicrnorder. The effect of NAFTA or E.C.rnregulations or U.N. treaties, unfortunately,rnis to suck all the decision-makingrnpower up to the top of the tree, awayrnfrom the roots of all creativity: the individual,rnthe family, the entrepreneurialrnfirm, the local comiirunity.rnEconomic creativity is only a smallrnpart of what is at stake, because all thernproductive elements of society are beingrncorrupted today—scholars and scientists,rnpoets and painters, priests and soldiers.rnIf we had to choose between two situationsrn—a creative economy with a stagnantrnsocial, aesthetic, religious, intellectualrnorder or a stagnant economy inrnwhich arts and letters flourished andrnpeople led decent lives—we would unquestionablyrnchoose the latter.rnThe trouble is, the choice is not thatrnsimple. Expanding economies are alsorncultural golden ages—fifth-centuryrnAthens, 12th-century Pisa, etc. But therernis always a simple decision-rule: Does arnmeasure or policy tend to promote thernconcentration of wealth and power atrnhigher le els or does it tend to devolve it?rnIn this regard, we have sympathized withrnprogressive/populist attempts to controlrnbig business, just as we have always deploredrntheir fantasy that such controlrncould be exercised by the federal (orrneven state) government. For similar reasons,rnas much as we would like to containrnthe problems of unassimilated immigrants,rnwe are opposed to identity cards,rnroutine searches, and the English LanguagernAmendment.rnUltimately, the rise and fall of ci’ilizationsrnis only partly determined byrneconomic and political forces. Malariarnseems to have destroyed Pisa, but lazinessrnand dependency is the more usualrndisease. Mr. Jefferson and his friendsrnforesaw all of this, hence his doctrine ofrnperiodic revolution as the only guaranteernof republican government.rn4/CHRONICLESrnrnrn