Dateline-Mont Pelerin
Brodin, Eric
Eric Brodin Dateline - Mont Pelerin, Switzerland In this little Swiss village surrounded by the awesome majesty of the Alps, gathered for ten memorable days in the spring of 1947 thirty-five men...
...This seemed to be recognized by the officers of the Society, as the notes of the meeting indicates that "a special aim...
...we need to recall only a few such as INFRA: The International Freedom Academy of Vienna and Stockholm, the Wilhelm-Ropke Society of Switzerland, The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the recently formed International Institute for Economic Research of the United Kingdom...
...And in the United States the Philadelphia Society constitutes a kind of sister or daughter organization to the Mont Pelerin Society, with a partially overlapping membership...
...to promote participatory learning...
...5) Methods of combatting the misuse of history for the furtherance of creeds hostile to liberty...
...Significantly the 1968 and 1969 meetings of the Society were held in the latter two countries...
...It is in Germany, as Karl Brandt of Stanford's Hoover Institution has correctly pointed out, that Mont Pelerin Society members' contributions to government have been most keenly felt...
...Throughout the years these distinguished men - scholars in their various fields - have come together at annual meetings to exchange ideas and stimulate each other toward action...
...The similarity of the aims of these two Societies is not accidental...
...Even that most precious possession of Western Man, freedom of thought and expression, is threatened by the spread of creeds which, claiming the privilege of tolerance when in the position of a minority, seek only to establish a position of power in which they can supress and obliterate all views but their own...
...Almost a quarter of a century has passed since these concepts were expressed at Mont Pelerin .Although many of these problems remain, only a decade after this meeting, Europe was to experience an economic progress not even the Mont Perlerin men had envisioned...
...Its object is solely, by facilitating the exchange of views among minds inspired by certain ideals and broad conceptions held in common, to contribute to the preservation and improvement of the free society...
...Responding to the bold and workable ideas of the free market-oriented economy, men and women representing the academy, governmental institutions, public media and private enterprise joined Mont Pelerin Society's annual meetings in ever greater numbers...
...We need only recall such names as Professors Shenoy from India, C. Nishiyama from Japan and N. Zuloaga from Venezuela...
...There they have made special contributions "to the development of economic policy and decision-naking" developing "a system of order aimed at combining economic freedom with socia and ethical justice as well as restraint of abuses of freedom and civil liberty...
...At the 1971 meeting Milton Friedman, the current president, suggested the organization "end in a blaze of glory" by "having a grand Twenty-fifth anniversary meeting next year and then disband...
...Worthy of note also are the number of other institutions and organizations which, since the founding of the Mont Pelerin Society, have been organized in different countries...
...His essays are widely published in Europe and our own humble republic...
...It seeks to establish no meticulous and hampering orthodoxy...
...They were for the most part academicians and economists representing the classical economic traditions of Adam Smith and his successors...
...Since 1965 the Philadelphia Society has gathered 200 to 300 distinguished conservatives - academicians, professionals, publicists and a sprinkling of politicians - to annual national and regional meetings, in order as the Society's statement of purpose puts it: "to sponsor the interchange of ideas through discussion and writing in the interest of deepening the intellectual foundations of a free and ordered society and of broadening the understanding of its basic principles and traditions...
...Eric Brodin Dateline - Mont Pelerin, Switzerland In this little Swiss village surrounded by the awesome majesty of the Alps, gathered for ten memorable days in the spring of 1947 thirty-five men from the United States and Europe...
...2) The redefinition of the functions of the state so as to distinguish more clearly between the totalitarian and the liberal order...
...The central values of civilization are in,danger...
...A flow of significant articles and books on basic issues facing international and national economic systems have appeared by the men of Mont Pelerin...
...In other ways they are under constant menace from the development of current tendencies of policy...
...The contributions toward good government by Ludwig Earhardt in Germany and Max Thurn in Austria are other examples of contributions by members of the Mont Pelerin Society to contemporary society...
...3) Methods of re-establishing the rule of law and of assuring its development in such a manner that individuals and groups are not in a position to encroach upon the freedom of others and private rights are not allowed to become a basis of predatory power...
...In the shambles of Europe's economic collapse there existed yet another threat to economic and political freedom, that of the "planned economy" of the socialist state...
...to stimulate an exchange of ideas...
...Important among the leading opinion-makers are some of the members of the Mont Pelerin Society...
...Believing what is essentially an ideo-logical movement must be met by intellectual argument and the reassertion of valid ideals, the group...
...Significantly, and symbolically the three young men who placed the wreath represented three nations and perhaps also three religions...
...The scholars whose basic philosophy became known as the School of Freiburg' still present the perpetual challenge to Marxian, Leninistic, Neo-Marxian, Stalinist, Maoist and the many other fatalist appraisals of competition, private initiative and free enterprise...
...Such activities recently motivated Lawrence Fertig to note ". . .there is the heartening increased activity of free-market advocates in the academy and in journalism and in politics...
...to encourage members to foster, through scholarly activity and in other ways, a fuller understanding of the moral and institutional requisites of a free society...
...It was this correspondent's opportunity to attend a memorable meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society amidst the misty hills of Scotland in 1967...
...It was as if the centuries and the nations of the world were bridged as Friedrich von Hayek spoke briefly and then a wreath was placed by the grave-site...
...will be to encourage attendance by younger members...
...for without the diffused power and initiative associated with these institutions, it is difficult to imagine a society in which freedom may be effectively preserved...
...In pursuit of this end, we shall examine a wide range of issues: economic, political, social, cultural, religious and philosophic...
...It has been as Leonard Reed once put it, "an intellectual picnic...
...As it has done for almost a quarter of a century now, the Mont Pelerin Society will continue to servp the aims of which Richard M. Ware (whom I paraphrase)spoke so well-To put like-minded people in communication with one another...
...The position of the individual and voluntary groups are professionally undermined by extensions of arbitrary power...
...It holds further that they have been fostered by a decline of belief in private property and the competitive market...
...The Mont Pelerin Society is today very different than when it started out...
...6) The problems of the creation of an international order conducive to the safe-guarding of peace and liberty and permitting the establishment of harmonious international economic relations...
...is of the opinion that further study is desirable - inter alia - in regard to the following matters: 1) The analysis and explanation of the nature of the present crisis so as to bring home to others its essential moral and economic origins...
...The group docs not aspire to conduct propaganda...
...The international quality of the society has been maintained and, in fact, expanded beyond Europe and the United States...
...Some of these dominant figures are well-known to many of us Wilhelm Ropke, Franz Bohm and Constantin von Dietze are but three...
...Eric Brodin is a free-lance writer, residing in Switzerland...
...It was appropriate that Professor Hayek would lead the meeting, he who once had to flee the planned society of the Nazis, only to encounter such collectivist tendencies in England where he found refuge, and where he wrote his eloquent Road to Serfdom, The little band of men at Mont Pelerin, speaking of themselves as "a group of economists, historians, philosophers and other students of public affairs," met "to discuss the crisis of our times...
...Although the aims are the same, the func-tions and the organization have had to ehange as it became an organization with a massive base...
...The Mont Pelerin group holds that these developments have been fostered by the growth of a view of history which denies all absolute moral standards and by the growth of theories which question the desirability of a rule of law...
...Worth a special thought was the brief and simple ceremony at the Canongate Kirk where the Father of Modern Economics, Adam Smith lies buried...
...4) The possibility of establishing minimum standards by means not inimical to initiative and functioning of the market...
...It aligns itself with no particular party...
...There a distinguished group of men and women came together to hear, among many others, the ex-chancellor of Germany, Ludwig Earhardt, and the controversial British MP, Enoch Powell...
...Gratefully his suggestion was turned down, because although the organizational structure might have to change to accommodate more members, there is a great interest in and a need for just such an organization by the young Conservatives of the world today...
...These neo-classical economic liberals (neo-Manchestrians they have also been called) sought to exchange ideas and formulate views about the ways in which the free society and free economy could best be defended...
...works in monetary policy as Gottfried Haberler's and Fritz Machlup's, for example...
...Although some of these men did not know others, they all knew of one another, and they all knew the man who had called them gether, Friedrich von Hayek...
...What follows is the restatement of their concerns and their hopes...
...We shall seek understanding, not conformity...
...Over large stretches of the earth's surface the essential conditions of human dignity and freedom have already disappeared...
...Nor had these men correctly predicted the growth and success of their own society...
...A young Japanese economist, and the economist sons of renowned economists bearing the names of Friedman and Shenoy...
...By the time the society was celebrating its 23rd anniversary (in Munchen) the original number had increased ten-fold, and today there are more than 400 members...
...It is good to know that the Mont Pelerin Society will continue after its Twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in Switzerland during September 1972, It still has functions to serve, functions which might be even better served by regional meetings and smaller group sessions during the annual meetings...
Vol. 6 • October 1972 • No. 1
