"FREEDOM MUST BE TOTAL"

With all the talk about Italy's No. 1 threat -Communism -not much is said about another ailment which works on Communism's side. The other sickness: statism. This leftover from Fascism stultifies free enterprise in business and perpetuates a swollen bureaucracy in government. Last week Don Luigi Sturzo, Italy's aged and respected political priest, addressed himself to the problem Italian politicians prefer not to talk about. Said Don Luigi:

DEMOCRACY has two fundamental elements. They are: freedom, as opposed to despotism and a society in which there are no special classes, castes or interests. Freedom must be total or else it is not freedom.

Despite all the good will and the oft-repeated statements of the men in government, both in the past and present, it cannot be denied that the weight of an ever more intrusive interference from the government is upon us. I am not opposed to measured government intervention in the various branches of private activities, especially where private initiative cannot of itself adequately answer public needs.

Freedom and Power. Since the war, all attempts at getting back on the road to freedom have been barred by three factors: lack of faith in freedom or, more exactly, fear of freedom; an inferiority complex in the face of Marxist propaganda; and the vested interests of a government bureaucracy. Today, nine years after war's end, we find ourselves in such a maze of interlocking interests -and in such a psychological state -that it is hard to speak of an effective reduction of state intervention without being misunderstood. That is why I, who have no ties, can speak of it. It does not matter that my voice is that of an unheeded Cassandra. If I were silent, I should fail in my duty.

Two concepts face each other. One of them is state intervention, leading to state socialism. The other is freedom, leading to civic and social cooperation. I am for freedom.

Someone said that freedom must be defended at all times because, like virtue, it is at all times besieged. This is true for all, and for all cases. But the profound meaning of freedom must be understood. The best definition was given by Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power." Only in democracy can we have direct and indirect participation in power. But power presupposes property -and property means initiative, responsibility and risk. This is a law of history. Therefore, the proletarian will have no power as long as he remains a proletarian.

But when . . . the state is introduced in the place of the greater possibilities of private property, when government monopolies are created, when perpetual tenures are established by state-controlled groups, and government participation is established in private enterprise, then the course of freedom is altered or interrupted.

For some time we in Italy have been heading towards state capitalism and hence the formation of a new, restricted political class made up of those participating in that capitalism -in other words, the government and civil-service bureaucracy. It is no wonder privileged employees take to themselves bigger tasks and positions, that they are now present in large numbers in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. It is no wonder that a certain number of parliamentary representatives are simultaneously administrators or managers of state companies handling public funds. An attempt has been made to reconcile differences between state and private and semi-public companies, but the law is losing its ethical force because it has been observed only by a few and has been evaded by many.

The Curse of Monopolies. The system of state participation in enterprise allows the government and privileged bureaucracy to spread itself in such a way as to handicap and alter an economic dynamism otherwise capable of increasing production and absorbing the ever-growing labor market. These companies and the state monopolies acquire such credit and fiscal privileges that they can, at will, kill any private competition. It is the state -that is, the community -which bears the almost constant losses.

Thus private initiative becomes ever more contracted, while government participation gets even larger and keeps all power and almost all possession unto itself. In such an atmosphere, so-called private monopolies are also created. Whether private or government, they are still monopolies and as such are harmful to economy and freedom. I am not against a law penalizing the creation of private industrial and commercial monopolies, but simultaneously the state itself must eliminate its own monopolies.

God himself gave us liberty with the attached risk that we might follow the wrong road. But the attitude of today seems to be to cast the individual risk upon the state, that is, the community. If this continues, the time will come when we will all be civil servants. Should that day ever come to our country, a nation of responsible persons would no longer exist. It would be a host of irresponsible people.

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