The following is quoted from the booklet published by the Rockford College Institute.

Foreword

The Rockford College Institute is pleased to present this booklet of essays which appeared serially in the Foundation for Economic Education's periodical, THE FREEMAN, from May through December of 1976.

In the August 1, 1976 booklet which announced the activation of the Rockford College Institute, we observed:

"The major institutions of American society are on the defensive, seemingly impotent in the face of disintegrating forces. Our system of law and law enforcement is as ineffective in controlling crime as our system of private enterprise is in resisting the advance of govenmental interference and control. The moral code, which once played a dominant part in the cohesion of the family unit, is now as ineffective in that role as our foreign policy is in protecting the interests of free nations including our own. Our system of education is as irresolute in dealing with declining standards of student performance as our government is in controlling the unbalanced budget.

There is reason to believe that these are not simply parallel perplexities which an unkind fate has imposed upon us all at once, but to a significant degree are various manifestations of a single problem. Our citizens no longer understand, and prize, and seek to perpetuate the set of attitudes and the code of conduct which shaped and guided the particular kind of free society which evolved and prospered in the United States.

Political freedom, of itself, does not automatically provide a nation with stability, order, harmony or prosperity, as is all too evident in many countries which have achieved their political independence in recent years. The contrasting record of our free nation derived to a great extent from the set of convictions which prevailed when the nation was founded, and from the imprint of those convictions upon the government and the other institutions of our society."

In recent years, the principles articulated by the Founding Fathers have been obscured and mocked by "The New Morality" and have been compromised as the demands of self-serving militant groups have been met.

In this series of essays, Mr. Pemberton has projected into the issues of our time the philosophy of men and of government enunciated by the statesmen who founded our nation, principles which served the citizens well as long as they prevailed.

John A. Howard
Director,
Rockford College Institute
January 1979

Go Back

Last update: Friday, 18-Jun-2010 06:04:08 MST