Robert LeFevre’s Freedom School in the late 1950’s through the 1960’s offered two kinds of libertarian agit-prop courses at its log-cabin campus located in the Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado: a two week comprehensive course and shorter intensive courses designed for business executives interested in the fundamentals of libertarian philosophy, politics, and economics. The 1962 Prospectus for the Freedom School was posted earlier.
An academic upgrade was introduced for the 1963-64 academic year, named the Phrontistery [“a thinking place”]. The goal was to have a two semester course organized around a series of invited distinguished lecturers that included Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, Gordon Tullock, and Warren Nutter.
Fun fact: the main house of Milton and Rose Friedman’s “Capitaf” was designed using the plans for the hexagonal Falcon’s Lair building at the Freedom School provided to them by Robert LeFevre.
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The Freedom School is an educational institution offering short courses of instruction in the field of economics, philosophy, ethics, history and political science. Special sessions each year are reserved for executives and those making managerial decisions in business and the professions. Eight two-week comprehensive courses are offered to adults each summer from June through September. Special Workshop and library facilities are available for graduates.
Write for informational folder.
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To Our Readers…
With this issue of the Newsletter, the Freedom School initiates a new monthly publication, designed to keep you informed on news of the Freedom School. It will bring you information about additions to the staff, faculty and trustees, as well as plans for the progress of the School — in its summer sessions and in its development of Rampart College.
The Newsletter will give you information on our graduates – what they are doing and how they are communicating the philosophy of freedom.
This publication is for you – we want you to read it, we want it to be interesting to you and, therefore, we want to hear about it from you. We want to know what interests YOU particularly, what features we can incorporate into the Newsletter that will give you and the School an instrument of mutual communication.
Please don’t hesitate – give us your opinion of the Newsletter: good, bad or indifferent.
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Texas Biochemist Discusses “Equality
Professor Roger J. Williams
No man is the equal of any other man in the view of a leading biochemist from the University of Texas who spoke at the Freedom School Phrontistery last November.
He is Dr. Roger J. Williams, who has been the director of the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute at the University since 1941.
The professor has spent a life-time studying, teaching and researching bio-chemistry, and has pioneered in thought and research on the human side of the problem.
In his studies, the professor has concluded that biochemically and every other way every human is different, even though all may look alike superficially. He explained in his lectures how each person is different anatomically, neurologically, endocrinologically, biochemically, and psychologically.
The professor has been a trail-blazer in his field, and is the discoverer of pantothenic acid (one of the B vitamins) which is required in the machinery of all oxygen-using organisms.
He also did pioneer work on folic acid, and named it. It is another B vitamin that is used in the treatment of anemias. At the Clayton Institute, more vitamins have been discovered than in any other laboratory in the world.
The professor was the first biochemist to be elected president of the American Chemical Society, which now has about 100,000 members, and has received the Mead Johnson award of the American Institute of Nutrition.
Williams is a firm believer in the individuality of each person and his belief is backed up with facts acquired during his long career in biochemistry.
He is a living example of his own theory, having a great interest in literature as well as in his chosen field of study, and he maintains a parallel interest in people. Williams is the kind of man who can say with a twinkle in his eye, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating and in the subsequent metabolic effects,” and mean what he says.
A little key to what the professor is talking about is found in his book, “Nutrition in a Nutshell”, which tells a reader more about his own nutritional problems than he probably knew before — facts he ought to know — and he does it in words that we can understand. In the book Williams points out that each individual has his own nutritional problems.
Two other books by Williams may be time bombs planted in the field of social sciences. They are “The Human Frontier” and “Free and Unequal”, which discusses the biological basis of individual liberty.
What Williams has learned in a life-time of study and reflection about people and each man’s individuality was discussed by him under the theme, “The basis of our love of liberty is biological.”
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Tullock Tells of New Approach to Politico-Economic Study
Professor Gordon Tullock
Dr. Gordon Tullock, associate professor, Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy, University of Virginia, was the second visiting professor to lecture at the Freedom School Phrontistery.
The professor is one of a small group of men in America, numbering about 30, who set about studying political science in a different way.
“We are trying to apply a logical, scientific approach to the political phenomena in an effort to improve our knowledge of politics,” is the way Tullock explains why these few are interested in approaching the study of politics from an unconventional view.
He passed on some of his theories on that subject to Freedom School Phrontistery enrollees in his two series of lectures last November. The two topics were, “Property Institutions” and “Modern Political Theory”.
In the new approach to political science, Tullock attempted to apply the classic economic theories to politics. He hastened to point out that he and fellow theorists are not another group of economic determinists.
Rather, he explained, he and his confreres are applying economics to the study of politics as the pioneer political geographers applied geography to the study of politics.
Tullock added that the studies have no particular relevance to the specific political activities that are going on now and will increase later this year.
“Some people think that a professor of economics ought to be able to make a fortune in the stock market, but this is not necessarily so. That is the case with us. We are studying politics, but are not necessarily able to make predictions on any campaign,” Tullock said.
Tullock was graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 with a degree in law, after having earned his bachelor’s degree there during prior study.
Shortly after his graduation he went to work in a law office in Chicago, and was given a chance to enter foreign service. In 1948 he was on duty in Tientsin, China. He was there for two years, including a year under the communists. He also served in Hong Kong and Korea and did post-doctoral studies in Chinese at Yale and Cornell Universities before he resigned from the service in 1955 to enter the academic world.
He now claims to have found the field of study which intrigues him most. He says there is plenty to keep him busy in his area of economics-political science.
Tullock knows there is lots of hard work ahead. “I’m an optimist and a crusader,” he explained. He and his fellow students in the field intend to push toward their goals as far as they can in one generation.
“We have a genuine theory of politics. We think ours is a more sensible view of politics,” he explained. The immediate goal of his studies is to learn more about how politics works and to determine these facts through scientific investigation.
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Freedom School Growth Measured
in Land, Construction, Students
During the calendar year 1963, the Freedom School’s growth has been such as to amaze the early graduates of the School. In March, 206 acres of rolling meadow-land were added to the 320 acres that originally comprised the campus. This land adjoins the eastern boundaries of the School, and provides a mile of road frontage along Perry Park Road, Colorado Highway 105. This land will probably play a major role in the location and development of Rampart College.
Also in 1963 a new building was completed. Although construction was started in the fall of 1962, the building was not ready for occupancy until February. The major part of this building (called Falcon Lair) is hexagonal in shape, built of logs, and the focal point is a huge hexagonal stone fireplace in the center of a large room which serves as a combination living room-lounge, in which students can relax and where informal entertainment and discussion take place.
Also within the “hex” is a modern kitchen and other facilities. Attached to the “hex” and also built of logs is a rectangular building containing living accommodations for the president and his wife. A wide, open porch extends from the north and east sides of the building.
Other improvements include a general remodeling of Falconwood Lodge, the main building which housed the first classroom and the kitchen and dining room. The kitchen has been doubled in size — with commercial equipment added, making it possible to maintain the same high standard of food preparation and service the School has featured. The new, modern, attractive and comfortable dining room, which can seat 50, has new tables, chairs and lighting.
Below the dining room, the “Bunkhouse” which has, during the life of the School, served as student quarters and office space, is now a recreation room for students. Soft drink, coffee and hot chocolate machines have been added, along with a “Skittles” game and a regulation size pool table, making it a convenient place for students to relax and play various games.
Carpeting has been added to the living quarters in Reno Sales Lodge and to the two cabins that house four students each — Deer Haven and Tall Pines — resulting in more comfortable quarters for students.
The growth of the School can also be measured in the increased number of students who have been graduated each year. During the first year of operation, 26 students were graduated. That number has increased yearly and during the summer season of 1963, 143 students were graduated from Freedom School.
In addition, three special sessions (a workshop and two three-day seminars) were held, with a total enrollment of 44 persons. Inquiries for 1964 courses were received months before the new 1964 Bulletin was in the mails.
View of fireplace in Falcon Lair. The hexagonal stone fireplace, focal point of the 1469-square-foot main room, weighs 23 tons, seven tons of which is the stone facing, and is 14 feet tall. The striking hexagonal wrought-iron chandelier was a gift of Freedom School graduate Brian Monahan.
[Note: Substituted this better image from the Rampart College Bulletin, 1966.]
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F.S. CALENDAR [1964]
Jan. 13 – 17: Prof. Ludwig von Mises, speaking on:
1) Determination of Prices of the Factors of Production;
2) Savings and Accumulation of Capital;
3) Profit and Loss.
Jan. 27 – 31: Prof. Sylvester Petro, speaking on:
1) Freedom, Competition and Property as Juridical Concepts;
2) the Monopoly Issue at Common Law and Under Interventionism;
3) Freedom and Trade Unionism.
Feb. 10 – 14: Dr. F. A. Harper, speaking on the Philosophical Aspects of Peace.
These lectures will take place from 9 a.m. until noon, with discussion from
2 to 5 p.m. on each of the dates specified. Anyone interested in attending any of these meetings may do so by applying to the Registrar of the Freedom School.
Information will be sent upon request.
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Hamowy Wins Oxford Grant
Ronald Hamowy, graduate of the Freedom School (1962) and author of the Phrontistery Organizational Plan, is the recipient of a two-year fellowship to Oxford.
Hamowy’s association with the Freedom School began in the summer of 1962 when his services were obtained to prepare the outline and to project the operation of the Phrontistery. The Organizational Plan was the result of much study and with on modest modification is the working format presently employed. Hamowy also made the recommendations for enrollees and guest lecturers, but was required to depart for England and his studies at Oxford a few weeks before the Phrontistery program.
During much of the time he was preparing the outline and interviewing prospective students, Hamowy was conducting research at the University of Paris.
He is a graduate of City College of New York (1960), is a candidate for doctorate in social thought under F. A. von Hayek at the University of Chicago, and now Earhart Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford.
During his two-year fellowship, Hamowy plans on making frequent trips to the United States, and hopes to visit the Phrontistery early in the year.
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Phrontistery Under Way
Phrontistery enrollees are (seated): Dale M. Haywood, Michael F. Helm, Peter C. Blake, Kameon Kimball, Leanna Koehn, Eduardo Helguera, R. Douglas Pinkney; (standing) Juan Manzano-Taylor, Calvin Byles, Jerry Woloz, William A. Colson, Robert E. Gaskins, Jr., David S. Jackman III, R. James Graser, Charles M. McGehee, Charles F. Adams, Hollis B. Danvers, Burl B. Bigelow, and Juan Larreta.
[ Note: This clearer image has been substituted from a Colorado Public Radio podcast episode “Liberty’s Pitchman, Robert LeFevre: The Freedom School” ]
Dean of the Freedom School Phrontistery is Dr. V. Orval Watts, who for 17 years has been a college instructor and professor of economics. Dr. Watts has taught at Clark University, Harvard University, Antioch College, Carleton College, Claremont Men’s College and the Freedom School. Most recently he served as Visiting Professor of Money and Banking at Pepperdine College, California. He received his B.A. from the University of Manitoba and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. In conjunction with his duties at the Freedom School, Dr. Watts is Director of Economic Education for Northwood Institute in Midland, Michigan.
Dr. V. Orval Watts
Dr. Watts is a charter member of the Mont Pelerin Society and a member of the Economists’ National Committee on Monetary Policy, and has been economic counsel for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Foundation for Economic Education, and business and industrial institutions in Southern California, as well as producer and moderator of radio and television forums. His experience and talents make him a valuable asset to the Phrontistery.
Assisting Dr. Watts is Robert J. Smith, assistant dean of the Phrontistery. Smith is a Freedom School graduate (1958) and received his B.S. from Stanford University. During the summer of 1959 he managed the Stanford Geological Survey, later joining the Foundation for Economic Education as a part time staff member. He was recently a William Volker Fellow in economics at New York University, and is working toward his master’s degree in Business Administration under Professor Ludwig von Mises.
Participating in the Phrontistery are 19 students, 16 of whom are Freedom School graduates, listed below:
Charles F. Adams, Denver, Colo., University of Colorado; Burl B. Bigelow, Denver, Colo., Western State College; Peter C. Blake, Weslaco, Tex., Yale University, University of Colorado; Calvin Byles, New Braunfels, Tex., Texas University; William A. Colson, Bellevue, Wash., San Jose City College, Calif.; Hollis B. Danvers, Houston, Tex., Southern Methodist University; Robert E. Gaskins, Jr., Encino, Calif., Summerfield Scholar, University of Kansas; R. James Graser, Oconomowoc, Wis., Beloit College, University of Wisconsin; Dale M. Haywood, Arcadia, Neb., University of Nebraska, New York University; Eduardo Helguera, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Universidad de Buenos Aires; David S. Jackman III, Wichita, Kans., University of Kansas; Kameon Kimball, Waterville, Wash., University of Washington; Leanna Koehn, Dodge City, Kans., University of Kansas; Juan Manzano-Taylor, Rizal, P.I., University of the Philippines; Charles M. McGehee, El Paso, Tex., Texas Western College; and R. Douglas Pinkney, Willoughby, O., Grove City College, Pa.
Students who had not attended the Freedom School prior to the Phrontistery are: Michael F. Helm, Reseda, Calif., San Fernando Valley State College, Calif.; Juan R. Larreta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Universidad de Buenos Aires; and Jerry Woloz, Brooklyn, N.Y., San Fernando Valley State College, Calif.
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Many Thanks
The Freedom School wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the following graduates for their recent contributions to the School (September through November, 1963).
$1,000 and above:
R. C. Hoiles
Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Threshie, Jr.
$100 and above:
Mrs. Mabelle Acorn
Robert E. Ahern
Russell E. Baetke
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Bassett
Burton Bergman
Mrs. May Bowman
Henry B. Herreid
Roland W. Holmes
Mr. and Mrs. Ned W. Kimball
Mrs. Mary H. Vincent
Up to $100:
Miss Susan M. Breck
Mr. and Mrs. George A. Brightwell, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Axtell Byles
Floyd E. Camp
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne T. Carroll
Mrs. Patricia F. Cornell
Miss Carol E. Dazey
Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Estes
Miss Margaret Harkness
Russell Johnson
Mrs. Marjorie Lawrence
Mr. and Mrs. J. Dohn Lewis
Dr. Ruth S. Maynard
Brian J. Monahan
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Pavey
James Pessagno
John V. Peters
Cecil Quinn
Mr. and Mrs. John L. Russell
Butler D. Shaffer
Mrs. Katharine W. Spaulding
Leonard A. Talbot
Herman A. Tessmann
Joseph M. White, Jr.
Mrs. Louise Young
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“Freedom and liberty always refer to interhuman relations. A man is free as far as he can live and get on without being at the mercy of arbitrary decisions on the part of other people.” —
Ludwig von Mises, “The Individual in Society”,
Essays on Liberty, 1952.
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The Freedom School
NEWSLETTER
NAN CORBY
Editor
J. DOHN LEWIS
Director of Publications
Published on the 15th of each month.
Third class postage paid at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Mailed to those interested in education for liberty.
Published by
Pine Tree Press
for The Freedom School, Inc.
Box 165
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Source: HenryHazlittarchives (Beta). Series>Henry Hazlitt Articles>LeFevere’s [sic] Journal 1964-1974.