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"I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. = Read" Read, Leonard E. (1898-1983) BIO=20

I, Pencil
My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read

RP.1

I am a lead pencil=E2=80=94the ordinary wooden pencil = familiar to all boys=20 and girls and adults who can read and write.*

RP.2

Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that's all = I do.=20

RP.3

You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to = begin=20 with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery=E2=80=94more so = than a tree or=20 a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for = granted by=20 those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. = This=20 supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This = is a=20 species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist = without=20 peril. For, the wise G. K. Chesterton observed, "We are perishing for = want of=20 wonder, not for want of wonders."

RP.4

I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your = wonder and=20 awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand = me=E2=80=94no,=20 that's too much to ask of anyone=E2=80=94if you can become aware of the = miraculousness=20 which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily = losing.=20 I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better = than can=20 an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher = because=E2=80=94well, because I=20 am seemingly so simple.

RP.5

Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this = earth=20 knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Especially = when it=20 is realized that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind = produced in=20 the U.S.A. each year.

RP.6

Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much = meets the=20 eye=E2=80=94there's some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite = lead, a bit of=20 metal, and an eraser.

Innumerable Antecedents

RP.7

Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, = so is it=20 impossible for me to name and explain all my antecedents. But I would = like to=20 suggest enough of them to impress upon you the richness and complexity = of my=20 background.

RP.8

My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a = cedar of=20 straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon. Now = contemplate all=20 the saws and trucks and rope and the countless other gear used in = harvesting and=20 carting the cedar logs to the railroad siding. Think of all the persons = and the=20 numberless skills that went into their fabrication: the mining of ore, = the=20 making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing = of hemp=20 and bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope; the = logging=20 camps with their beds and mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all = the=20 foods. Why, untold thousands of persons had a hand in every cup of = coffee the=20 loggers drink!

RP.9

The logs are shipped to a mill in San Leandro, = California. Can you=20 imagine the individuals who make flat cars and rails and railroad = engines and=20 who construct and install the communication systems incidental thereto? = These=20 legions are among my antecedents.

RP.10

Consider the millwork in San Leandro. The cedar logs are = cut into=20 small, pencil-length slats less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness. = These=20 are kiln dried and then tinted for the same reason women put rouge on = their=20 faces. People prefer that I look pretty, not a pallid white. The slats = are waxed=20 and kiln dried again. How many skills went into the making of the tint = and the=20 kilns, into supplying the heat, the light and power, the belts, motors, = and all=20 the other things a mill requires? Sweepers in the mill among my = ancestors? Yes,=20 and included are the men who poured the concrete for the dam of a = Pacific Gas=20 & Electric Company hydroplant which supplies the mill's power!

RP.11

Don't overlook the ancestors present and distant who = have a hand=20 in transporting sixty carloads of slats across the nation.

RP.12

Once in the pencil factory=E2=80=94$4,000,000 in = machinery and building,=20 all capital accumulated by thrifty and saving parents of = mine=E2=80=94each slat is given=20 eight grooves by a complex machine, after which another machine lays = leads in=20 every other slat, applies glue, and places another slat atop=E2=80=94a = lead sandwich, so=20 to speak. Seven brothers and I are mechanically carved from this = "wood-clinched"=20 sandwich.

RP.13

My "lead" itself=E2=80=94it contains no lead at = all=E2=80=94is complex. The=20 graphite is mined in Ceylon. Consider these miners and those who make = their many=20 tools and the makers of the paper sacks in which the graphite is shipped = and=20 those who make the string that ties the sacks and those who put them = aboard=20 ships and those who make the ships. Even the lighthouse keepers along = the way=20 assisted in my birth=E2=80=94and the harbor pilots.

RP.14

The graphite is mixed with clay from Mississippi in = which ammonium=20 hydroxide is used in the refining process. Then wetting agents are added = such as=20 sulfonated tallow=E2=80=94animal fats chemically reacted with sulfuric = acid. After=20 passing through numerous machines, the mixture finally appears as = endless=20 extrusions=E2=80=94as from a sausage grinder-cut to size, dried, and = baked for several=20 hours at 1,850 degrees Fahrenheit. To increase their strength and = smoothness the=20 leads are then treated with a hot mixture which includes candelilla wax = from=20 Mexico, paraffin wax, and hydrogenated natural fats.

RP.15

My cedar receives six coats of lacquer. Do you know all = the=20 ingredients of lacquer? Who would think that the growers of castor beans = and the=20 refiners of castor oil are a part of it? They are. Why, even the = processes by=20 which the lacquer is made a beautiful yellow involve the skills of more = persons=20 than one can enumerate!

RP.16

Observe the labeling. That's a film formed by applying = heat to=20 carbon black mixed with resins. How do you make resins and what, pray, = is carbon=20 black?

RP.17

My bit of metal=E2=80=94the ferrule=E2=80=94is brass. = Think of all the persons who=20 mine zinc and copper and those who have the skills to make shiny sheet = brass=20 from these products of nature. Those black rings on my ferrule are black = nickel.=20 What is black nickel and how is it applied? The complete story of why = the center=20 of my ferrule has no black nickel on it would take pages to explain. =

RP.18

Then there's my crowning glory, inelegantly referred to = in the=20 trade as "the plug," the part man uses to erase the errors he makes with = me. An=20 ingredient called "factice" is what does the erasing. It is a = rubber-like=20 product made by reacting rape-seed oil from the Dutch East Indies with = sulfur=20 chloride. Rubber, contrary to the common notion, is only for binding = purposes.=20 Then, too, there are numerous vulcanizing and accelerating agents. The = pumice=20 comes from Italy; and the pigment which gives "the plug" its color is = cadmium=20 sulfide.

No One Knows

RP.19

Does anyone wish to challenge my earlier assertion that = no single=20 person on the face of this earth knows how to make me?

RP.20

Actually, millions of human beings have had a hand in my = creation,=20 no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others. Now, you = may say=20 that I go too far in relating the picker of a coffee berry in far off = Brazil and=20 food growers elsewhere to my creation; that this is an extreme position. = I shall=20 stand by my claim. There isn't a single person in all these millions, = including=20 the president of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny,=20 infinitesimal bit of know-how. From the standpoint of know-how the only=20 difference between the miner of graphite in Ceylon and the logger in = Oregon is=20 in the type of know-how. Neither the miner nor the logger can be=20 dispensed with, any more than can the chemist at the factory or the = worker in=20 the oil field=E2=80=94paraffin being a by-product of petroleum.

RP.21

Here is an astounding fact: Neither the worker in the = oil field=20 nor the chemist nor the digger of graphite or clay nor any who mans or = makes the=20 ships or trains or trucks nor the one who runs the machine that does the = knurling on my bit of metal nor the president of the company performs = his=20 singular task because he wants me. Each one wants me less, perhaps, than = does a=20 child in the first grade. Indeed, there are some among this vast = multitude who=20 never saw a pencil nor would they know how to use one. Their motivation = is other=20 than me. Perhaps it is something like this: Each of these millions sees = that he=20 can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs = or=20 wants. I may or may not be among these items.

No Master Mind

RP.22

There is a fact still more astounding: the absence of a = master=20 mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions = which=20 bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we = find=20 the Invisible Hand at work. This is the mystery to which I earlier = referred.=20

RP.23

It has been said that "only God can make a tree." Why do = we agree=20 with this? Isn't it because we realize that we ourselves could not make = one?=20 Indeed, can we even describe a tree? We cannot, except in superficial = terms. We=20 can say, for instance, that a certain molecular configuration manifests = itself=20 as a tree. But what mind is there among men that could even record, let = alone=20 direct, the constant changes in molecules that transpire in the life = span of a=20 tree? Such a feat is utterly unthinkable!

RP.24

I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, = zinc,=20 copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest = themselves in=20 Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the = configuration of=20 creative human energies=E2=80=94millions of tiny know-hows configurating = naturally and=20 spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the = absence of=20 any human master-minding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist = that only=20 God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to = bring=20 me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.

RP.25

The above is what I meant when writing, "If you can = become aware=20 of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom = mankind=20 is so unhappily losing." For, if one is aware that these know-hows will=20 naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and = productive=20 patterns in response to human necessity and demand=E2=80=94that is, in = the absence of=20 governmental or any other coercive masterminding=E2=80=94then one will = possess an=20 absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free = people.=20 Freedom is impossible without this faith.

RP.26

Once government has had a monopoly of a creative = activity such,=20 for instance, as the delivery of the mails, most individuals will = believe that=20 the mails could not be efficiently delivered by men acting freely. And = here is=20 the reason: Each one acknowledges that he himself doesn't know how to do = all the=20 things incident to mail delivery. He also recognizes that no other = individual=20 could do it. These assumptions are correct. No individual possesses = enough=20 know-how to perform a nation's mail delivery any more than any = individual=20 possesses enough know-how to make a pencil. Now, in the absence of faith = in free=20 people=E2=80=94in the unawareness that millions of tiny know-hows would = naturally and=20 miraculously form and cooperate to satisfy this necessity=E2=80=94the = individual cannot=20 help but reach the erroneous conclusion that mail can be delivered only = by=20 governmental "master-minding."

Testimony Galore

RP.27

If I, Pencil, were the only item that could offer = testimony on=20 what men and women can accomplish when free to try, then those with = little faith=20 would have a fair case. However, there is testimony galore; it's all = about us=20 and on every hand. Mail delivery is exceedingly simple when compared, = for=20 instance, to the making of an automobile or a calculating machine or a = grain=20 combine or a milling machine or to tens of thousands of other things. = Delivery?=20 Why, in this area where men have been left free to try, they deliver the = human=20 voice around the world in less than one second; they deliver an event = visually=20 and in motion to any person's home when it is happening; they deliver = 150=20 passengers from Seattle to Baltimore in less than four hours; they = deliver gas=20 from Texas to one's range or furnace in New York at unbelievably low = rates and=20 without subsidy; they deliver each four pounds of oil from the Persian = Gulf to=20 our Eastern Seaboard=E2=80=94halfway around the world=E2=80=94for less = money than the government=20 charges for delivering a one-ounce letter across the street!

RP.28

The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all = creative energies=20 uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this = lesson. Let=20 society's legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit = these=20 creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men and women = will=20 respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed. I, Pencil,=20 seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of my creation as = testimony that=20 this is a practical faith, as practical as the sun, the rain, a cedar = tree, the=20 good earth.

RP.29

Leonard E. Read (1898-1983) founded FEE = in 1946=20 and served as its president until his death.

"I, = Pencil," his=20 most famous essay, was first published in the December 1958 issue = of The=20 Freeman. Although a few of the manufacturing details and place = names have=20 changed over the past forty years, the principles are unchanged.=20

* My official name is "Mongol 482." My many=20 ingredients are assembled, fabricated, and finished by Eberhard Faber = Pencil=20 Company.

Return to = top=20

"I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. = Read"

I, PencilMy Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read

Innumerable Antecedents

No One Knows

No Master Mind

Testimony Galore

I, Pencil
My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read