Francis Wrigley Hirst
Encyclopedia
Francis Wrigley Hirst was a British journalist, writer and editor of The Economist
magazine. He was a Liberal
in party terms and a classical liberal
in ideology.
. He attended Clifton College and became editor of the Cliftonian. He went to Wadham College, Oxford
from 1892 to 1896, where he was Librarian and then President of the Oxford Union Society. He gained a First in Classical Moderations in 1894 and a First in Greats in 1896.
or Sir William Harcourt
as these were leaders of opposing factions. Their first preference was John Morley but he declined on the grounds that he would be attacked for opinions expressed in the book which he did not hold. Hirst then asked H. H. Asquith
who said the essays were likely intended to be "a declaration of war against that section of Liberal opinion, which has of recent years gravitated towards modes of thought and fashions of speech which are called 'Collectivist'". He further said that whilst he did not find himself in "substantial disagreement" with the essays he declined the offer because "exception might not unreasonably be taken to my going out of my way (as it would be said) to herald a militant demonstration, avowedly directed against a section (however small) of the party of which I am (for the time being) one of the responsible leaders". Hirst was "baffled" by this and then asked William Ewart Gladstone
. Gladstone replied with a handwritten letter:
In the end Hirst and his friend J. S. Phillimore wrote the preface. The book was dedicated to Morley. After Morley read Hirst's contribution to Cassell's biography of Gladstone edited by Sir Wemyss Reid, he asked Hirst to spend a few weeks with him at Hawarden Castle
(Gladstone's home) to write Gladstone's authorised biography. Hirst was against the Boer War
and helped found the League Against Aggression and Militarism.
After he had left Oxford Hirst edited political and economic books for Harper's, including one on Toryism by F. E. Smith and one on Socialism by R. C. K. Ensor. Another was his compilation of extracts from Richard Cobden
, John Bright
, Joseph Hume
, W. J. Fox
, William Molesworth, Thomas Farrer
and others entitled Free Trade and Other Fundamental Doctrines of the Manchester School. In 1904 Morley asked Hirst to write a biography of Adam Smith
for his "English Men of Letters
" series and for the next two years he was writing The Arbiter in Council, an imaginary dialogue between the Arbiter, an old Cobdenite Radical, discussing the issues of war and peace. Morley recommended it to Macmillan and it was published anonymously but the authorship came to be known.
In 1903 he married Helena Mary Carroll Cobden at Heyshott, near Midhurst, West Sussex. She was born on 16 February 1880 in Japan. She died 27 December 1965 in Chichester, West Sussex. Helena was Richard Cobden's great-niece. Richard Cobden of Free Trade.
Francis Hirst had a particular affection for the Cobden Club and the Dunford House Association. One of his homes was Dunford House, Midhurst, West Sussex - the former home of Richard Cobden - where he used to organize the "Dunford House Conferences" .. The Hirsts lived there until 1952.
Hirst wrote to the new Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
on 29 December 1905 that depression in trade and social distress could be explained by over-taxation and wasteful government expenditure on armaments. The outcome of this was "dear money, lowered credit, less enterprise in business and manufacturers, reduced home demand and therefore reduced output to unemployment". He told Campbell-Bannerman that "to restore credit and to lower taxes is the first great remedy for unemployment and the first great mission of the Liberal government". Hirst wrote again to Campbell-Bannerman on 9 November 1907 that his government would only regain popularity by the traditional policy of retrenchment in expenditure.
Morley also recommended Hirst as editor of The Economist, which held from 1907 to 1916. Hirst was with John Burns
when in August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany, and they both wept at the news. He was editor of the journal Common Sense from 1916 to 1921. Common Sense has been described as "the new house journal of disaffected Cobdenites". Hirst wrote that there was little to choose between the old Prime Minister Asquith and the new, Lloyd George; they both held power at the pleasure of protectionists. This "Old Gang of official Liberals" were impossible to rely upon because they had sacrificed liberalism in a "misraeble hunt for offices and titles", "in order to please their Protectionist colleagues and remain in office". Hirst agreed with Lord Lansdowne's proposal for a negotiated peace with Germany and drew up a government for this purpose. It did not include Asquith Liberals but included old-fashioned Liberals such as Lord Loreburn and Richard Holt
.
He stood for Parliament as a Liberal in 1910 and 1929
. Hirst campaigned against the post-war revival of protectionism under the guise of safeguard
ing. He noted in 1927 the Labour Party's opposition to tariffs but also doubted whether "any system of socialism is ultimately compatible with the policy of free imports and the open door". When the Liberal Walter Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, introduced the Abnormal Importations (Customs Duties) Act 1931 Hirst accused Runciman of pursuing a "Tariff of Abominations, the worst since Waterloo", with the Ottawa Agreement meaning that Britain's tariff policy no longer under the control of the British Parliament but by the colonies. It was an inversion of George III's policy in regard to the American colonies: "It is now the turn of the Colonies to control the mother country's taxes!" In 1946 Hirst published The Repeal of the Corn Laws in which he compared the privations of the 1940s to the "hungry forties" of the previous century. Two days after the centenary of Corn Law repeal the Labour government introduced bread rationing for the first time.
In 1947 he published In the Golden Days, an autobiography which terminated in 1906. He noted that Samuel Smiles
' "book on the virtues of thrift has been lost and obliterated in an age of borrowing and bankruptcy".
" who
In his later years Hirst was
G. P. Gooch said of him that
Hirst was a Cobdenite isolationist who disliked the balance of power
theory and feared the League of Nations
gave Britain obligations which might lead her into war. Roger Fulford has noted Hirst's hostility to
Maurice Bowra
described Hirst as believing
Another friend of Hirst's, A. F. Thompson, asserted that he was
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
magazine. He was a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
in party terms and a classical liberal
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
in ideology.
Early life
Hirst was born at Dalton Lodge, two miles east of HuddersfieldHuddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
. He attended Clifton College and became editor of the Cliftonian. He went to Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...
from 1892 to 1896, where he was Librarian and then President of the Oxford Union Society. He gained a First in Classical Moderations in 1894 and a First in Greats in 1896.
Liberal publicist
In the late 1890s Hirst decided to persuade his Oxford friends to write a volume of essays on Liberalism with him. The group wanted the preface to be written by a prominent Liberal, other than Lord RoseberyArchibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...
or Sir William Harcourt
William Vernon Harcourt (politician)
Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. He served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of...
as these were leaders of opposing factions. Their first preference was John Morley but he declined on the grounds that he would be attacked for opinions expressed in the book which he did not hold. Hirst then asked H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
who said the essays were likely intended to be "a declaration of war against that section of Liberal opinion, which has of recent years gravitated towards modes of thought and fashions of speech which are called 'Collectivist'". He further said that whilst he did not find himself in "substantial disagreement" with the essays he declined the offer because "exception might not unreasonably be taken to my going out of my way (as it would be said) to herald a militant demonstration, avowedly directed against a section (however small) of the party of which I am (for the time being) one of the responsible leaders". Hirst was "baffled" by this and then asked William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
. Gladstone replied with a handwritten letter:
I am wholly unable to comply with the requests which so often reach me for the writing of Prefaces, but I venture on assuring you that I regard the design formed by you and your friends with sincere interest, and in particular wish well to all the efforts you may make on behalf of individual freedom and independence as opposed to what is termed CollectivismCollectivismCollectivism is any philosophic, political, economic, mystical or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human in some collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists usually focus on community, society, or nation...
.
In the end Hirst and his friend J. S. Phillimore wrote the preface. The book was dedicated to Morley. After Morley read Hirst's contribution to Cassell's biography of Gladstone edited by Sir Wemyss Reid, he asked Hirst to spend a few weeks with him at Hawarden Castle
Hawarden Castle (18th century)
New Hawarden Castle, in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales was the estate of former British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, which previously belonged to the family of his wife, Catherine Glynne. It was built in 1752...
(Gladstone's home) to write Gladstone's authorised biography. Hirst was against the Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
and helped found the League Against Aggression and Militarism.
After he had left Oxford Hirst edited political and economic books for Harper's, including one on Toryism by F. E. Smith and one on Socialism by R. C. K. Ensor. Another was his compilation of extracts from Richard Cobden
Richard Cobden
Richard Cobden was a British manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League as well as with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty...
, John Bright
John Bright
John Bright , Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy...
, Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume FRS was a Scottish doctor and Radical MP, born in Montrose, Angus.-Medical career:He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and moved to India in 1797...
, W. J. Fox
William Johnson Fox
William Johnson Fox was an English religious and political orator.-Life:He was born near Southwold, Suffolk. He trained for the Independent ministry, at the dissenting academy known as Homerton College...
, William Molesworth, Thomas Farrer
Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer
Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer was an English civil servant and statistician.Farrer was the son of Thomas Farrer, a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Born in London, he was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1840...
and others entitled Free Trade and Other Fundamental Doctrines of the Manchester School. In 1904 Morley asked Hirst to write a biography of Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
for his "English Men of Letters
English Men of Letters
English Men of Letters was a series of literary biographies written by leading literary figures of the day and published by Macmillan, under the general editorship of John Morley. The original series was launched in 1878, with Leslie Stephen's biography of Samuel Johnson, and ran until 1892...
" series and for the next two years he was writing The Arbiter in Council, an imaginary dialogue between the Arbiter, an old Cobdenite Radical, discussing the issues of war and peace. Morley recommended it to Macmillan and it was published anonymously but the authorship came to be known.
In 1903 he married Helena Mary Carroll Cobden at Heyshott, near Midhurst, West Sussex. She was born on 16 February 1880 in Japan. She died 27 December 1965 in Chichester, West Sussex. Helena was Richard Cobden's great-niece. Richard Cobden of Free Trade.
Francis Hirst had a particular affection for the Cobden Club and the Dunford House Association. One of his homes was Dunford House, Midhurst, West Sussex - the former home of Richard Cobden - where he used to organize the "Dunford House Conferences" .. The Hirsts lived there until 1952.
Hirst wrote to the new Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman GCB was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served as Secretary of State for War twice, in the Cabinets of Gladstone and Rosebery...
on 29 December 1905 that depression in trade and social distress could be explained by over-taxation and wasteful government expenditure on armaments. The outcome of this was "dear money, lowered credit, less enterprise in business and manufacturers, reduced home demand and therefore reduced output to unemployment". He told Campbell-Bannerman that "to restore credit and to lower taxes is the first great remedy for unemployment and the first great mission of the Liberal government". Hirst wrote again to Campbell-Bannerman on 9 November 1907 that his government would only regain popularity by the traditional policy of retrenchment in expenditure.
Morley also recommended Hirst as editor of The Economist, which held from 1907 to 1916. Hirst was with John Burns
John Burns
John Elliot Burns was an English trade unionist and politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly associated with London politics. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. He was anti-alcohol and a keen sportsman...
when in August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany, and they both wept at the news. He was editor of the journal Common Sense from 1916 to 1921. Common Sense has been described as "the new house journal of disaffected Cobdenites". Hirst wrote that there was little to choose between the old Prime Minister Asquith and the new, Lloyd George; they both held power at the pleasure of protectionists. This "Old Gang of official Liberals" were impossible to rely upon because they had sacrificed liberalism in a "misraeble hunt for offices and titles", "in order to please their Protectionist colleagues and remain in office". Hirst agreed with Lord Lansdowne's proposal for a negotiated peace with Germany and drew up a government for this purpose. It did not include Asquith Liberals but included old-fashioned Liberals such as Lord Loreburn and Richard Holt
Richard Durning Holt
Sir Richard Durning Holt, 1st Baronet JP was a British Liberal Party politician.-Background and education:Holt was born at Toxteth Park, Lancashire, the son of Robert Durning Holt, a cotton broker, by his wife Lawrencina Potter, daughter of Richard Potter. Beatrice Webb was his maternal aunt and...
.
He stood for Parliament as a Liberal in 1910 and 1929
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
. Hirst campaigned against the post-war revival of protectionism under the guise of safeguard
Safeguard
In the technical language of the World Trade Organization system, a safeguard is used to restrain international trade in order to protect a certain home industry from foreign competition. A member may take a “safeguard” action In the technical language of the World Trade Organization (WTO)...
ing. He noted in 1927 the Labour Party's opposition to tariffs but also doubted whether "any system of socialism is ultimately compatible with the policy of free imports and the open door". When the Liberal Walter Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, introduced the Abnormal Importations (Customs Duties) Act 1931 Hirst accused Runciman of pursuing a "Tariff of Abominations, the worst since Waterloo", with the Ottawa Agreement meaning that Britain's tariff policy no longer under the control of the British Parliament but by the colonies. It was an inversion of George III's policy in regard to the American colonies: "It is now the turn of the Colonies to control the mother country's taxes!" In 1946 Hirst published The Repeal of the Corn Laws in which he compared the privations of the 1940s to the "hungry forties" of the previous century. Two days after the centenary of Corn Law repeal the Labour government introduced bread rationing for the first time.
In 1947 he published In the Golden Days, an autobiography which terminated in 1906. He noted that Samuel Smiles
Samuel Smiles
-Early life:Born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, the son of Samuel Smiles of Haddington and Janet Wilson of Dalkeith, Smiles was one of eleven surviving children. The family were strict Cameronians, though when Smiles grew up he was not one of them...
' "book on the virtues of thrift has been lost and obliterated in an age of borrowing and bankruptcy".
Views
J. E. Allen called Hirst "a disciple of Adam SmithAdam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
" who
- "disliked indirect taxIndirect taxThe term indirect tax has more than one meaning.In the colloquial sense, an indirect tax is a tax collected by an intermediary from the person who bears the ultimate economic burden of the tax...
es, except a few on articles of general consumption which are not necessaries, such as tobacco, beer, spirits, and wine".
In his later years Hirst was
- "more than doubtful about the value of the 'Welfare StateWelfare StateThe Welfare State is a commitment to health, education, employment and social security in the United Kingdom.-Background:The United Kingdom, as a welfare state, was prefigured in the William Beveridge Report in 1942, which identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness...
', and of what he called 'The Beveridge HoaxBeveridge ReportThe Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, known commonly as the Beveridge Report was an influential document in the founding of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom...
'. He did not admit the right of Parliament to take money from one lot of citizens and give it to another lot; in fact he disliked the use of the Budget as an instrument for the redistribution of the national income. Borrowing by the Government or by local authorities seemed to him dangerous".
G. P. Gooch said of him that
- "his horror of tariffs, huge armaments, and war was hardly greater than his detestation of the omnipotent State...he remained a 'Manchester' man to the end".
Hirst was a Cobdenite isolationist who disliked the balance of power
Balance of power in international relations
In international relations, a balance of power exists when there is parity or stability between competing forces. The concept describes a state of affairs in the international system and explains the behavior of states in that system...
theory and feared the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
gave Britain obligations which might lead her into war. Roger Fulford has noted Hirst's hostility to
- "'Mr. GeorgeDavid Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
' and the follies of his economic plans for curing unemployment".
Maurice Bowra
Maurice Bowra
Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra was an English classical scholar and academic, known for his wit. He was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1951 to 1954.-Birth and boyhood:...
described Hirst as believing
- "the nation's finances were the most serious thing in its politics. He hated to see public extravagance...He thought the expense of war one of its most deadly characteristics. With him expenditure of public money was a moral activity which should be governed by the highest principles and never be prostituted to electoral or party needs. He believed firmly in private enterprise and had little affection for State control...one felt in the presence of a true disciple of GladstoneWilliam Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
".
Another friend of Hirst's, A. F. Thompson, asserted that he was
- "archetype of the stern and unbending Cobdenite...His denunciations of KeynesJohn Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
were particularly memorable".
Publications
- Essays in Liberalism (part author, 1897).
- ‘Preface’ (with J. S. Phillimore), pp. vii-xiii.
- ‘Liberalism and Wealth’, pp. 31-96.
- 'Mr. Gladstone. I.', The Economic Journal, Vol. 8, No. 31. (Sep., 1898), pp. 395-402.
- 'Mr. Gladstone II', The Economic Journal, Vol. 8, No. 32. (Dec., 1898), pp. 533-543.
- The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (edited by Sir Wemyss Reid, 1899):
- Chapter II: "Mr. Gladstone and the Oxford Union Society".
- Chapter IV: "Mr. Gladstone as a Tory, 1832–1841".
- Chapter VI: "Mr. Gladstone and the reform of the tariff, 1841–1846".
- Chapter VIII: "Mr. Gladstone as a Peelite, 1846–1859".
- Chapter IX: "Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1853, 1859–1865".
- Chapter XI: "Mr. Gladstone as Leader of the House and reformer, 1865–1868".
- Chapter XIII: "Mr. Gladstone's first premiership, 1868–1874".
- Chapter XV: "Mr. Gladstone's first retirement, 1874–1876".
- Chapter XVI: "Mr. Gladstone and the Eastern Question, 1876–1879".
- Chapter XVII: "Mr. Gladstone's second premiership, 1880–1885".
- Chapter XVIII: "Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule, 1885–1892".
- Chapter XIX: "Mr. Gladstone's fourth premiership and final retirement, 1892–1897".
- Local Government in England (with J. Redlich), 2 vols, 1903.
- Adam Smith, 1904.
- Trusts and Cartels, 1905.
- The Arbiter in Council, 1906.
- Stock Exchange, 1911.
- Progress of the Nation, 1912.
- Political Economy of War, 1915.
- From Adam Smith to Philip Snowden: A History of Free Trade in Great Britain, 1925.
- Life of Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, 1926. - Early Life and Letters of John Morley, 1927.
- Safeguarding and Protection, 1927.
- Wall StreetWall StreetWall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
and Lombard StreetLombard Street, LondonLombard Street is a street in the City of London.It runs from the corner of the Bank of England at its north-west end, where it meets a major junction including Poultry, King William Street, and Threadneedle Street, south-east to Gracechurch Street....
, 1931. - Gladstone as Financier and Economist, 1931.
- Gold, Silver and Paper Money, 1933.
- Consequences of the War to Great Britain, 1934.
- Liberty and Tyranny, 1935.
- Economic Freedom and Private Property, 1935.
- Armaments, 1937;
- Free Markets or Monopoly, 1942.
- Problems and Fallacies of Political Economy, 1943.
- Foreign Policy, Past and Future, 1944.
- Principles of Prosperity, 1944.
- Repeal of the Corn LawsCorn LawsThe Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...
, 1946. - In the Golden Days, 1947.
Further reading
- A. C. Howe, ‘Hirst, Francis Wrigley (1873–1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 6 March 2010.
- Jaime Reynolds, ‘The last of the Liberals - The career and political thought of Francis Wrigley Hirst (1873-1953)’, Journal of Liberal History, Issue 47, Summer 2005.
External links
- http://economia.unipv.it/harrod/edition/editionstuff/rfh.4ab.htm Hirst page at economia
- http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=4401 Hirst biography at the Foundation for Economic Education