COLUMNIST WALTER WILLIAMS ADVOCATES GOVERNMENT LIMITS

Disobeying immoral laws -- if you can pay the price -- is Americans' duty, Dr. Walter Williams told audiences Thursday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Williams, an economist and syndicated columnist, told two audiences -- a classroom and public lecture -- that if he had his way, government would have an extremely limited role in society.

Williams serves as chairman of the economics department at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and writes a weekly column published in 125 newspapers. He also has authored several books.

Student and other organizations brought Williams to campus Thursday to conduct a class and give a public lecture in Academic Hall.

"As government gains ground," he told 500 people attending the public lecture, "liberty must yield. And the ultimate end to this is totalitarianism."

Williams said many Americans might not believe that this country will experience totalitarianism, but he said the country has been slowly going that way for years.

"You can't cook a frog by putting him in a pot of boiling water," he said. "He'll jump out and get away. But if you put on a pot of cold water and put the frog in there, by slowly heating it up, he won't realize he's cooking until it's too late.

"That's what's happening now. Government has been taking away liberty bit by bit."

Williams condemned most federal programs no matter what political party supports them. Liberals want food stamps and welfare to help the needy, he said. Conservatives want to help needy banks and needy farmers.

"It's legal theft," he said. "Agents of Congress come to me and say, 'Mr. Williams, give us $400 so we can give it to someone who doesn't deserve it.'

"If I did that -- If I walked up to someone and demanded money so I could give it to someone else -- they would arrest me."

Williams told an introductory economics class at Southeast Thursday afternoon that Americans shouldn't pay a social security tax because the Constitution doesn't give the federal government that power.

"I would send a letter to Congress saying I wasn't going to pay the tax. They would send one back and say 'pay it or we'll fine you.'

"I wouldn't pay the fine, and then they'd say they were going to take my house. And I'd say I paid for my house. It's mine.

"So then the marshals would come, and they'd shoot and kill me because I would try to protect my property."

To keep government from becoming totalitarian, Williams said, Americans should work at having less government.

"Disobey immoral laws," he said. "But remember, you'll have to pay a price for doing that."

He said an amendment limiting federal spending -- not a balanced budget amendment -- would be a step in the right direction. An amendment that balanced the budget would backfire, he said, because the budget could be balanced by raising taxes.

"An amendment limiting federal spending at a certain level -- a percentage of the GNP (gross national product) -- might work," he said. "Ten percent is good enough for the Baptist Church so I don't know why it wouldn't be good enough for the government."

This country had a revolution over 200 years ago because people didn't want to work from Jan. 1 to Jan. 15 to pay for the King of England, Williams said, adding that the average taxpayer now works from Jan. 1 to May to pay for federal and state government.

"If the Founding Fathers came back," he said, "I think they'd be disappointed."