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FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944–1957
libertarianism and a quasi–think tank, complete with a lecture series
and educational programs. Stepping into an ideological vacuum, within
a few years Read was able to “set the tone of the Southern Californian
business community,” as one historian observes. 5
Read’s activities built on larger trends shaping the region and the
nation. With the war at its end and the economy recovering, business
conservatives began to mount organized opposition to the New Deal
order. Chief among their targets was organized labor. A wave of strikes
and slow-downs that swept the country in 1945 was their opportunity.
Business owners argued that labor had gained too much power and was
becoming a dangerous, antidemocratic force. On the state level “right to
work” laws, which outlawed the closed shop and other union-friendly
measures, became political fl ashpoints, particularly in the fast growing
sunbelt region. 6 These initiatives were matched by developments
on the national level. In 1947 the conservative Eightieth Congress overrode
President Truman’s veto to pass the Taft-Hartley Act, a piece of
legislation that rolled back many of the gains labor had made during
Roosevelt’s administration. Hoiles and Mullendore were emblematic of
this new militancy, both taking a hard line when strikes hit the companies
they managed.
Read, Mullendore, and Hoiles rightly recognized Rand as a writer
whose work supported their antiunion stance. It had not escaped their
notice that The Fountainhead’s villain Ellsworth Toohey is a union organizer,
head of the Union of Wynand Employees. Read and Mullendore
also suspected that Rand’s more abstract formulations would resonate
with businessmen. The two had a small side business, Pamphleteers,
Inc., devoted to publishing material that supported individualism and
free competitive enterprise. When Rand showed them a copy of Anthem,
which had not been released in the United States, they decided to publish
it in their series. As Read and Mullendore anticipated, Anthem was
eagerly picked up by a business readership. Rand received admiring
letters from readers at the National Economic Council and Fight for
Free Enterprise, and another Los Angeles conservative group, Spiritual
Mobilization, presented a radio adaptation in its weekly broadcast. 7
Anthem and The Fountainhead became particularly appealing to
business readers in the wake of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which permitted
employers to educate their employees about economic and business
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