THE CAMPAIGNER FOR LESS GOVERNMENT

By running for the U.S.Presidency, Ed Clark '52 madelibertarianism a household word.

ED CLARK CLAIMS TO BE THE FIRST Presidential candidate to propose the legalization of drugs. He also opposes the draft, is against abortion legislation and gun control, believes the United States should never have fought in Panama, Vietnam, or World War I, and advocates the privatization of Amtrak, Social Security, and the Kennedy Centers (for both space and the performing arts). As a founding father of the Libertarian Party, Clark fights for a philosophy that might best be summed up by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "the less government we have, the better."

In Clark's view, the sole purpose of government is to defend individual civil liberties. "Governments that have control over all aspects of society and powers that are unlimited are very likely to get into massive killing of their own people and other people," maintains the former Dartmouth history major. It was government intervention in the

market, specifically Richard Nixon's 1971 wage and price controls (an action Clark likens to slavery), that caused him to break with the Republicans. The next year Clark helped form New York's Libertarian Party. By 1978 he was living in California and campaigning as the party's candidate for governor. He racked up an impressive 377,900 votes. More importantly, he captured the attention of political pundits, who viewed his 1980 Presidential bid more seriously than those of the nine other third-party candidates. Although he only received 1.06 percent of the national vote, he did get on the ballot in every state and positioned the Libertarian Party as an alternative to existing liberal/conservative politics.

A decade later, Clark, who works for Atlantic Richfield as an anti-trust attorney, remains active in the party. He notes with pride that ideas in his platform, such as legalizing drugs and privatizing Social Security, have moved into the larger public forum.

A founding father of libertarianism, Ed Clarkwants government outof the business landscape.

"I was blessedbeing bornwith a highlevel of energy,"she says. "Andeven in theworst possiblesituations, I'venever lostthe ability tovisualizethe other andthe better."