Mises insisted on absolute market purity and attacked colleagues who compromised

Evidence

Ludwig von Mises, who had become a lonely advocate within their intellectual community for an uncompromising laissezfaire. The “weak point” of such a society, Mises argued, was that it relied “upon the cooperation of many men who are known for their endorsement of interventionism.” In doing so, he argued, the group would lend credence to the idea that advocates of freedom should place limits on the market mechanism. Mises wanted his colleagues’ veneration of the market to be absolute and was frustrated by their accommodationist instincts. Over the subsequent de cade he would alienate many of his friends and colleagues with vitriolic attacks on their departures from ideological purity. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 245

Categorization

  • XREF: The Mises vs. Hayek split presages later debates in the Mont Pèlerin literature about the movement’s intellectual fissures; connects to the broader anti-interventionist canon being collected.