In November 1946, he received an offer from William K. Jackson, ACC president and United Fruit Corporation chairman, to deliver a paper on wage determination to an ACC Economic Institute gathering. Jackson signaled: “we strongly believe that nothing today threatens our competitive economy more, at this particular time, than the superficiality with which we generally see the issues in our collective-bargaining controversies” (Jackson to Machlup, November 25, 1946, HIA FMP, 30.14). But Jackson also enlisted Machlup’s help in changing current attitudes toward wage determination prevalent among ACC members. Indeed, the ACC was then divided between firms that had already accepted New Deal policies and labor practices with their consequences for the collective bargaining machinery and nonunion firms that had resisted such a trend. Thus, according to Jackson, this particular ACC meeting was intended to serve as a rallying point for nonunion enterprises, fortifying those who wanted to hear some protolibertarian voices on union policy.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 967