Failed Policies that Should be Dumped Into the River

John Teichert, Candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland

This weekend marks the 120th anniversary of one of the most substantial accomplishments in human history – powered flight. While many of us know a bit about Kittyhawk and the Wright Brothers, we sometimes miss that it teaches us an important lesson about government overreach and federal spending in 2023.

The success on the sand dunes of Kittyhawk stemmed from a fierce competition between Samuel Langley and Orville and Wilbur Wright. It was characterized as a bitter feud that lingered on through institutional inertia until 1942 when the Smithsonian Institution finally had to acknowledge the Wright Brothers’ success in achieving the first flight nearly 40 years prior. Langley had lost, and the Smithsonian and its government benefactors weren’t happy about it.

Samuel Langley was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, a position largely considered as our nation’s chief scientist at the time. As it is today, the Smithsonian is a massive organization bankrolled by the U.S. Government. Langley, using the institutional resources at his disposal, was committed to winning the race to successfully create and operate the first heavier-than-air machine in powered flight, fully expecting to fly the first airplane in human history. He was right to think he would do so because his only apparent competition was a couple of newspaper printers turned bicycle tinkers known as the Wright Brothers.

While Langley was arrogantly spending money by leaping into the air and testing his concepts, the duo from Dayton were carefully and miserly considering various concepts for success as they marched through innovative concepts that would inform every component of powered flight.

The Wright Brothers were a savvy duo without deep pockets. Committed to their cause, they went about systematically considering the challenges set before them. They watched and studied birds, flew kites and gliders, and carefully explored creative concepts, such as wing warping, propeller design, airfoil optimization, and control system configuration. They even created a wind tunnel to methodically test and evaluate their novel ideas, filling volumes of notebooks with their findings.

In the end, Samuel Langley nearly died by throwing himself and his taxpayer-provided resources into his failed attempts at flight. On the other hand, the Wright Brothers succeeded in conducting four flights on a gusty day in Kittyhawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. In his failed pursuits, Langley was bankrolled with over $70,000 (about two million dollars in today’s dollars), while the Wright Brothers only spent $1,000 (about $28,000 in today’s dollars).

The investment of Orville and Wilbur was less than two percent of that of Langley, yet it yielded a massive return. It also demonstrated an important example that the biggest budgets do not always yield the most progress. Magnificent results can stem from modest investments, whether in North Carolina in 1903 or in the United States in 2023.

This story provides an important metaphor for government today. The biggest budgets do not automatically yield the most substantial successes, nor do they produce the greatest innovative activity. Similarly, those who have the most resources to throw at problems do not always discover the most magnificent solutions.

Just because the government can do something, or thinks that it can, doesn’t mean that it should. Just because it has the resources to bulldoze through a barrier doesn’t mean it will find success on the other side. Often, the opposite is true. Our founders understood this important truth, which is partly why they made it clear that there were strict limits on federal authority and responsibility. These limits were plainly and clearly outlined in the Bill of Rights, specifically in the 9th and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

As described by the 9th Amendment, the people were not to be limited to the rights specifically outlined in the Constitution, but were to actually enjoy rights well beyond those in the text. According to the 10th Amendment, though, the government was to be limited in its role as specifically outlined by the Constitution, with everything else reserved to the states or to the people.

Just because it is a good idea, doesn’t mean the government should do it. Just because it has the money to do something, doesn’t mean it should. In fact, the government must not do anything that it has not been given the authority and the responsibility to do. Following this simple lesson would prevent a lot of societal failures that are akin to Langley’s nearly suicidal leaps off an elevated barge into the Potomac River while strapped to a failed flying machine.