The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1916-04-28

Government is a BUSINESS. and
BIG BUSINESS.
Seagoing and overland commerce
taxation, tariffs. rate regulation, mo.
nopoly regulation, the mails ana par
GELS posts. conservation of resources
development and maintenance of wa
terways, the huge payrolls of Govern
ment employees, the courts of justice
the national revenue collectors and pc
lice. the army and nayy-what are al.
these but pure business problems de
handing the same trained and capable
business executive direction that any
great business concern demands?
What board of directors would think
of hiring u professor of Sanskrit to be
president of great railroad?
What huge shipbuilding or engineer
ing concern would select a peripatetic
stump orator or a lyceum lecturer to
direct its activities?
Big Business Men Needed.
Big business concerns seek big busi-
ness men with big business brains to
be executive chiefs.
Now, here is this big business cor
poration in which every one Of us. big
and little, is a stockholder-the United
States of America.
1t is the BIGGEST BUSINESS CON.
Germ the world ever saw.
And what do we do every four years
by way of selecting a head for this
wonderful, gigantic business concern?
Why, we always select a man who
has never shown enough business abil-
ity to run one-horse draying concern.
In the fifty years that have elapsed
since Abraham Lincoln died not one
of tie eleven Chief Executives of this
colossal business corporation called the
United States has had the SLIGHT
EST BUSINESS TRAINING or any
acquaintance with the complex, varied,
ramifying and interrelated problems OF
finance, production, transportation and
world exchange upon which depend the
welfare and prosperity of the whole
people and of each individual citizen.
i1indrance of Prosperity.
Is it any wonder that our national
business is one long serial story OF
stupid HINDRANCE OF PROSPER
lTY, stupid depression of commerce
and trade, stupid opposition to. the for
ward impulses of business cooperation
and consolidation and of wasteful and
criminally extravagant expenditure Of
the peoples money to the tune of thou
sands of millions?
Is it any wonder that we WASTE
each year an amount of money that
would fortify our coasts. stock our
magazines with ammunition, equip our
navy properly and SECURE BEYOND
ANY POSSIBLE DANGER the safety
of our country?
Suppose that just once, by way of
experiment, we gently, but firmly and
positively. set the whole lot of profess
sional politicians, horn-blowing ora
tors. briefiess lawyers, pretty phrase
makers. theoretical schoolmasterS and
all that sort on a shelf in the back
woodshed and put BIG, BRAINY,
CAPABLE. EXPERIENCED BUSI-
NESS MAN. who has done big things
well all his life, in the chair of the
President of the United States?
What do you think about this, citi-
zens?
For an Idea, Not an Individual.
The views expressed in tine above
editorial are exactly the views held by
THOUSANDS OF INFLUENTIAL.
BUSINESS MEN throughout the coun-
try. AS an outgrowth of this sentiment
there has been formed an organization
called the Business Mems Presidential
League, which has for its object the
exploitation of an idea instead of an
IN n 20
about is the nomination of a candidate
for president WHO CAN BE ELECT
ED. also TO prevent action next June
at Chicago that would be party sui
eide
An All Round Sasineso Man.
To win next NOV ember the Eepuh-
lican party must DESERVE TO WIN.
That means we must have candidate
who first of all merits and commands
the confidence of the business men of
the nation Among the prominent men
mentioned as candidates who would
meet this demand is General Coleman
s du Pont. of Delaware. Du Pont is
distinctly a business man. He has
been everything. from miner work
ing with a pick and shovel. TO the di-
rector of one of our greatest industrial
corporations. He has built and man
aged railroads and is banker and
farmer Lin every line his activities
have been SIGNALLY SUCCESSFUL,
and no man has had a more varied ex-
nerience to equip him for the Presi-
dency He is the kind of man who
could save to the taxpayers of this
country the three hundred million dol
lars that the late Senator -Adrich said
were wasted annually in running the
public business