Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-29
BIG BRAINS NOT NECES.
SARILY BAD

'IHlE american people is SOlnB W
school Its mind is stretching to com
prehend the wonders that are being
forced upon its attention. War is having
its broadening effect, for we cannot con
template the great issues involved in a
life and death struggle without thinking
about the really fundamental things.
What is the place of America in the
world? Are we ready to fill the place
into which events are forcing us? Or
are we inclined to drift and let others
do the steering? Do we understand that
we must utilize all the ability that can
be found in business men as well as in
politicians? Or are we to sink back
when peace comes into the old habit of
batting every man who has broad vision
of commerce and industry and attempts
to realize it?
Most Of US know now even if we did
not know it when Roosevelt years ago
told us, that America must fill a big
place in the world and that we must de-
eide whether we would fill it nobly or
ignobly. When he said this there were
men who laughed at him. But we know
now that he was right. We have begun
to call to the help of the Government
the managers of big business of the
same type as those who few years ago
were bounded as "malefactors of great
wealth" by this same Roosevelt.
If we were to do the things that needed
to be done we discovered that we must
get the assistance of men who, in spite
of the efforts of the Government to OBJ
struct them, have succeeded in develop
ing great industries. StettlnluS ana
Da' son, connected with the Morgan
banking firm, are now in the Govern
ment service. Yet there was time When
the demagogues frothed at the mouth
whenever the name of Morgan was men
toned. Schwab, who has built up great
steel mill, has been denounced as one OF
the trust maEnates, and Ryan has been
charged by a congressional inveSugat-
ing committee with being a mOnopollst.
Both these men are rich and they nave
made their fortunes by building up an
industry. We have been told that they
have succeeded by exploiting the coun-
try. But we cannot get along without
the kind of brains that grow in their
heads now that we are confronted with
an organized system of savagery seeking
to rule the world.
And it is equally true that we cannot
get along without them when peace
comes Fortunately big business has
learned something in recent years But
il has learned its lesson faster than the
people at large have learned theirs. 1t
has discovered that the public has rights
that must be respected. But save for its
need of the leaders in this crisis the
Government itself-that is, the politi-
cians-do not seem to have discovered
that if America is to hold its own in the
great commercial rivalry that is to come
when the work of rehabilitation begins
it must still depend on the SChwabs and
the Rydns and the StettiniuSeS, and that
we must follow their lead and do all in
our power to develop other men of the
same kind.
Mr.. Vauclain, himself a representative
of big business, marked the path for us
to tread when he told the National Com
mttee of the American Society Of Me
chanical Engineers the other evening that
they ought to support in the next presi-
Dental election the man who has the
capacity and understanding to support
big business and will devote at least one
half of his time to establishing great
industries here.
We must turn our backs on the Bryan
esque notion that it is a crime for a
man to do a hundred million dollars
worth of business a year. We must
abandon the attempt to restrict and must
engage with our whole strength in the
effort to expand every old industry and
to create new ones. And we must hold
out adequate hope of reward to the men
who can do great things in great way.
But this cannot be done unless those
who see its Importance begin now to
educate public opinion. There is bound
to be a tidal wave of socialism sweeping
over the whole world when the fighting
| ceases, and unless we begin now to build
| dykes we shall be inundated. The great
war fortunes made and made legitimately
will be cited by the socialists as proof
| that our economic system is all wrong.
They are already agitating. But the un-
selfish patriotism of the great industrial
leaders is having benefcent effect on
popular thinking. If the people can
have the lessons of the present so firmly
impressed on their memory that they
| will not forget them the future is safe.
When the potato was most expensive the