The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-04-04
CALIFORNIA COLLEGE GIRL
WINS CHAINsTORE DEBATE
Small Business Is Foundation
OF American Ideals and
Liberty" She Says
(From the Interstate Grocery

who have been the worst sufferers
from their competition but is reach
ing out into all walks of life is becom-
ing more and more evident every day,
The subject is being debated in wo-
mems clubs; Rotary, Kiwanis and
other clubs find it fruitful field for
discussion, and it has reached the
point where it is popular subject
for college debating societies.
The Interstate Grocer has been fire.
quently called upon for material for
these colleges and high school debates
and has furnished considerable am
munition to students. A debate of
this character was recently held at st.
Ignatius' College, San Francisco,
where the subject was Resolved that
the Chain Store System is Desirable"
Miss Phyllis Haley, young lady who
is taking legal course at the college,
was one of the chief opponents of the
chains and won her case by to l
vote.
Following are some of the main
points of Miss Haley's address as
published by the Los Angeles Grocers
Journal:
Small business is the very founda-
ton on which the ideals of American
liberty and equality ars based. 1t is
the life of free government. Where
small business and trade have existed
in the greatest measure-there has
been found the largest amount of hu-
man happiness.
Peoples Happiness at Stake
eve are now faced by momentous
Observation-Disclosures VS.. that wolf
in sleeps Observation-Disclosures or
the Chain Store System. The hap
piness of the people hangs in the bal
ance and it is up to them to assert
themselves against this encroaching
and exploiting enemy.
"The ownership of the chain stores
has fallen into the hands of profteers
or absentee landlords, whose purpose
is merely to obtain unfair financial
advantage. Service to humanity is
secondary to profits and dividends.
These manipulators have Unanswered
to their present position through any
thing but industrial virtue. This eX-
cessive Capitalization does away with
local determination, pride and initia-
tive.
"The social energy is consumed in
keeping the machinery running and
there is no surplus for social improve
ment 1t has been the small business
man who has aided the development
of new communities. 1t is he who has
encouraged the growth of schools and
parks. 1t is he who donated literally
to charity. He has lived and reared
his family among his patrons-hence
he participates in their interests and
aspirations.
This concentration of ownership in
a few hands inaugurates an inequali-
ty comparable to feudalism. The en-
ployee is a veritable automaton with
no hopes of ever owning an enterprise
of his own. Chain stores are desir-
able and effective in putting the
clamps on ambition and individual
iniative. They are great institutions
for dehumanizing humanity, while at
the same time degrading and i'm
poverishing it. Every monopoly is
doing with its employees what the
mechanic does with the machine-he
sets it on certain notches and it turns
out the same old thing in the same
old way.
eff present conditions continue, we
must accept the Transformation of
our land of opportunity into land of
hired men, with workers known as
numbers, not as individuals. They
ought to be called grab all' stores
for they seek to drive out and drown
out, from the neighborhood in which
they locate, the smaller business con-
Germs, so. that they can dominate the
situation in the various communities,
and regulate advantageously to them
selves, the business in which they are
engaged.
"The methods employed are GER
tainly methods of unfair competition
they desire to buy as they please
and sell as they choose. They stifie
fair competition, they reduce employ
ment,N and the little corner grocer,
whose struggle and sacrifices have
built up the community, can no longer
stand the presence of these combines,
he is driven out, frozen out, and in
some cases bought out at shockingly
low prices. These stores constitute a
veritable monopoly, seeking to destroy
fair living in our land of opportunity.
eyes, my friends, chain stores are
a wonderful adjunct to these COM
mercial instrumentalities for the
creation of a money oligarchy-for
establishing a powerful plutocracy
between which and the people at
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