The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-07-22
NJ. E. Tracy
Says:

DAY . .
No Business Enterprise Is
Big Enough to Stand
Alone; 1t Must Haze Help
Of the Little FeLlo1C.
NEW YORK, July ga COM
L Y mittee of bankers and indus
trialists, representing the Fourth
Federal Reserve district, urges more
liberal credit for small business en-
terprises.
That touches the real source OF
trouble.
Big business always was, and al
ways will be, dependent on small
business.
This slump did not begin with
billion dollar concerns, though many
thought it did.
Small business had broken down
long before the Wall Street crash,
and it had broken down largely for
lack of legitimate credit.
During 1927 and % enormous
sums of money were diverted from
commerce to speculation, sent to the
call market, where feverish trading
had sent interest rates sky high
A credit stringency resulted. Not
only thousands Of small business
enterprises, but many rural banks,
collapsed under the strain. Big
business lost more than the pros
pective market on which stocks had
been doomed and spectators sud-
denly woke up to the fact that they
were playing with bubbles.
n
The Structure Cracks
XXTE have to dig down to where
w the foundations gave way and
repair damages. The roof is leak
ing, not because few shingles blew
off, but because the structure
cracked.
Every one admits that production
depends on consumption, and that
there is little use in steaming things
up until mass buying power has
Deen restored.
The little manufacturer bears the
same relation to big business that
the customer does to grocery
store.
1t requires lot of work to pro-
vide a good market for steel.
The telephone company can't pay
dividends without subscribers, nor
will it do General Motors any good
to put out couple of million cars
unless there is demand for them.
Credit Use Perverted
NOTHING has done more to
IN prolong the agony of this de-
preston than the perverted use of
credit. An incalculable number of
small business enterprises has been
destroyed in obedience to the theory
that big business could be revived,
or stabilized, without help from be-
low.
Instead of stimulating production
that would call for more production
through increased consumption, we
have assumed that if factories at the
top could borrow enough money,
things would turn out all right.
Some of them have borrowed, but
to no good purpose, because there
was no market.
Our great weakness is, and has
been, right down where people live,
where consumption originates, where
the individual makes trade for bak-
ers, delicatessens, garages and ma
chine shops, and where these, in
turn, make trade for few gigantic
establishments.
Lean on Little Fellow
MO business enterprise is big
IN enough to stand alone. or ever
will be. Neither is any big enter
prise supported solely by other big
enterprises.
They all look to little fellows for
a market, whether as ultimate con-
sumers, or go-betweens. The bigger
the concern, the more small Gus
toners it must have. When they
fail, 1T fails.
You can pour all the money into
power company, or steel plant,
that you like, but if there isn't a
market, it won't do the slightest
good.
Credit has to be returned to the
side streets and small commu-
mites, to the place where business
and consumption originate.
The idea that it will "trickle down
through if dispensed at the top, is
bunk, as the last three years have
demonstrated