Evening star., 1934-12-02
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

TT WE are to think accurately about
the new world in which We live,
we must, as President Roosevelt
i put it in his address to Congress
last January, "readjust many OF
our ways of thinking"
Many of us are deceiving ourselves
because we continue to think in old
words of which the meaning has
changed. Much Of this Is our own
fault Some of it is due to the ar. #
propagandists-t are cunning with
words, and manipulate them in such
a way that we fail to understand fully
what is being done.
Among many examples I think we
must divide the familiar word "busi-
ness" into two words. There is SO
much difference between the condi-
tions of big business and the condi-
tions of little business that no one
word can adequately cover both. To
try to think of the two in terms of
one word is almost as misleading as
to think of law and medicine as one
profession.
Great Difference Cited.
To illustrate: Mr.. Gerard Swope IS
president of the General Electric Co.
with a capital of several hundred NIL
lion dollars and employing about 80
900 workers. Now between Mr.. Swope
and a little manufacturer or shop
keeper with a capital of say s50,000,
employing 5 to 20 or 80 hands-be-
+,ra hn liHorannoc
much greater than the things they
have in common. The attitude OF the
two toward government and the effect
of government policies on the two IS
so different that it is utterly mislead-
ing to group the two in the one
classification, business"
The little business man is an owner,
usually the sole or chief owner Of the
store or factory he runs. That fact
alone accounts for an immense differ
ence. Without knowing anything
about 1t I should doubt whether Mr..
Swope's ownership in General Electric
is as much as 1/100th or even III ,000th
of its enormous capital. The small
business man, as rule, created the
business he runs; most of the heads
of big business are hired admin1stra-
tors. The small business man as a
rule has his all in his business. The
big business administrator Is COM
monty a man of wealth independent
of his business connection.
Mental Attitude Different.
The difference IN mental attitude
between TWO men thus situated Is as
great as the difference between, fer
example, the mental attitudes Of a
farmer and of an artisan, or a shop
keeper and a Government employe.
The difference in economic point OF
view is much greater than the differ
ence in religious mental attitude BE-
tween a Catholic and a Protestant.
To think of the two as having wholly
common interests is almost fantastic.
The mental attitude of Mr.. Swope
toward the General Electric may be
something like that Of a college presi-
dent toward his institution: the men,
tai attitude of the small business man
has the intense personal concern OF
a parent for his child. What Mr..
Swope might assent to in N. r. A.
might be bitterly rejected by tine small
business man.
hope no one will imagine I am
making a merely demagogic distlnc-
tion between big business and little
business" I am simply calling atten-
ton to the plain iact that to think OF
the two as one is inaccurate. l do
not argue for the preservation OF the
one more than for the other. But l
should add that. as it seems to me. the
policies of the New Deal tend to fos-
ter big business and harm little busi-
ness. And I think that the little
business man is the very ideal OF what
we should preserve in America. The
little business man is the true rugged
individualiSt, and the tendency to ex-
terminate him by Government policies
seems to me tragic.
Recovery "Evangelists."
At this moment the President OF
the United States Chamber of Com
merce, Mr.. H. I. Hartman, and q
former president, Mr.. Silas Strawn OF
Chicago, are going about the country
in an entirely laudable effort to en-
courage business. They are acting in
a spirit of Tets 60" of assuring busi-
ness that conditions are better and
that all business should go ahead and
achieve national recovery. 1t is true
conditions are better. And the efforts
of these two evangelists of recovery
are most worthy At the same time
am satisfied that many small business