The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-07-31
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
IETITs HANDS BE CLEAN

Structures of The Observer within recent days
against the trend of the government to engage IN
q competitive rivalry with private business have
excited somewhat general comment, for the most
part agreeable, but with an occasional demurrer.
II is the attitude of those who take the opposite
view that deserves comment.
And the reason it deserves comment is by no
means to retract nor to compromise on the orig
inal position taken by this newspaper as to the
Unacceptable lity of government ownership, but TO
bring the point of the opposition more clearly out
into the open.
That point is not germaine to the argument that
the principle of government ownership is wrong
In fact, it does not even so much as touch that
premise "
But it does have to do with very vital col
lateral element-namely, the evils which the evil
of government ownership would attempt to ellml-
nate.
That is, of course, a factor in the equation that
deserves consideration.
The Observer has more than once remarked that
if private business is successfully to resist the IL
vason of public operation, then its first duty for
its self-preservation is to clean its own steps.
That is to say that if private business in any
field is trespassing against the public interest In
any form whatsoever, in the form either of I'M
satisfactory service of inferior goods or of I'M
fairly high prices then it is offering open door
for government operation
1t is not enough that private enterprise stand
off with megaphone and shout to the horizons
the peris that lurk in public ownership in insist
ing that, this way Socialism lies or Fascism oc
Communism or any other unacceptable technique
of control =
II no in fO tO
which threatens it with its own controlling hand,
that it is giving adequate service, that it is pro-
ducing and selling high-class materials and COM
modites and that it is charging therefor no more
than reasonable price.
And to be able to backstand all of these asser-
tons with the demonstrabe facts in the case.
Perhaps private business is mainly threatened
today with the enemy of public ownership for the
reason that in some fields especially, it has de-
faulted in these major obligations to society.
1t has failed in some or all of these instances
to fulfill its debt to the buying public.
If so, it has no voice that carries far in trying
to warn the public against governmental owner
ship and operation.
And its present efforts no matter how well i'll
tentioned nor how meritorious, to create a popu-
lar sentiment against governmental invasion into
personal business are nullifed at the start by rea
son of its own defects in these important phases
of business and industry.
Let its house be cleaned, first of all, therefore;
let the public be convinced beyond any sugges-
ton of question, that private enterprise is meet
ing every test, fairly, successfully and satisfac-
torily let services and goods and prices and every
factor involved in the operation be spread out for
the public to eye, to analyze and dissect for its
own satisfaction, and then the public will more
resolutely and aggressively come to the defense
of this basic American principle of private enter
prise.-Charotte Observer