The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-10-17
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
JUDGED BY ITS FRUITS


There is segment of thought in this country
some of it. we sometimes fear, in relatively high
and influential place. holding to the view that the
/ American economy of capitalism has played out
That it has been guilty of so many outrages as
~ deserve death-dealing blow at the base of tn
I brain.
! That the depression was in some way or other
vitality related to the prostitution of this system Of
nrivate enterprise and the profit motive which un
dergrds it.
l. And that there are so many faults to be found
with it, it abounds in so many patent vices, that
America had better be divorcing itself from this
present dominant culture in its economic life and
go off after its opposite, namely, that of public
management. Sometimes it is called government
ownership.
While the debate is on, however, it would b,
expedient and intelligent to cast about bit in
order to see if the captaistic system is as bad as
it is being pictured, and to ascertain it, on the
basis of its old record it deserves the caumny it is
sometimes receiving.
America has always had this economic theory,
that of private enterprise with the profit motive
regnant in it.
I And while this theory has been in existence,
America has come all the way from its original zero
material prosperity and in standards of living foc
its people.
1t is possible therefore, to apply a reasonable
measurng-stick to this American system on the
basis of Americas growth, and to judge private
capitalism by its fruits
c. L. Bardo, president of the National Assocla-
ton CT Manufacturers has arranged the following
figures to show what this system has produced
through private initiative and free flow of invest
ment capital
With only per cent of the worlds population,
this country has 35 per cent of the worlds rail-
roads, 81 per cent of its telephones and telegraph
facilities; 81 per cent ofts developed water power
II per cent of its automobiles; 35 per cent of its
radio broadcastng stations, and more than A per
cent of its radio receiving sets.
In the United States produced 81 per cent
of the worlds OIL At per cent of the steel; 60 per
cent of the corn; and, prior to the enactment of
the AAA, 55 per cent of the cotton
Our standard of living is so much higher than
other countries that we consume one-half of the
worlds Coffee one-haf of its rubber; threefourths
of it's silk; one-third of it's COAL and twothirdS OF
its petroleum.
Most workers in America property owners.
In 1880, IA million families owned their own homes.
More than half of all the farmers owned their own
farms There was an automobile for four out of
five families.
Two out of every three families had telephones
and electricity and 40 per cent of all families had
radios.
Including postal savings there were more than
SO million savings accounts in banks throughout
the country with aggregate deposits exceeding two
billion dollars. In the year 1888 there were more
than nine million members of building and loan as
sociations, with assets approaching billion
dollars.
At the beginning of 1884 there thirty
and one-half million ordinary life insurance
policies in force for face value of 70 billion
dollars, and there in addition eighty
teight and one-quarter million industrial policies
calling for payment of almost eighteen and one
half billion dollars-Charlotte Observer.