Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1936-05-14

business had kept hundreds Of
Has AnSUer thousands of workers
on its collective pay
rolls during the depression when con-
ditions did not justify their retention.
The claim was advanced that business
mad expended something like twenty
billions In wages paid from stored-up
reserves. 1t was further asserted that
business was alone responsible for
such gains toward recovery as have
been made.
New Deal spokesman, from President
Roosevelt on down, have consistently
accused business of failure to take on
workers and help solve the unemploy-
ment problem. At the same time, the
banking structure of the country has
been accused chiefly by the President
OF refusal to extend credit to business,
and business as whole has been
classified by the President as greedy.
1t seems safe to say that as regards
these charges, business does have an
answer, for throughout all history cap
ital has refused to work unless there
was a reasonable promise of return.
Now, In addition to the lack Of that
promised return, business is and has
been constantly confronted with I'M
certa1nties on the part of the New
Deal. The present pending tax legisla-
ton is typical. The most dangerous
provision of that legislation is that
| which Vxyil1 h.1c
ing up reserves such as those upon
which it has been drawing during the
depression.
If the business claim is true that
it has paid out twenty billions more
than it's operations justified for wages
during the depression, it causes one to
ponder over the future. One is inclined
to ask what strength business will
have to do even as much for the
working classes during the next de-
preston as it has done in this one.
With reference to the New Deal
policies toward business, statement
by the Rural Electri-
| ASdIlOA
Question ton has just come to
| my desk. 1t touches
on that very delicate question of how
far the government can enter into
business in competition with private
enterprise without destroying or driv-
ing out private initiative. The COM
plant on the part Of private business
that the government is continually
wedging its way into private fields is
well known but the REA statement
puts something of new slant on the
view. In fact, 1t brings to the front
one of the elements of government in
business not generally recognized.
The REA statement consists Of
letter from REA Administrator Nor
| ris Cooke to the State Corporation
Commission Of Virginia. The Virginia
commission was urged to consider the
situation in which the REA and one
/ Of its loans will be placed In event of
a certain ruling by the Virginia Off
Gals. In effect, Administrator Cooke
asked the Virginia commission to rule
against private business in order that
a 100000 loan made by REA to a CO.
operative organization in Virginia can
be protected.
To review the facts briefly, let me
explain that a private electric COM
pany applied to the Virginia commits
sion for authority to extend its lines
for transmission of energy into farm
ing section adjacent to cities served
by the electric company. 1t happened
that the REA had sent agents into
this same territory and had obtained
promises from many farmers to buy
electricity from a cooperative concern
to be organized and financed by REA.
The private company apparently horned
in to what Mr.. Cooke thought was the
territory of REA by right of discov-
cry or some other such reason, and
so he is now engaged in attempting at
least to prevent the private company
from entering that field.
The point Of this circumstance is
that here is federal agency, STEPPED
in bureaucracy and with the usual
bureaucratic thirst for power, which
actually is attempting to drive pri-
vate Industry out Of its way. It is
doing it under the thinly disguised
reason Of protecting a government
loan.
1 have heard considerable discus
sion Of this case. Many observers and
students Of economic questions con-
tend that the federal government has
absolutely no right to engage in that
sort of business. While 1t may be, and
probably can be, said that the cleo
trio company was attempting to take
the cream of the crop by extending
its lines only to territory adjacent to
its headquarters, the fact remains that
the normal unemployment which that
private company would do will be cut
down proportionately by the extension
Of the federal activities into that area.
1t may appear that the workers dis
placed for the private company will
be taken on by the federally financed
cooperative lines but such is not the
case. It is just one more indication Of
how government, once 1t enters pri-
vate business, continues to expand and
to destroy initiative which private
enterprise has and which government
vavor has haan known IN have