Evening star., 1937-12-29
Business
Continued From First Page.)

commerce, II not stopped, is the fore
runner of political socialism. Our
democratic forms Of government offer
q periodical chance at election time to
check any change political administra-
tions. But there is no practical way
on earth to regulate the economic
oligarchy Of autocratic, self-constitut-
ed and self-perpetuating groups With
all their resources Of interlocking di-
rectors, interlocking bankers and inter-
locking lawyers, with all their power
to hire thousands Of employees and
service workers throughout the coun-
try. with all their power to give or
withhold millions of dollars worth OF
business, with all their power to con-
tribute to campaign funds. they are as
dangerous a menace to political as they
are to economic freedom"
Accusing Americas so families" of
stultifying industry by keeping it for
ever under control of the relatively
incompetent sons Of the rich, Mr..
jackson bitterly declared:
THE managers Of big business
completely free and completely con-
fident because they owned the Gov
ernment body and soul in the years
prior to l929-so mismanaged the
general policy Of our system Of pri-
vate enterprise as to bring us to a
point where Government simply had
to step in to save that system.
"Crutch- Throwing" Seen.
When Government through the
r. F. c. saved the capital structures
OF big business from going through the
wrineer it also saved many incom-
petent arrangements from going
through the wringer at the same time.
The blunt truth is that today we have
in command of big business by and
large the same Bourbons who were in
command of the defeat of 1929 and
who since then have learned nothing
and forgotten nothing. These
Bourbons now feel strong enough to
throw their crutches at the doctor.
Specifically answering those who
have criticized his own recent
speeches, the administration chosen
leader in the anti-monopoly campaign
denied claims that the demands Of
labor in the form of higher wages are
to blame for current high prices and
the slump in business.
In substantiation Of his position, he
cited salary increases of executives of
General Motors Corp, which yester-
day announced the discharge of
80, 900 workers and curtailed employ
ment for more than 100000 others.
In three years, he pointed out, two
executive salaries had increased by
$50 per cent to more than q half
million dollars annually for each.
Percentage Advances Desired.
II know too much about big busi-
ness to attack labor for its struggle
to get q decent wage or to blame it
for this recession" Mr.. Jackson said.
Labor has had nowhere the per-
centage advance that big business has
given to its own darlinss. Labor
would be happy, I am sure, to get
increases only in the same proportion
and at the same time As managers of
big business increase their own SAL
aries"
Calling on the experience Of Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt for his clos
ing words of defiance, Mr.. Jackson
said:
Many of the present leaders of
big business are q hangover. They
are repeating with the same dismal
results the threatening tactics they
tried on Theodore Roosevelt during
the rich mans panic that they pre-
cipitated in rebellion against his re-
forms.
1T is time they reread the famous
answer he made in October, 1907, in
Iowa, which Is the only answer . self
respecting administration can make
to . strike of capital
"'" At intervals during the last
few months the appeal has been made
to me not to enforce the law against
certain wrong doers of great wealth
because to do 50 would interfere with
the business prosperity Of the country.
Under the effects Of that kind Of fright
which when sufficiently acute we call
panic, this appeal has been made to
me even by men who ordinarily behave
AS recent citizens. One neVSpaper