Evening star., 1938-06-12
LITTLE BUSINESSMEN ARE BUSY
Fasco Washington Convention Has Not
Activity of Association, Commentator Story States
Ken Is Consistently Hysterical.

tive merchant must not keep his estab-
lishment open more than . certain
number Of hours. The law now forbade
him to accommodate his early-rising
neighbors. He might not keep open
until 9 either. The rule was made, OF
course, to prevent unscrupulous em-
ployers from exploiting helpless em-
ployes. But this man (who certainly
was not unscrupulous) had no em-
ployes. He ran his store himself, assist
ed in rush hours (if any of his modest
trade could be called that by his wife,
who shared the profits with him. None
theless, the N. r. A. had shut him up.
A ND 1t had also ruined him. For.
when the people realized that they
could not 60 down to store" of eve
nings, but must needs take a half day
Of precious daylight from their work
in order to make their household or
farm purchases, they reasonably fig
ured that so much trouble merited"
more fun, and decided that they might
as well get in their wagons and 60 down
TO the county seat. where they would
see some folks, for the new daylight
shopping in the local store naturally
had no social features, with people
dropping in as they did at odd times,
and always In hurry to get away to
their work again. And SO to the county
seat the population duly, went and the
chain store down there got their busi-
ness. And the little country store
closed up. The N. r. A. was repealed
in time, to be sure, but that came too
late to save the crossroads merchant.
The people had got the chain store
habit by that time, anyway.
And it all came about because the
great Federal Government of the
United States made it its affair to
reach out into lonely backwoods VAL
ley and tell free citizen when he
could open his store, to command q
man who was rendering his neighbors
the exact service which they needed
that he must run his business on set
OF laws cut to At the case Of sweatshop
operators in industrial cities. Had the,
Federal Government really nothing
better to do? Was such fantastic chi.
canery the only business before the
Nation?
1t seems very well indeed that such
small men as that ruined merchant
should organize at last. They outnum-
Der any other class and they give more
| employment. As Mr. Williams says,
they could pack a mighty wallop." If
they use their power to resist tyranny,
and not, as do so many organized
| groups, to add to restrictions of ma
tional life, they will render the country
q service which cannot be rated too
highly.
THE reviewer has by now pretty well
considered the case Of Ken and
she decides that the answer Is no.
Not because Ken is pro this or anti
that, or even because one issue Of it
got banned from the newsstands. No
not because Of those things, but be-
cause Ken is hysterical. Its present
preoccupation seems to be hatred of
fascistic relationships and it expresses
the concern in a f1agrantly hysterical
manner.
Now the reviewer has always held
that hysteria Is avoidable except in
those cases where it Is unavoidable;
that is to say that, If genuine, 1t re-
suits from accidental causes and sud-
den ones at that, and that you should
not 60 forth to seek Mysteries If ycx
wish to be received with sympathy and
confidence.
Well, Ken goes seeking. It lashes
itself into foaming case Of jitters
each issue-and all Cor mostly alb be-
cause Italy seems to like its Mussolini
and Germany its Hitler. Granted that
the tastes seem queer; granted that
fascism is most unattractive political
doctrine and entirely outside Of our
tradition, why should any American
tie himself in knots because a Euro
pean country shows itself politically
backward? European countries haye
always been SO; the goosestep dates
from an earlier regime than the Nazi
and the fasces belonged to ancient
Rome. The present spectacle Is de-
pressing. certainly, but hardly bad
enough to render an intelligent Amer
ican editorial staff apoplectic fort
nightly. Readers who do not enjoy
Ken's precise degree of frenzy seem
likely to find the performance dull and
to while away its monotony by wondes-
ing in mild cynicism what is behind so