Evening star., 1938-04-30

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ern efficiency may call for this. But
modern efficient mass production Is
not furthered by a central control
which destroys competition between
industrial plants each capable Of ef-
ficient mass production while operat-
ing as separate units. Industrial ef-
ficiency does not have to mean indus
trial empire building.
Banker Control Of Industry.
And industrial empire building, un-
fortunately, has evolved into banker
control of industry. We oppose that.
Such control does not offer safety
for the investing public. Investment
judgment requires the disinterested
appraisal of other peoples manage
ment. It becomes blurred and dis
torted if it is combined with the con-
flicting duty of controlling the man
agement it Is supposed to judge.
Interlocking financial controls have
taken from American business much
Of its traditional virility, independence
adaptability and daring-without COM
pensating advantages. They have not
given the stability they promised.
Business enterprise needs new vital
ity and the flexibility that comes from
the diversified efforts, independent
judgments and vibrant energies OF
thousands upon thousands of inde-
pendent business men.
The individual must be encouraged
| to exercise his own judgment and to
venture his own small savings, not in
stock gambling but in new enterprise
investment. Men will dare to COM
pete against men but not against
giants.
Competitions Decline.
III. The decline of competition and
| its effects on employment:
In output per man or machine, we
on earth.
In the matter of complete mutual
employment of capital and labor we
are among the least efficient.
Our difficulties Of employing labor
and capital are not new. We have had
them since good free land gave out in
the West at the turn of the century
They were old before we undertook
changes in our tax policy or in our
labor and social legislation. They were
caused not by this legislation, but by
the same forces which caused the
| legislation. The problem Of bringing
idle men and idle money together will
not be solved by abandoning the for
ward steps we have taken to adjust the
burdens of taxation more fairly and
to attain social justice and security
If you believe with me in private
| initiative. you must acknowledge the
| right of well-managed small business
to expect to make reasonable profits
You must admit that the destruction
of this opportunity follows concen-
tration of control of any given indus
try into a small number of domi-
mating corporations.
One of the primary causes of our
present difficulties lies in the disap-
pearance Of price competition in many
industrial fields. particularly in basic
manufacture where concentrated eco
nomic power is most evident-and
where rigid prices and huctuating pay
rolls are general.
Managed Prices-Fewer Jobs.
Managed industrial prices mean
fewer jobs 1t is no accident that, in
industries like cement and STEEL where
prices have remand firm in the face
of falling demand, pay rolls have
shrunk as much as 40 and so per cent
in recent months. Nor Is it mere
chance that in most competitive in.
dustries where prices adjust them
selves quickly to falling demand, pay
rolls and employment have been fal
better maintained. BY prices We mean
of course. the prices of the finished
articles and not the wages paid tt
workers.
When prices are privately managed
at levels above those which would bt
determined by free competition, every.
body pays.
The contractor pays more for ma.
terials; the home builder pays more fol
his house: the tenant pays more rent
and the worker pays in lost work.
Even the Government itself is un.
able, in large range of materials, tt
obtain competitive bids. 1t is repeat
edly confronted with bids identical te
the last cent.
Our housing shortage is "a perfect
example Of how ability to control prices
interferes with the ability Of privat,
enterprise to fill the needs Of the com.
munity and provide employment fol
capital and labor
Cannot Adjust Itself.
On the other hand we have some
lines of business, large and small
which are genuinely competitive
Often these competitive industrie.
must buy their basic products from
monopolistic industry, thus losing, anc
causing the public to lose, large part
of the benefit of their own competitive
policy. Furthermore, in times of re-
cession. the practices of monopolistic
industries make it difficult for busi-
ness or agriculture, which is competi-
tive and which does not curtail pro-
duction below normal needs, to find
market for its goods even at reduced
prices. For at such times a large
number of customers Of agriculture
and competitive industry are being
thrown out of work by those non-com-
petitive industries which choose tc
hold their prices rather than to move
their goods and to employ their
workers
If private enterprise left to its own
devices becomes half-regimented and
half competitive, half-slave and half
free, as 1t is today, it obviously cannot
adjust itself to meet the needs and
the demands Of the country.
Most complaints for violations of the
antitrust laws are made by business
men against other business men. Even
the most monopolistic business man
disapproves of all monopolies but his
own. We may smile at this as being
just an example of human nature, but
we cannot laugh away the fact that
the combined effect Of the monopolis-
tic controls which each business group
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