Evening star., 1939-05-23

] III l IL l. IL Ddfu bd"fehce'
these wrong practices, business
profits are sanctioned.
The four points could be epit-
omized in single word, "dishon-
esty," and, generally speaking, 9
out Of 10 businessmen are as con-
demnatory of fraud and misrepre-
sentation as are Mr.. Hopkins and
the administration. The Secretary
of Commerce says that "misrep-
resentation" in selling goods is
wrong, that exploitation of labor"
is wrong, that "Wanton destruc-
ton" of natural resources Is wrong
and that "abuse of monopoly posi-
ton" is wrong.
For years businessmen have rec
ognized in their general comments
on business practices that every
one of the four things mentioned
were indefensible. To infer that
this is all that the present admin
iStration has objected to about the
profit system is, however, to give
an erroneous impression, just as
it would be an error to say that
businessmen have tried to defend
the aforesaid practices.
Vague Codes Opposed.
What businessmen say and what
the administration thus far has
refused to accept is that the prob
lens of management and risk of
capital cannot be overcome by a
multitude of regulatory steps of
ambiguous nature or by the piling
up of direct and indirect taxes in
such fashion as to force prices up.
Mr.. Hopkins says that in the
process of improving such measures
as the Social Security Act, the cor
porate tax laws, farm legislation
and others, we must make certain
that the net result of our efforts
will. on the one hand, tend to
increase employment and produc-
ton and, on the other, enhance
the opportunity of our humblest
citizens to share in the decent way
of life. I believe these two OBJ
jectlves are in no sense contra
dictory.
They are, of course, not contra
dictory, but if Mr.. Hopkins will
brush off the dust from the shelves
of some of the desks or files of the
Department of Commerce he will
find many hundreds of thousands
of pages of written data submitted
by the so-called Roper Business
and Advisory Council in which it
was sought to preserve both OBJ
Jectives and yet the recommended
tionS of the businessmen, particu-
larly on taxation, have been ignored.
What Mr.. Hopkins might have
said, and he would have been ap-
plauded as being entirely frank and
outSpoken, was that there is no
way of reconciling these various
objectives and the demands of party
and group politics, especially pres
sure politics.
A. F. of L. Suggestion Ignored.
The Secretary of Commerce GER
tainly would not say that the
American Federation of Labor is
interested in exploiting" labor, yet
Its amendments proposed for adop-
tlon at this session to improve the
Wagner Labor Act have not re-
celved either his Endorsement or the
approval of the Labor Board or of
the administration. Yet in those
amendments are the key to inter-
ferences with and stoppages of pro-
ductlon due to jurisdictional dis
putes in which the employer has no
part at all.
Take the tax laws. Inside the
administration men have labored
hard to rid business of "deterrents"
to expansion and to help small busi-
ness in particular. Does the Sec
retary of Commerce approve of such
plans and will he put the weight of
his influence back of them as against
the left-wing StrategiStS who are
counseling the President against
giving in 1 inch to the businesses
OF the country?
These are the practical uues-
tions behind the scenes which make
public statements of promises and
hopes less important nowadays than
actual achievements. For business
conditions have been far from good
this year and no economist of note
and no important authority inside
or outside of business has made the
charge that business is being held
back for any of the four reasons
mentioned in the Hopkins speech.
Fraud and dishonesty in business
are deeply deplored and are not at
all confined to any large number
of businessmen, but to a "chiseling
minority" as the phrase is often
used.
What, then, is holding business
back? A mixture of many things,