Imperial Valley press., 1939-06-11
Business Feels
Horrors of War

AMT. WAR talk was long and
loud at the United States Chamber
of Commerce convention which
ended in Washington the other day
with the election of w. Gibson
Carey Jr, head of the Yale and
Towne Manufacturing company, as
the chambers new president.
never before heard the horrors
of war SO graphically dwelt upon
by orators as a gathering eXclu-
sively of business men. One expects
it at an assemblage OF clergymen
or at peace society meetings. It's
To be looked for also at meetings Of
students of international econo-
mics and other world affairs. It's
commor in both houses of congress-
too.
However. past big combinations
of plain business men that Tvo1ob-
served treated the subject quite
purely as Of business interest alone.
From that angle I've heard them
discuss it aplenty but not with
tears in their voices, and ShudderS
and things. This time I listened
TO their Spokcsmen give warning
that another world conflict will
"end civilization as we've known
it'-they fairly threw catfits at
the very idea. I never realized be.
fore that business set SO high a
value upon civilization. What's
more, | don't believe that it used
to do so.
Not SO Satisfactory
The fact is / surmiSe that the
l914-18 struggle didn't prove as
satisfactory TO business as perhaps
some earlier wars did.
Probably there were earlier and
smaller wars which were profitable
to certain groups-not to folk in
general, but to individual buSi
ncsscs, here and there. Even during
1914 18 I guess there were prof
tcCrS. For a little while after thu
strife was over maybe they reCk
oncd that they'd made pretty
good thing ont of it But they
haven't enjoyed the more reCen
hard. times.
Moreover, they know now tina
war was the cause of all thei
Slbquent difficulties The war it
self wasn't so long ago. They re
member all the circumstances
They hook up the war, within thei
own rccollcctions, with its aftc
math.
Records indicate that EurOpea,
times were terrible after the Ma
DolcOnic wars. For about n genera
ton aftcrWard business men o
that era undoubtedly were Curct
The chances are that they talke,
about war exactly as our bushes
men, at cur Chamber of Commerc
gabfest, have talked about it in tn
last few days. But by the time tn
World war broke all that was foi
gotten. Nobody then alive had ha
any war or postwar experience
except a few historians. And his
torlanS don't count in the bushes
field.
At the present writing bushes
other 20 or 80 years, with a fresl
inexperienced generation on tn
job, possibly things will be differ
cnt. But THIS generation has ha
enough. IF it gets an additions
desc. 1t cmphatically will be again,
its will.
Business Likewise senses tn;
there won't be any even temporal
ErCilts next time; the goVernmer
VIII gobble them all, and perhaJ
more, tco In 1859 or 1869, WI
knows? I'm referring to right no,
Anti New Deal
Business, as represented by Uni
ed States Chambe of CONNER,
craftsmanship, Enthusiastically WI
predominantly anti-New Deal.
1t adversely critized taxatio
deficits, relief, labor legislation a
sorts of New Deal policies. b
most especially it howled ov
President Roosevelt's "interfe
ence,' as the critics called it,
foreign affairs.
The president, of course, tax
the position that he's trying
stave off warm order to keep
out of it, if it starts somewhe
else.
The Commerce Chamber, no
ever, doesn't want us to peep-e
cept as TO this western hemisphei
Senators Gerald p Nye and Hira
w. Johnson and Representa-
Louis Ludlow haven't anything {
the use of C. as isolationis
That chamber simply has jitte