Evening star., 1940-05-01

nessmen gather in Washington there
will be an appreciation of what the
job-makers of America really do
the risks they take and the problems
that beset them in meeting pay
rolls. Unfortunately most business
men know every little about politics
and hence they are not adept in
meeting the barrages of political
intrigue that are leveled through
Congress and the whole legislative
process at the management of Amer
lean enterprise.
The atmosphere this year is not
much different from other years.
The delegates, of course, reveal a
sense of awareness of the extent
to which public regulation has
entered into or encroached upon
private management. But it is
doubtful whether the businessmen
realize the true extent to which
public ownership and public regu-
tation doctrines have become en-
trenched in Congress.
Workers Become Dictators.
Today more than ever there is
dictatorship by one class of voters
the organized workers. The average
American workman is not interested
in radicalism nor does he want to
see the system of free enterprise
upset, but the oligarchies which
have control of millions of workers
and can influence their voting at
the polls keep their salaries by
promising things far beyond the
capacity of management to satisfy.
The result is that Congress is
constantly being urged to permit
costs to be raised to one set of
workers which the consumers as a
whole cannot afford to pay. Output
per man is not being increased.
These disparitles in the economic
system are on every side adding to
the complications of economic life.
Take. for instance. the decision this
week by the Supreme Court which
says the head of a Government
department can fix the wage rates
on Government Contract work by
localities" The smaller steel COM
panies which were in competition
with one another thought that they
might have some redress before the
courts because the word locality"
was arbitrarily interpreted. Thus
locality" might seem to the average
person to mean a certain region or
geographical area, but as inter-
preted by the Secretary of Labor
it means that city in Alabama, for
instance, can be Jumped with the
State of New York and called a
locality" for purposes of wage de-
termination. The Supreme Court
upheld the Secretary's right to
interpret the word according to any
standard a bureaucrat may set up.
Shifts Fight to Congress.
This merely means that the courts
no longer act as a check on arbi-
trary Interpretation of existing laws
This means also that hereafter the
citizen cannot depend on the courts,
Congress and see that the vague
language of discretionary power is
carefully defined and specifically
outlined Congress alone remains
the only place where the citizen
can expect a fair deal.
Under such circumstances it is
important to know whether Congress
is in the clutches of certain class
who alone stand to benefit finan-
cially by its legislation or whether
Congress can be persuaded to look
at the economic system as whole
with an idea of creating balanced
relationship between income and
outgo. If business management is
to be controlled indirectly or directly
by Government and burdens are to
be piled on the free enterprise
system, the chaos which so many
of the economic planners here have
been anticipating as eventual justi-
fication for further exercise of
governmental power will certainly
come to pass.
May Step Into Picture.
Businessmen keep their minds
fixed on their daily tasks and rarely
take time to participate in making
public policies. But the day is not
far distant when the businessmen
will be meeting here and elsewhere
to organize the remaining classes
of America in defense against selfish
groups who are being exploited by
a few.
Big corporations are weathering
the storm because they have ample
resources, but small businesses are
finding it more and more difficult
to keep in competition. Thus job
creation is being impaired because
businessmen are not aware of the
immense problem that confronts