Evening star., 1941-04-22

any desire to break up all big units,
but from its belief that free enter
prise can survive only in COM
petitive economy. Some businesses
must be big If they are properly to
serve the community. Some busi-
nesseS are of such nature that they
cannot be conducted competitively,
as, for example, the telephone bust
ness.
Declaration of Faith.
It is not against mere size, or
even against mere monopoly, that
the committee directs its fire, but
against those restraints of trade
which have been traditionally rec
ognized as destructive of free enter
prise, those restraints of trade
which, by depriving men of the op-
portunity to work, and, by suppress
ing free enterprise, produce unem-
ployment of both men and capital.
The elimination of competition by
the type of business conspiracy con-
demned in the antitrust laws has
always, under any democratic sys-
tenn, been regarded as contrary to
the public interest, because its result
Is unfairly to deprive men of the
right to earn their living. Offenses
of this kind are bad enough when
committed by individuals, but when
committed by huge aggregations of
economic power and wealth, they are
not only destructive of free enter
prise, but they are the primary
cause of the expansion of Govern
ment power.
The central theme of the report
is a declaration of faith in free en-
terprise, announced in the following
language:
The Temporary National Eco
nomic Committee, therefore, avowS
its faith in free enterprise. Every
recommendation which it makes is
intended to keep enterprise free. 1t
condemns the RECOMMENDATION of men
by government because that is the
antithesis of individual liberty. 1t
also condemns the regimentation of
men by concentrated economic pow
er because that, likewise. is the
anthlthesis of liberty. Economic
power which becomes so great that
it can regiment men enjoys but a
temporary triumph, for eventually,
by its restrictive policies, it invites
and makes inevitable its own sub
ordination to arbitrary political
power"
Wealth in Hands of Few.
This is not the place. to review in
detail the facts developed by the
record. 1t must suffice for the pur-
pose of this talk merely to state
that an extraordinary concentration
of assets. income and savings has
been demonstrated. The statistics
are ample to support this statement
from the report:
I'VE know that most of the wealth
and income of the country is owned
by few large corporations, that
these corporations are owned in turn
by an inflnitesimally small number
of people and that the profits from
the operation of these corporations
go to very small group with the
result that the opportunities for new
enterprise, whether corporate or in
dividual are constantly being re-
stricted."
1t is also clear that this concentra-
tion has been made effective through
the corporate device. Artificial agen-
cies brought into existence by corpo-
rate charter are the effective means
of bringing about this concentration.
Furthermore, it is clear that the
fancied wide distribution of corpo-
rate ownership among the people is
altogether illusory. Fully half of all
corporate stock dividends are re-
ceived by less than $4,000 persons of
the 130000,000 who inhabit the
United States. The interstate corpo-
ration which dominates the COM
merce and industry of the land and
holds the bulk of all wealth is a
creature of State governments which
have no power to protect the public
interest in the field of interstate
commerce. So the committee has
recommended national standards for
national corporations, not for the
purpose of extending Federal control
over business, but solely for the pur-
pose of abolishing the corporate
power to follow practices universally
acknowledged to be harmful.
The general trend of the recon-
mendations is toward this goal, the
elimination of unethical and restric-
tive methods which all experience
shows are hostile to free enterprise.