Evening star., 1941-01-11

Jay frankllh' 1dQ CQe HIeSl-
dent named Sidney Hillman to one
man defense supremacy? Mr.. Mark
Sullivan announced that the two
man set-up was the result Of New
Deal radical" pressure.
The whole country seems TO have
missed the point of Roosevelt's in
sistence that the O. P M was A
single defense head-a firm or part
nership.
What is happening is that We
have turned thumbs down on the
tycoon method of administration.
During the recent campaign, the
Republicans rightly insisted that
America was not a one-man cOun-
try. But American business has
evolved numerous systems Of one
man economic potentates or tyCoons,
who represent the absolute author
ty of majority ownership.
Must Have Right Man.
This system has many advantages.
if you get the right man for the
lob-an Owen Young for General
Electric or an Andrew Carnegie for
Steel-but it is fatal when you get
the wrong man: Sam insult or a
Richard Whitney or a Musica. For
the tycoon does not argue with you,
he tells you. The Tycoon is always
right, by definition. The tycoon sits
ike a Queen-bee, behind a battery
Of secretaries. telephones and push
buttons, breeding an innumerable
race Of yes-men. It's grand when
it works; it's terrible when it fails.
In the world of politics, the equiva-
lent is found in Hitler, and Musso-
lini-the very individuals we expect
to discreGlt and destroy by the in
herent defects in the one-man sys-
tenn Of executive authority.
What Roosevelt now offers Is the
only possible alternative to the one
man method; rule by executive COM
mittees. under the ancient principle
Of association. We find this prinCi-
pie embodied in our Jury system Of
unanimous verdicts, in our business
partnerships where all partners are
responsible for the acts of arv part
ner, in the British cabinet system
OF government, and naturally in
the husband-and-wife combination
which we honor under the name of
marriage.
Tycoon Method Shower.
The tycoon method is much show
ler. You get bells ringing. messen-
gers dashing around. orders cracking
out, people saving yes yes
yes yes right down to the
periphery Of activity. The associa-
ton or fraternal method is tougher
and more dependable. For your
tycoon may catch pneumonia, he
may have a hangover, he may
develop nervous breakdown or
stomach ulcers, and he is always
liable to make mistakes. The unani-
nous committee, on the other hand,
does not put all its egos in one
human basket. Responsibility is not
divided, since all are equally re-
sponSlble, and authority is not di-
vlded since it is not a matter of
majority rule. show of hands or
counting OF proxies What is effect
ed by the Roosevelt method is a
greatly enlarged personality, COM
posed Of different minds and differ
ent specialized abilities combining
experience and knowledge for a
common good.
Here lies the essential difference
OF method between democracy and
dictatorship. between freedom and
authority, between the system We
would defend and the system we
must resist. BY this cabinet method
OF government a long series of sec
ond-rate men in England defeated
Napoleon Bonaparte. the greatest
tycoon Of his time. On this system
we rest our basic institutions of the
family and our legal system Of the
Jury. In business 1t operated very
we'll for centuries before the modern
corporation offered apparent short
cuts in the form of RECOMMENDATION
and centralized arbitrary power.
SO the Knudsen- -Hillman firm"
for defense production management
means a great deal more than the
current notion that Roosevelt has
simply ducked an awkward issue in
the politics of crisis. 1t means that
America is now witnessing the twi-
light of the tycoons and the de-
parture from the industrial scene
OF that strange race of IRON jawed,
tWo-f1sted and frequently bone
headed authoritarians who built IN
american business for so years and
then smashed it in single decade
'Released BY Consolidated New,