Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-20
Business Faces
Postwar Test,
Trade Unit Told
Research Expert
Sees Challenge to
Private Enterprise

asVNNS ASuNSS PstSS
With the coming OF peace, private
enterprise in America will face its
most critical challenge, Leo M.
Cherne, executive secretary of the
Research Institute of America, Inc,
told the Washington Board of Trade
at its monthly meeting at the Will
lard Hotel last night.
"It will very literally be do or die
for the private enterprise system"
Mr.. Cherne declared. II know that
facing facts, especially facts like
these. is not a popular pastime, but
we are talking about survival and
the responsibilities that survival
entails.
IF private enterprise does not
have the brains, the imagination,
vigor and resourcefulness to accept
that responsibility, then, frankly,
does it deserve to survivor"
Mr.. Cherne contended that ut
may seem paradoxical, but it is true
that private enterprise can continue
to be private only if 1t recognizes
its social responsibilities-only if it
enlarges its own interests to in
clude those of the community in
which it lives"
Graham Pleads for War Fund.
Edwin G. Graham, general chair
man of the Community War Fund,
urged members of the Board of
Trade to redouble their efforts to
complete the quota. An account OF
Mr.. Graham's talk appears in the
War Fund story on Page Al.
Lanier P. McLachlen, president of
the Board of Trade, backed Mr..
Graham's plea, urging members to
do their part to reduce the Is per
cent which the fund last was re-
ported short and put it over the top.
The guest speaker, Mr.. Cherne.
who has won a wide reputation for
his forecasts of judicial, govern
mental and economic developments,
spoke on How Private Is Private
Enterprise?"
War" he said, 'has done many
strange things to what we have con-
sidered our way Of life. The shocks
of this war have been so great, they
have included so much that was I'M
expected, that all of us have finally
been conditioned to expect the I'M
expected. We have been jolted out
of the old and familiar ways of
thinking. We have had to accept
rnhch which was distasteful or dis
agreeable. With very good reason
we believe there is still worse TO
come"
On the heels of the decade Of
depression, he added, 1--WE see the
war completely resl1aping the Amer
lean business pattern" And he
pointed out: 1--WE know the casualties
on the home front, in terms Of the
old and the familiar, will be almost
as numerous as on the fighting
fronts"
Business Puzzled.
It is not surprising, he declared,
that many businessmen have had
in the back of their minds the ques-
ton of whether private enterprise
can survive the economic earth
quake induced by total warfare"
And he explained:
mot do we want it to survivor
It has nothing to do with what you
and I, as individuals want. The
compulsives of total war are not
respecters of individual preferences
when they conflict with the survival
of the group We didn't want this
war, but we got it. We didn't want
10. years of depression, but we got
that too. When war seemed inev-
liable, when we were arming for
defense, we didn't want to give up
business as usual. There is very
little of business as usual left. And
there will be still less in another six
months"
Total economic war came, Mr..
Cherne said, only recently, stimuli
taneous with the announcement of
the African campaign. This was
the controlled materials plan. This
plan, he explained, is no new prior
ity system, but plan which must
inevitably operate for the carteliza-
ton OF American industry"
Civilians Curtailed.
He pointed out that ~ per cent
OF the total steel production might
60 to civilian needs and only three
fourths OF l per cent of copper pro-
duction. The rest of the controlled
materials, he emphasized, will be
divided among the principal war
contractors, and "it is the contractor
himself who will be responsible for
all the needs of each of his SUBJ
contractors" He added:
mo longer will the subcontractor
turn to WPB or regional official
to ask, How can I get my ma
terials?' The answer will be in the
hands of the giant company on top,
which will determine the existence
and survival of hundreds of enter
prises which live within these YER
tical cartels."
With Washington making all the
broad decisions affecting business,
Mr.. Cherne said, large segments
of business have been BACKED out
co,,,plota1v and other sooynortS so.