Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-10-27
Profit System
Not Immoral,
Will Survive
But Wars Not Creating
Any New Fortunes
BY PAUL MALLON

pubic opinion than a national
poll. All shades of opinion are
expressed there on every subject.
A Salem, Ore, auto dealer,
Paul B. Wallace, for example,
sent me a clipping of readers
letter in one paper out there,
protesting sharply against my
advocacy of a profits system.
This reader took the view that
the profits system had broken
down in the depression, that it
was corrupt. unequal. unfair, and
that we were going to have a
new and better system of some
kind after the war.
A single attempt at conscien-
tious thought by that reader,
or any one else, would convince
him that we all live by profits
laborer, farmer. clerk and busi-
ness man. / think il is the Com
munists who attempt to convince
such people that profits are ugly
and immoral.
1t is unfortunate that many
established leaders express be-
liefs, not thoroughly clarified,
which inadvertently put water
on the wheel of the Communist
theory. Many good advocates of
democracy have in the past
publicly espoused causes which
lead people to believe that
profits are repugnant.
They did SO for their own
purposes, of course, political and
otherwise and they did not
espouse Communist purposes -
but they did leave in the minds
of some people, perhaps in the
mind of the re ider and wrote
that letter, that there is some
thing distasteful in profits.
Only unfair profits are i'm
Elohal. as every one knows. Only
cheating and gouging are the
vicious problems. Fair profits
are the life blood of all demo-
cratic systems, and the indis-
pensable sustenance of democ-
racy.
\ MOTHER reader in Jackson
"A vile, Fla, H. A. Hanson,
took the position that may also
be accepted by some other
people that this is "the rich
mans war and the poor mans
fight"
He is wrong. The rich are
actually being abolished, both in
Britain and the United States.
1 think the war is a fight of
each citizen of every class ex-
cept one-those who would pre-
fer to live under the Japs and
Hitler than Roosevelt.
MANY readers have protested
A'A my campaign against hates,
that is domestic hates among
ourselves. d. H. Butler of the
II. j. Heinz Company, Pitts
Jul IiOWCNCl, WIotC.
"f you could demonstrate TO
people that there are only two
possible ways for men to think,
either Realistically, the belief
in freedom as the basis for
creating the greatest wealth for
the greatest number; or mater
ialistically, the belief that
wealth can be divided among
tho people, then you will have
started these thinking people
ON the path Of constructive
thought"
There is no wealth in division.
Wealth today is the ability to
produce, to earn. Divide the
Ford factory and General Mo-
tors or otherwise destroy their
ability to produce and what
have you except brick and ma
chimes for scrap sales.
Each man then could get a
brick from them, or a piece of a
machine. on the pittance their
sale would bring at junk yard
prices.
Their ability to produce Is
their only wealth, and the only
wealth Of you or me. And I
think ambitious private man.
agement can make them pro-
duce better than political man.
agement by the government.
MY effort to bring some con-
ASA structive realism into the
holly divided problem of the
Negro met an approving re-
spouse from all except one Ne
gro reader. who thought it
proved me "a biased, senseless,
mechanical parrot"
Obviously, she Is thinking
along the familiar theory that
the way to improve the eco
nomic and social status of the
Negro is to break down law
barriers.
There is bitterness on both
sides of this question. the
whites and the Negroes and not
without some justification.
But the problem will never be
solved until the bitterness is
dropped and Negro leaders can
set an excellent example to their
people, and the white leaders to
theirs, by fair and straight
thinking.
There are good and bad on
both sides. which causes each to
look at the other as whole
with unjustified suspicion, ~
Best solution would be to meet
on new common ground of
realism, shedding both bitter
n -.