Evening star., 1943-03-12
Bait Addresses
Democratic Club
Dinner Meeting
WPB Deputy Yarns
OF Tendency to Sigh
For Good Old Days

i or OOOU OIU lays
Warning against a tendency t,
sigh for the good old days" william
l. Bait told the Woman's Nationa
Democratic Club last night thai
those of us who believe in private
capitalism over other systems must
give it f1exibility and make it work
if it is to survive"
The speaker, who is deputy chair
man of the War Production Board
addressed a dinner meeting at the
club on The Part Industry Must
Play in the Postwar World"
Il believe we would be writing oul
own epitaphs if we concentrated oul
energies on trying to get back tc
what we fondly call normal; if we
tried to return to the good ole
days" Mr. Bait declared. IF we
look back closely enough we realize
that the good old days weren't really
so good after all"
Along with the rest of the world"
he said, I'VE must organize to go
forward toward the blessings of
peace and the fruits of busy labor
just as theoretically as we have
organized to wage total war"
Private capitalism, the speaker
contended. must and should be able
to prove that it is the best system
for a majority of the people who
live under it.
This means" he explained, that
1t must be adaptable, dynamic, pro-
gressive-free from restraints and
inhibitions. We can make speeches,
write pamphlets, form organizations,
influence legislation and make
marketing agreements until we are
blue in the face. But unless we set
out to make private capitalism the
best system in the world for the
production and distribution of goods
to the greatest number of people,
then its days are numbered"
Pattern of Democracy.
Businessmen, he continued, must
make free enterprise workable by
realization that business must fit
into a true democracy's pattern of
life itself in order for either free
enterprise or democracy to survive.
And labor" he added, must
realize that the belief that business
continually plots against society for
the sake of profits is no less silly
fallacy than the belief popular
among the so-called privileged
classes that labor itself is filled with
designs and plots for revolution"
Mr.. Bait warned, however, that
the Nation must be sufficiently in
telligent to realize that the sickness
tn mems souls-which causes disin-
tegration of civilization and can
make our beloved country suscep-
tible to the lies and propaganda of
future Hitlers-cannot be cured
merely by raising mems pay so that
they can enjoy radios, electric re-
frigerators and extra bathrooms.
In our world of lasting peace"
he declared, class consciousness,
special privileges and race prejudice
must be forgotten
The speaker also discussed this
Nations responsibility to the rest
of the postwar world
'f suppose it is conceivable" he
said. that America might once
again renege on its interna tional
obligation-that we might once
again stumble down the blind alley
of isolationism. Maybe we have not
yet learned that unemployment in
one nation leads to unemployment
in other countries and that the rise
of militarism in one may lead to
world war.
But this we know. If we are
to provide any assurance that there
shall be lasting peace, we must
not only take our place in COM
munity of nations, but we must
provide leadership for that COM
munity of nations. The ideas and
ideals of our part of the world can
lay the groundwork for lasting peace
throughout the world"
The club president, Mrs. Curtis
Shears, who presented the speakers,
was accompanied to the dinner by
her husband, Comdr. Shears. Other
guests at the speakers table in
cluded Admiral and Mrs. Clark
Woodward, Mr.. and Mrs. Ernest
Moncrieff of New York and Mr.. and
Mrs. Tom Clark.
Mrs. Paul Myron Linebarger, din
ner hostess, was assisted by Mrs.
Edward r. Stitt, Mrs. Frederic
Mitchell Gould, Mrs. Clinton Tribby,
Mrs. Ollie James, Mrs. Ernest
Humphrey Daniel and Mrs. Strib-