Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-03-13
Big Business
Puts Critics
On the Spot
War Effort Shames
Political Enemies
BY wEsrBRoOK PEGLER

would De IOOllSh 10 think
that American big business has
forgiven or ever will forgive
the harrassment which il has
been compelled TO endure at the
hands of the New Deal since the
winter of 1888.
These are the men who were
called Tories and Copperheads,
words meaning traitor, who
were insulted and Inundated by
impudent little shysters sent
out from Washington to adj
minister the Labor Relations
Act for the benefit of John l..
Lewis and the Communists of
the Go and the racketeers of
the AFL.
Their very bigness in business
was held to be proof of cor
ruption and fascism and they
were charged with disloyalty il
they said they believed their
country could and should keep
out of the war.
But now, they are the men
who are running the arsenal of
democracy and putting to shame
The cheap and venal politics of
Washington where thousands of
lawyers and party press agents
on the public pay roll still carry
on the class war and are trying
to renew their jobs for four
years after 1914.
THEY know, as anyone can
Il see, that but for big bust
ness. distinctive American in
stitution. the United States
would lose this war and that
because il is so big, the United
States cannot lose.
They are satisfied that this
time, big business cannot be
accused of creating the war and
showing the country into the
fight for profits.
The proof of that Is found in
the very accusation leveled
against them a little more than
a year ago that they were loath
TO convert their plants 10 war
industries because ii seemed a
profitleSs venture.
But forced into war by the
enemy, big business, Is months
later, is producing with all that
vast might and ingenuity which
the New Deal tried TO handcuff
and suppress.
These are not New Deal
achievements. these crates con-
tanning airplane engines which
come out Of the plants by the
boxcar load, these tanks. jeeps
and guns and these flying war
ships, but the contribution OF
those traitorous Tories and Cop
perheads To the destruction OF
foe who challenged a country
which they love as much as
Harry Hopkins does or Felix
Frankfurter or Franklin d.
Roosevelt, himself
A Nd IL the Presidents sons
"a are risking their lives. 40
are the sons and brothers OF the
men of big business and many
big businessmen. themselves. for.
TO them. this is not the New
Deals private war but a fight
for the survival of their country.
II is still their country, too.
They do not try 10 conceal
their hatred Of those who tried
TO raise class war against
them during the last 10 years
merely because they were good
men at enormous jobs who took
their rewards in pretentious
homes and winter vacations
when things were rolling well AZ
the plants and who finally came
10 them 10 use their bigness
against the enemy.
But all Of them are careful 10
ask that they be not identified
with any political opinions which
they express, even on the sub
ject Of the fourth term or OF
the unions which are loudly
garrulouS against them still.
They are afraid that some one
in Washington will NEEDLE with
their contracts or their materials
or start the propaganda mill go
ing against them even though
the New Deal makes politics
and damns for disruption those
who oppose the campaign for a
fourth term.
THEY are more concerned with
Il winning the war than with
the internal future of the coun-
try. They work to win, even
though the victorious United
States should be ruled again by
the same men who, when the
war broke at Pearl Harbor.
cried to them for help.
The contrast between the men
of big business and the political
man of Washington is shocking
10 observe. In the old Federal
Building in Chicago tonight.
long lines of tired men and
women, four abreast, were inch
ing YEARLY along after their
work TO file their income tax re-
turns, many OF them for the first
time.
II was a spectacle OF bureau
cratic waste of time. fumbling
and inefficiency as most deal
ings Of the people with the gov
eminent are. A factory which
did business so badly on pay
night would have riots at the
gates.
At the same time, in a hun u,
dred enormous plants in Chicago