The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1944-02-03
LOOKING
ANEAD
Dollar Daring
" GEORGE S. BENSON
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Investments make Jobs. Large in
vestments make good jobs. Paying
investments make permanent joho.
Communities where Substantial cap
ital has beeh put 70 woek wisely ase
prosperous communities. 3heirx 70
Ito Of PAINFULLY employed people =
hlgh. Incomes are adequate fDr HrSE
cious living and merchants prosper
because their customers have 4Soney
to spend for something Decides ;
bare living. These d~esiralgie .c0Afi-
tons result from investments.
Not all projects prosper. Not all
investments are wise. Nobody can
be perfectly certain In advance
whether Q proposed venture is q
good one, but il our enterprisers
had always withheld their invest
ments until they could know how
things were going to turn out. Amer
lea never would have become the
worlds most influential nation. We
would be on the back bench with
China and India today.
Fish in the
An incident in the ca Of James
A. Patten illustrates r. -.tly how
holiness in business creates wealth.
Deals in wheat, not fish, made Pat
tens name familiar to every adult
American in the first ten years of
the goth Century, but he once laid out
a million dollars to build the first
fish cannery in Alaska. While it
was still in the planning stage, the
famous plunger consulted his bank
er. Bankers are proverbially con-
sentative.
1.-THE fish are still in the sea,
Mr.. Patten," the banker reminded,
after hearing the business man dis
cuss potential returns. at is worth
trying" Mr.. Patten said. "If I lose,
/ lose. Out of three pioneering VEN
lures, if two are successful, it is
enough" He built the cannery and
it prospered and grew. Hundreds
Of men we're employed. Good jobs
were created. People in many lands
were supplied food at fair prices.
More Than a Gift
Fish taken from the sea and sold
in cans the first year had a value
somewhat above lis million dollars.
In the absence of Patterns venture
some spirit, this progress would
have been delayed; might never
have come. This is the spirit of
progress and adventure that gives
America leadership among nations
that currently is feeding the fami-
lies of a war-cursed world.
A mellower millionaire than Pat
ten might have endowed very richly
some uplift movement for under
privileged Eskimos (if any and ac-
complished much less for humanity
than did this investment for profit
that started a new industry in a
new country.
After this war will come the great
est demand for new jobs that the
world has ever known. The whole
Earth will look to American enter
prisers to offer gainful work. If we
uphold Americas living standards
which are different from any in the
world, and better than any, we will
need all the good ideas our 100 mil
lion people can devise. Freedom OF
opportunity encourages %venturesome
investment; makes paving jobs.
A Tame .nding :.
But let me tell YOU the rest Of
the Patten story. He quit enter
prising. Born before the Civil War,
he lived until 49, and witnessed the
coming of taxes mat tended to re-
strict the growth of new enterprises.
Two successes oIt of three venture
some investments had been enough
to encourage his early activities but,
at that rate, if he were operating
row and paying 662s percent tax on
his profits he could only break even.
In later years taxes on profits
have reached even more discourage
ing heights. A rs percent tax makes
two success sful ventures out of three
show an overall loss. Some men
pay take of 80 percent but Patten
quit TAX g long chances before such
rates were dreamed of. In his late
years lie invested in government
bonds. To him this must have
seemed tame. Government bonds
pay returns and they are safe but
they create no wealth; no jobs.