Evening star., 1944-04-16

business shall be restored and strength
ened. Even among the larger indus
trialists there are forward-lookers who
subscribe to that proposition.
Much can be- done for little business,
1t Is agreed, through an incentive tax
alton plan to encourage the starting of
new enterprises; through special treat
ment in the cancellation of war con-
tracts and the disposal of Govern
ment-owned plants and surpluses;
through the early release to small busi-
ness-as early as the overriding needs
of the war will permit-of materials for
civilian production; through loans on
favorable terms; through the dissemi-
nation of information by the Depart
ment of Commerce, in much the same
manner as the Department of Agricul-
ture aids the farmer through the coun-
ty-agent system.
Aid Given Little Business.
Substantial aid is a1ready being CIV
en- little business by the Smaller War
Plants Corp, established by Congress
in June of 1912. No new munitions
contractors are now being taken on, but
under the energetic and devoted Maury
Maverick, the agency Is having marked
success in protecting the interests Of
small business in existing contracts, in
getting the WPB to release materials
for essential civilian manufactures to
small concerns, and in spreading among
them new contracts for lease-lend and
foreign relief goods
Looking to the future, Maverick has
worked out plan, in cooperation with
the alien property custodian, whereby
the Smaller War Plants Corp. will take
over some $4,000 patents and patent ap-
plications from the custodian and
through the corporations IA regional
and SO district Offices make them avail
able ''to anybody that wants them for
some price like SIS apiece" And, he
adds, I'VE will give technical advice for
any small business-or, for that matter,
any big business, in the United States"
There is no more articulate or more
sincere champion of small business than
Maury Maverick. II am not against
big business as such," he said in re-
cent Washington speech before the
Peoples Lobby. "It is not inherently
bad, any more than little business is
inherently good because it is little.
But have no patience with those who
always talk about the efficiency of big
business. 1t is and can be efficient only
If there is an absolutely free economic
opportunity for small business to chal-
lenge the leaders. 1t is efficient in a
real sense only If there is opportunity
for new energy. and new methods to
move in and challenge any existing
business"
Small business, said Maverick, must
be financed-priyately If possible, but
in any case financed-so that it may
have money for its operations and
money for risks.
Backed by Others.
Is Maverick seeing the needs of small
business with prejudiced eye? If he
is, then such agencies and persons as
Eric A. Johnston, Bernard M. Baruch.
Mariner S. Eccles, the Committee for
Economic Development, the Senate Com
mittee on Postwar Economic Policy and
Planning, the National Planning Asso-
citation, all are prejudiced All these
with many others-have spoken out
lately in behalf of special consideration
for the smaller concerns in the recon-
version period-and after Particularly,
there has been a demand for measures
to stimulate the formation of new en-
terprises.
L wish we'll to my fellow business
men who already have established busi-
ness" said Johnston, the president OF
the United States Chamber of Com
merce, to a business group, "but I
think that they themselves will thrive
better if we also have the newcomers
in multitudes."
"As production controls are relaxed" :"
says the Baruch report on reconversion
policies, particular care should be
taken to protect the competitive posi-
tions of small business. as far as prac-
ticable within the needs of the war.
Cancellations of war contracts can be
guided to permit the earliest releasing
OF small concerns which can convert
back to peacetime production. Also
certain nuisance production controls,
involving only limited amount of re-
sources and which press heavily on
small concerns, can be relaxed sooner
than broader production controls. s.'
The Federal Reserve Systems authority
to make industrial loans or commit
mentS (shoulO be expanded and nben-
allied"
Chairman Eccles of the Federal Re-
serve System says: I'VE must encourage
the establishment of new enterprises
and safeguard the great number of ex-
1stlng small enterprises if we are to OBJ
tain flexible and competitive business
structure and halt the movement tend
ing toward increasingly large combines
and monopolies"
Senator Georges special committee
has reported: THE paramount consid-
Grafton in the handling of all demobil-
lzatlon problems should be the preserva-
tlon and strengthening of the American
system of free competitive enterprises.
All war plants and war surpluses should
be handled by the rehabilitation agency
SO as to promote such enterprise =. {.
No Government plant should be dis
posed OF in manner to create monop-
oily, strengthen monopolies already ex-
lstlng, or otherwise encourage mo-
nopoly"
A bulletin by DR.. Emerson P. Schmidt.
in United States Chamber of Com
merce SERIES put the matter in this wav.