Detroit evening times., 1945-08-03
PAUL
|NIALLON
Behind
The News

WASHINGTON. Aug. .
w Some of my Socialist read
erS question my conclusion that
free democratic capitalism ADDS
a great volume of business 10
the national economy, perhaps
so per cent, accounting Tor the
much higher wage scale and
better working conditions in this
country over any other nation
i'm the world. and my resulting
contention that socialism OF the
Russian, Nazi or proposed Brit
ish kind impedeS this great vol
ume of created business" and
therefore must bring less pro-
duction. less national income
and static or negative economic
results.
They cannot have thought the
matter out thoroughly. l can
illustrate:
Take a popular American soft
drink. 1t is a simple example
of a created business, where
little or none would have eX-
listed under socialism, and its
history is multiplied by the
thousands Of other products
which are in daily use in our
vast mass markets, solely be-
cause appetiteS of consumers
were stimulated by advertising
and incentive business selling
methods, prompted by individual
desire for profit.
No other system yet con-
ceiVed by man furnishes such
economic stimulus in creating
business.
THE story Of how a small
l. Georgia soft-drink man. lit
orally built his Scent product
up into an international business
involving hundreds of millions
Of dollars, is familiar.
Such businesses do not exist
in Russia or Britain, or in fact,
any other nation.
If you think l have selected a
particularly biased example for
a partisan purpose, consider
automobiles, our largest indus
try. Today we look on the, auto
as A necessity.
II is not a necessity in Russia,
Britain or any other place.
1t has become a necessity TO
us only because business initia-
tive built it into necessity.
TIIE automobile industry
l. would not be furnishing the
jobs, wages and profits it does
today all along the economic
line from iron miner to used car
salesman except under profit
incentive SyStem,-----
1t is created business. cre-
ated solely by desire for profit.
Eliminate this incentive and
fewer and fewer cars will be
sold, roads would run down, car
improvements decline, prices
would increase as mass produce
ton declined. therefore also
wages. jobs and working condi-
tions would correspondingly de-
teriorate.
The Socialist who greedily
wishes 10 capture the profits Of
this industry for distribution
to the worker must see, if he
stops to think, that there must
be much less profits to diStrib-
ute in socialism and the benefit
10 the worker is more than lost
by the elimination of the factor
of created business"
PUT the! Socialists say, there
- would be no unemployment
under this system. They mean
that the state would promise TO
employ every one. True enough
at the expense of the worker.
AS advertising stops, as man.
agement passes into political
hands, as business is no longer
created, production also de-
clineS. efficiency falls and there
fore there must be less money
10 be distributed among the
workerS-but there will be more
workers because the government
promises to employ every one.
More workers then will get lass
of share in less business-that
is all socialism would mean. 1t is
purely a share -the-work arrange
ment-Sharing Of less work.
At the depth of our worst de-
preston our free spending labor
government counted 100000
unemployed, and directed the
whole economy of the nation 10
that segment, emblazoning the
problem on the front pages daily,
but never mentioning that there
were 45.000,000 then employed
five times as many people
working, paying taxes, contrib
uting TO the support of the un-
employed, without govern
ment thought wasted in their
interest.
There have always been g.
100000 unemployed in the most
active American business peri
odS-men between Jobs, the
lame. sick, faltering and those
not apt or inclined TO apply
themselves, many deserving,
many not.
THIAT a whole national econ
omy. a whole political syS-
tenn, should be turned over and
dcStroVpd IN Give thpm iohs