Evening star., 1945-11-18
Sees Business Tolerant t
Of the Gloom Racket
Commentator Discovers Parallel
to Practices of Middle Ages
BIZ Raymond Moley


By Raymond Moley
The problems before American busi-
nessmen never were more complex, per-
haps they never were more serious But
there seems to be tendency among
members of the managerial group to
seek the advice of those who paint only
pictures of gloom.
wonder sometimes, when I attend
. meeting at which businessmen listen
to discourses by one OF their own mem
bers or to some one brought in for the
purpose. what strange passion pos
sesses them. For they never tire OF
hearing about their own horrible end
feel certain. moreover, that the mot
pessimistic Of those who lecture them
are not Of their number, but are Sec
retaries Of business associations, com
sels on public relations, experts, cor
pany economists or journalists v.l,o
are in some way their employees. This
cannot be because those people who
perform services on the periphery of
production are by nature pessimists,
for their own businesses seem to find
plenty Of customers. It must be that
those who minister to business find
q tremendous and unsatisfied demand
from those who 60 to meetings and
conferences for flagellation of crLcl
and quite illogical sort.
4 +
In the 18th century great process
sions of the citizenry of northern Ital-
ian towns-thousands of them-marcl1ed
around the country beating themselves
with whips. Later, in the Teu-
tonic nations, the flagellant business
changed. Specific orders or societies
were established. the members of which
ofhciated at ceremonials. Those who
craved spiritual uplift submitted them
selves to being beaten for days. The
master administered beating, after
which the patrons beat themselves for
while. Later the master read a mes
sage supposed to have been brought
by an angel, and everybody felt better.
Then the professionals went on to other
towns and found new penitents. The
point, 1t seems to me, is that this beat
ing business became a profession-a
paying profession apparently. for the
masters toiled not and neither did they
spin. They just made people feel un-
pleasant.
Something of this sort is happening
at gatherings of businessmen. They are
told that Communism is sweeping the
world including the United States, that
we are to have war with Russia, that
military training is scheme to regi-
ment the Nation, that the Nation is
bankrupt and that business never can
prosper again.
Great names are part of the sub
stance of these discussions, including
friedrich Hayek's who seems to say
| in his very dull book, "The Road to
| Serfdom," that if the village takes title
to the town pump we will end up in
| Communism. The argument repeatedly
is made that any encroachment by
Government on private enterprise will
! progress until there is no liberty left
The plain facts of social evolution are
ignored, which tell us over and over
that the line dividing Government and
business is constantly changing. Some
times it moves one way; sometimes an
other.
| The humor and, the hope are that
! these same willing consumers of the
| gospel of doom leave their seances. go
back to their plants. roll out the blue
prints, sign contracts for new machinery,
| pep up the sales force and prepare for
big year. Their actions have Titles to
do with the words they hear and little
more to do with what they say them
selves. They know America is going
places and they are going along. But
they hate to be told so.
Meanwhile, a large and fourishing
business is created whose purpose is
the purveying of pessimism. To the ex-
tent that this business keeps large
number of organizers, statisticians,
orators and writer's employed, the prob
lem of unemployment is partially solved
But this is about all that can be said
for the gloom racket.
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