Evening star., 1946-07-16

businessman Lowell Mellett.
distinction difficult to make in these
days-this Is q principal guiding
motive among us Americans, regard
less Of the words we use to describe
it. And it is carrying us into q
troublesome fix.
Something Additional.
Free enterprise, as the term is
usually used, Is intended to mean
freedom to compete, to be synony-
nous with free competition. Free
enterprise, as Congress is coming to
interpret 1t, means something addi-
tional. 1t means not only freedom
to compete, but freedom to prevent
competition. If you are enterprising
enough to work out q deal with men
in your own business that will elm
mate competition and any possible
competitors, then Congress Is in
clined to put its approval on your
operation. For example, the Bull
winkle bill, passed by the House,
would free the American railroads
from any real necessity to compete
with one another for the public's
favor through rates and service. It
would enable the railroads to exempt
themselves from the antitrust laws.
And the Congress member votes
that way because he knows, in his
heart, that If he were a railroad
operator or a railroad banker, that's
the way he would like to have 1t.
But don't be scornful of the Con-
gress member, for in this respect he
Is more like you than you may
realize-or if not like you personally,
like most Of your neighbors. The
difference may be that, In a way,
he is more honest with himself.
Whereas all of us favor a certain
amount Of control over other people
none of us really favors control over
himself. The ideal situation, from
the standpoint of the individual,
would be one in which he could be
completely on the loose, with every
body else controlled.
But the Congress member obviously
cannot provide anything like that
for anybody unless he provides it for
everybody. He can't provide 1t for
the chicken rancher and not provide
1t for the chicken dealer; nor can he
provide it for the chicken rancher
and not for the cotton grower or the
peanut planter or the clothing man.
ufacturer. So the Congress member,
In effect, votes to turn everybody
loose to prey on everybody else.
That's what is happening to OPA.
And we can't honestly blame Con-
gress unless we are willing to blame
ourselves. q -il '.-
Each Eyes Storm Cellar.
All of which is not going to make
the consequences any more pleasant,
nor any less disastrous. Spokesmen
for organized business, both in and
out OF Congress, are hugging to
themselves the hope that what they
are saying will prove to be true, but
1t is hard to believe they feel the
confidence they pretend to have.
They are saying that once business
and industry and finance are freed
OF all control We will see q great |
resurgence of production and pros-
perity in this country, with every
body happy. But they knock on
wood when they say it. And each
has his eye on his own private storm
cellar, against the deluge that may
come.
So it looks as If we are in for
imitation and all the pains and
penalties thereof. When we crawl
out from under the debris we may
be wiser as well as sadder men. We
may realize that at last we, as a
Nation. have grown up and must
learn to govern ourselves. That
means control. In a democracy,
fortunately, it means merely self
control, the utilization of our elected
government as the means of con-
trolling ourselves against ourselves.
A Correction.
In an article last week comment
Ing on the speed with which the
Bulwinkle bill had been whipped
through the House, I made the
statement that there had been no
committee hearings. That was an
error, as pointed out Saturday on
this page of The Star by J. j..