Arizona sun., 1948-06-18

it can come only
by revolution.
Attlee also said that socialism
was a way of life-not an economic
theory. That will be questiond by
some people. He added that social
ism demanded a higher standard
of citizenship than does capitalism.
Some people will quarrel with that
too. Many will say that it isn't
that capitalism doesn't demand a
higher standard of citizenship, but
simply that capitalism Cor any
other known system, for that mat
teri doesn't always get it.
Capitalism fails, when it does
fail, not because there is any
thing wrong with free enterprise
or competition, but because someE
times the standard of morality or
standard of citizenship if you will,
running the system, bOgs down.
Then free enterprise is shackled
and competition destroyed. The
antitrust laws were passed to
punish people who tried to check
free enterprise by killing compe-
titiOn.
Those laws wouldn't be needed,
government Intervention wouldn't
be needed, if the standard Of NOR
atty, of citizenship, were high
enough among the people who con-
troll enterprise. Long before the
war, and increasingly so when
shortages began to appear later,
big business began crowding small
business out Of existence.
Because of war conditions and
the powerful influence of big busi-
ness, the small buyer couldn't COM
pete. He wasn't able to get the
raw materials.
Small business is the keystone OF
capitalism. According to the Com
nittee on Economic Development,
SO per cent of the business units
in this country employ so people or
less. Those business units Of
course aren't limited to manufac-
turing firms-they include the road
side hotdog stand, the one-woman
hand laundry, the tea room, and the
country store as well as the busi-
ness men producing manufa ctured
items on a small scale.
If this 50 per cent of a capi-
talistic cOuntry'S business isn't
prosperous, capitalism can't sue
ceed. In fact you can't have
capitalism when big industrial
groups mOnopoIize business any
more than you can have it when
the state m0nop0lizes business.
What is happening to small busi-
ness today? It can't compete. Big
business is making big profits. pay
ing big wages (regardless OF
whether the take-home pay Of the
workers is equal to cover high
prices or not). Small business can't
afford to pay the big wages, and the
small town merchant is not max
ing sales and profits because the
consumers in his company haven't
the money to spend.
: A recent issue of the Kiplinger
magazine made survey OF condi-
tions in small towns as reported In
a thousand letters from small busi-
nessmen, teachers, preachers, doc
tors, lawyers, housewives, working
men and working women in those
towns.
The net Of the survey was that
there was a definite Ietdown In
business after January of this
year, and that the people sur
veyed believed that there is a
further letdOwn in prospect. y
There is evidence of reduced con-
suming power which is the first
sign of a depression. A sign that
the wealth of the nation is getting
out of the buyers hands.
Now that's a pretty gloomy pic
ture and not wholly subscribed to
by commerce department people
here. They will tell you that busi-
ness everywhere, large and small.
showed a tendency to level off after
January Of this year, that there was
n definite weakening in the first
quarter of the year. But they be-
lieve that was a temporary trend,
that it's over now, that business
will reverse itself, and that the
General trend is now upward again.
they make no differentiation be-