The Nome nugget., 1949-02-18
AN ENTERPRISE STORY

(By George s. Benson, President Harding College)
 Freedom of enterprise is strong and dynamic prin- ciple It continues work wonders despite the many ways have hedged it about The sorry plight of our time is that we have found such fine way of life, proved that works we'll then cared little to pro- tect and cherish it. Yes, lot of pay fghtrate lip service to free enterprise. Our politicians laud this freedom in their campaign speeches.
 But when it's time for the crucial test what happens? We let the politicians Who ought to become statesmen when eected) spread the deathweb of bureaucracy far and wide We to agree that government do it -oh just almost anythng-so much better! We tax in dustry and incomes until capital is scared to have any enterprise left In short back enterprise rghy up to the precipce, and not to realize what have done.
 have said that free enterprise still works ders One of the most amazing examples of freedom of business enterprise has been working miracles right be- fore eyes for five years and have scarcely noticed it. One of the nations top science writer's J. D Ratcliff has outlined the mrace-sory of pencillin manufacture in the January issue of Nations BuSi- ness" Ratcf says this great medicine is the big gest selling item in the drug trade saving 5OO0O lives yeary from pneumonia alone
 Just few short years ago peniclin made in lab- oratory asks and sold for fancy price Even during the war; black market in penicilln got underway. lot of people, maybe, would have liked to nail down monopoly this miracle drug. But, then American industry tackled the job of producing pencin At first the market price was S2O per 100000 units but today the wholesale little 10 cents for that amount A dollars worth of penicillin will rout dreaded pneu- mOna.
 How did all this happen? We'll it took enterprise and lots of it. It took enterprise with confidence in the fu ture and vision enough to tackle really big job Pen cillin manufacture pretty much guessing game at first It took courage to invest and plan According to Ratcff small company in the chemical industry had this courage and vision Lacking freedom of enter prise, do you suppose would have had pencillin today?
 It seems that man named John L. Smith, president of Charles Pfizer & Company Brooklyn gets the main honors for pencillin manufacture. Smith mmi- grant this country at the age of two years and work ed his way up to an education in chemistry After he be- president of that small firm, specialists in mi- crobes and fermentation processes Smith heard of peni rillin. Then Smith took chance, made possible by Americas system of enterprise
 This Smith made plans to spend four and half million dollars for giant new penicln plant That big money, for his company was doing only about twice that amount of business annually Besides sci not certain about what pencilln could do But he had lives and intended to produce it. He did, in vats as large tank cars. The demand was great Then others began to make it. Still, the Pfizer companys sales jumped to 50 million dollars year. The country had it's precious pencillin
 This is grand success story. But it is not The same kind of story has been repeated countless