The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1952-05-01

opinion, fuleu tnaJ the PRESIDENT I'd
and ordered the steel mills returned
Maryland's Senior United States
Senator, Herbert r. O'Conor, the
guest speaker at the annual mem
bership meeting of the Hagerstown
Chamber of Commerce, held in the
ballroom of the Hotel Alexander on
Friday night, told his audience, in
no uncertain terms, that President
Truman not only had no constitu-
tional authority to seize the steel in
dustries but that, in doing SO, he had
also ignored the provisions of an act
of Congress = the Hartley Act
The dinner meeting, which was
presided over by the retiring presi
dent, j. v. Jamison, III, was attend
ed by $50 members and their guests.
Seated at the head table with Mr..
Jamison and Senator O'Conor were:
Judge Joseph D. Mish, Elmer N.
Funkhouser, who introduced the
speaker; Winslow F. Burhans, presi-
dent of the Board of County Com
missioners; Mayor H. L. Mills, A.
Ray Ruth, chairman of the Hagers-
town Retailers Bureau; Roland D.
Hebb, president of the Junior Cham
Der of Commerce; Rev. Kenneth M.
Gearhart, who pronounced the in
vocation; Herman L. Stockslager,
first president; and James w.
Stone, secretary.
The incoming president of the
Chamber, Odello M. Letter, was I'M
able to be present due to his having
made plans some months ago for a
trip to the West Coast at this time.
The complete text of the Sena-
tors address follows:
IF ] were to ask any number Of my
listeners tonight what they consider
to be among the major considera-
tiQcg of the hour, I would be sure to
geg a number of replies that would
include high taxes in the list. One
must agree with such a reaction, be-
cause it is obvious that the business
man is the backbone of our nations
economy and this his initiative and
enterprise must not be destroyed by
y1fCoo41aIy 4avofi0v1
"Under the liberal concept of gov
eminent which seems to be fashion
able. today among some leaders of
government, profits are looked down
upon as if they were an evil phase
of the economy, something to be de-
| plored. On the contrary, our people
must never lose sight of the fact
that the profit motive is a perfectly
proper and legitimate part of bust
ness, undertakings. We must re-
member that the opportunity for
profit has been the driving force
which has brought America to the
leadership among the nations of the
world
'"To wipe out that inspiration by
abnormally heavy taxes, as some
are advocating, would be to take
away the essential factor of the
American economy. That is why !
have consistently opposed unbal-
anced budgets which are an invita-
ton to tax increases; why I have
fought vigorously against the great
number Of non-vital and sometimes
ridiculous economic expenditures
which are proposed from many
quarters annually in Washington.
Government Ownership
Another challenging problem is
that involved in the widening in
road upon the basic American prin-
ciple of free enterprise being made
by Federal bureaucracy. Little by
little, but sizeable in the aggregate,
has been the advance toward the
realization of detectives of the So
cialized state.
Recent surveys of Federal OPP
erations have revealed that some
100 different business and industrial
enterprises are being operated by
the government, and that publicly
owned electric power capacity had
/ increased almost six-fold in the last
20 years. The IVA pattern is typi-
cal of Federal power tactics. Au-
thorized in 1888 to operate. single
dam, this Federal colossus now con-
trolls the production and distribu-
ton of electric power in an area OF
10000 square miles-more than that
of all the New England states put to-
gether, plus the areas of Maryland
and Delaware.
Consider the trend-150 privately
owned electric properties through
mt thn country rnnrnSnntino an in