Milford chronicle., 1961-06-02
S&@(S
ON UNDERSTANDING THE PROFIT
MOTIVE
MOTIVE

In all history no nation has even come
close to achieving the progress and level of
general welfare reached by America under
a system of economic freedom. Yet despite
the tangible evidence of this which is part
of their everyday lives, ambitious politi-
clans seem to think that the American peo-
pie can be easily persuaded that the Gov
ernment must assume responsibility for
future growth and progress and that much
political mileage may be made through har-
assing attacks on the nations outstanding
industrial organizations.
Such attacks ignore the process by which
new ideas are developed and come into gen.
eral use. For example, the automobile was
invented in the late 1880's. But it took a
quarter of century of time, agonies of eff
fort, and the investment and loss of much
money before it began to supersede the horse
and buggy, thus undermining the vested in
terests of horse breeders, carriage manufac-
turers and buggy whip makers. The diesel
engine was invented in 1895, but it remain
ed cumbersome and inefficient and got no
where until Boss Kettering of the General
Motors Corporation decided to try to do
something with it along about 1928 After
about 25 years and untold millions of dol
lars, the diesel electric locomotive began to
prove itself on the railroads and the old
steam engine was on the way to becoming a
museum piece. This, of course, was very
upsetting to many economic interests, in
Guiding strong segments of organized labor.
Can anyone imagine such developments
and these are only two eXamples-under
an economy controlled and directed by the
Government? Such ideas would probably
have been consigned to the wastebasket as
crackpot notions, or in any case politically
infeaSible because of the many established
economic factors involved Only private in
dividuals will sweat new ideas out, losing
their money until eventually the persistent
ones achieve enough public acceptance to
earn profit.
The profit motive is the handspring of
progress. Yet, this seems to escape some
people and the Washington trust-busters
(who are now prosecuting G.. M. because of
its success with the diesel engine) are in
tent on sowing suspicion and distrust of
profit among the public and obscuring the
great contributions to the national welfare
which result from the process of profit max
ing. Human nature being what it is, 1T
seems easy to get people to think of profit
as something which is extracted from them,
either in lower wages or higher prices
The communists have built most of their
case on this and to date have been making
more headway with their improved theories
in many parts of the world than we have
with our tried and tested formula for hu-
man betterment
But what economic progress Soviet Rus
sia has developed so far has been initiative
rather than creative and is likely to continue
so. The Russians can take what has been
developed and perfected by others and put
it to use, but few, if any, new products or
processes which would constitute major eco
nomic break throughs are likely to come
from the Soviet system-or from any econ
omy controlled and directed by government
If only people would understand that the
greatest force for innovation and progress
the world has known is the willingness OF
free men to work and risk in the hope OF
making a profit, they would be less easily
persuaded to rely on government for pros
perity and economic growth.