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Show CiD Scons lleosoras for FaiBures Ml i Impartial Groups Attempt Study of Business Flaws By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON . The favorite game in Washington today to-day is a new version of "button, button, who's got the button." Only for "button" read: Depression, recession, shakedown, shake-down, readjustment or what have you if you have anything. Sen. Robert Taft, as chairman of congress' joint committee on the economic eco-nomic report, had a questionnaire sent out to a long list of business men. The gist of the report seemed to be that there was going to be a business recession, but it was going to be in the other fellow's business. Frequently it is too much faith in the other fellow's failings and too little regard for one's own that causes business failures. This is especially true of small businesses. busi-nesses. Locating some of these "failures" and preventing them was the job recently re-cently undertak cn and reported on by the Committee Com-mittee for Eco nomic Develop- t : !;V 1 t . . H mcnt. a non-gov- Baukhage eminent, nonpartisan non-partisan group which makes studies of this nature. Just as this organization was completing its work, another somewhat some-what similar group was setting a task for itself in the hope of straightening out some of the other kinks in the business world. This was the National Planning association, associa-tion, which is out to discover how the many firms which steadfasUy year-in and year-out maintain good relations with their employees do the trick. Both propositions are highly interesting. CED Furnishes Fair Reports The Committee for Economic Development De-velopment has fqr its chairman Paul Hoffman who, in private life, is president of Studebaker corporation. corpora-tion. Directing its research and policy pol-icy division is Raymond Rubicam. the well-known advertising man. This organization is highly respected. re-spected. It has a staff of top-Dotchers top-Dotchers doing the research, and its members lean over backwards to be non-partisan. In fact, at a news conference called here to discuss the report's re-port's findings, one reporter became be-came pretty riled because he couldn't get Hoffman to comment com-ment od the tax situation, one of the hot-spot political issues of the moment. There are two reasons why CED's latest report (on small business) is financing, taxes and competitive opportunity. There are very definite ways in which the business man might be helped in solving these problems, particularly the problem of management. The CED report mentions these: Through advice and counsel from his suppliers: through guidance available from the large trade associations; by means of programs pro-grams instituted by his own community; com-munity; through special services which could be provided by established estab-lished counselling and market research re-search agencies within the means of the small enterprise; more extended ex-tended research supported by business busi-ness men and foundations; special courses in universities, colleges and secondary schools, and expansion of the present services ofTered free by the department of commerce. These are graphically illustrated in the diagram. Meeting Needs Of Business But the greatest problem is how to place before the highly-individualistic, hard-to-get-at small business busi-ness man the facts, both as to his needs and how to satisfy them. That Is up to the individuals in each community who will take enough interest to read the report (available without charge from the Committee for Economic Development, Develop-ment, 235 Madison avenue. New York City) and bring it to the attention atten-tion of the local business men's clubs, chambers of commerce and similar groups The other proposition which is in the making, and which likewise has a purely objective aim. Is bring carried on by the National Planning association, which is also a non-political, non - profit organization. The I NTA states as its purpose: 'TManning by Americans in agriculture, business, labor and government." Its study, which will probably take a year, is entitled "The Causes of Industrial Peace under Collective Bargaining." The project is under direction of two special committees composed NOm' 1 ASSOCIATION PROGRAMS TO r TVVn.iri IMPROVE BUSINESS PART- GUDANCEj jjffycy tm I ADVISORY MANAGEMENT I SERVICES FROM ' ij J V. COCNsUING ( SUPPLIERS SERVICES SPECIAL COURSES I I I I I 7V I AND RESEARCH EE ggj mi-rr Trfei Eiiifni fagfe tdbiki " " " rjjr rl, rpm GREATER " CLEARING HOUSE IN 1 AVAILABILITY FOR GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND OP RESEARCH SERVICFS AND COLLEGES FINDINGS INFORMATION Chart illustrates how comprehensive CED program will aid in solving problems of small businesses. significant. One: Like all CED reports, re-ports, it represents the cooperative efforts of top men in the highly practical field of business and top men in the field of science political economy; a cooperative effort whose sole purpose is to make America a better place in which to live There are no axes to grind. The second reason the report Is Important to all of us is that today more than ever, in a world of competing com-peting ideologies, the perpetuation of our democracy, our system, de pends upon the fostering of small business. Although small business needs assistance, that assistance Is difficult diffi-cult to proffer, because small business busi-ness isn't an "it" it Is three and a half million small business men, all highly individualistic; all as independent inde-pendent and hard to Influence as a monkey at the top of a cocoanut p.'ilin And these disunited, sink-or-. f:iu. cock-of-the-walkers make up I''; t cent of the firms operating In ths country today. As the CED report puts It: "Small business Is more virile vir-ile and more durable than might lie deduced from the hue and cry heard for many yearn as (o the disadvantage under which It labor. Nonetheless, small businesses arc confronted . wllh special problems and difficulties diffi-culties that are very real. It Is vital lo all business and to all cltlens Ihat conditions unfavorable unfavor-able lo small business he remedied rem-edied wherever possible. " The report finds that the problems prob-lems of the urn-ill buniiiesn man fall liJo four categories: management, of both NPA members and non-members. non-members. One is a sponsorship committee composed of 40 business and labor leaders. The other is the research committee made up of 20 experts In the field. The idea was explained to a group of us by Clinton Golden, who will direct the research. Golden explained that what his committee was after was a different differ-ent approach to the question of labor-management relations. |