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Show Many Employers : By GEORGE S. BENSON r7 AHEAD President of Harding College ' A JL Searcy, Arkansas --SSV ti lv ffisvM THREE MEN out of four in the United States work for somebody else; can not say truthfully that they manage their own economic affairs. Most Americans do, however, how-ever, have a lot to say about the conditions of their 'employment. Workers who are very competent, whose skill or knowledge is hard to duplicate, often fare better than their employers; live as well with less work and worry. ; Craftsmen and workers at all kinds of formularized jobs likewise have, by right of collective bargaining, bar-gaining, a lot to say about where . they work, how long and for how : much. In my opinion, the birth of : the Trade Union in 1881 at Terre Haute, Ind., was a development in human progress equal in significance signi-ficance to the signing of the famous Magna Charta at Runny-mede, Runny-mede, 666 years before. No Work WAGES have hit Monopoly higher levels in this country than anywhere any-where (ever) partly because we have many employers. Many men with capital are lured into ventures ven-tures of their own for financial gain wherever private enterprises orTer opportunity for gain. When Free Enterprise works without restraint, the number of employers employ-ers is large. Many employers make competition; nobody has a monopoly on employment. After this war, the gravest danger for 75 per cent of us, we who work for somebody else, is a shortage of jobs. Prosperity depends on full employment. If private business does not offer plenty of jobs for discharged service men and former war-workers, war-workers, they will have a right to ask the government to step in and take over industry. The bad feature is that government is just one employer. Only One EVERY time gov-Employer gov-Employer ernment takes over a plant there's one less employer. For a while some hardy private operators might hold out, trying to compete with governmental monopoly, but they couldn't last. Finally working men would have only one employer em-ployer to serve; no place to seek a better job, no hope except to stay in the groove and keep friendly with whoever holds the whip hand. America can get this without even trying. There are easy blunders by which government might force Private Enterprise to fail; could positively block business busi-ness from providing work after the war. Simply holding today's war-time tax laws in force will make peace-time' profits so nearly near-ly impossible that no firm would dare start a new venture to create cre-ate new jobs. Already the shackles of dictatorship dic-tatorship have been fitted to our ankles and the war's end will lock them on, if only we sit still a little longer. Two main things need doing now: Government should (1) tell industry if post- war taxes will permit peace-time operation, and (2) state whether government owned factories will be trusted to private hands, or built into a socialistic system. |