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Show Back To Work By George Peck An American returning to his homeland after an absence of twenty or twenty-five years would wonder what in the world had happened to the industrious people whom he had left behind. He "would be saddened sad-dened at the spectacle of millions of Americans de" manding and getting more pay and giving return work, less in quantity and inferior in quality. The present situation brings back to mind a motto which I saw some years ago on the office wall of a business executive. It read: "I AM A GREAT BELIEVER IN LUCK; I FIND THAT THE HARDER I WORK, THE MORE I SEEM TO HAVE OF IT." A few days after reading this brief essay on luck and work, I was a week-end guest of a friend at his shooting lodge. There above the immense fireplace extending across the end of the livingroom was another an-other motto. It seemed to go hand in hand with the one seen a few days before. It read: "'HE WHO CHOPS HIS OWN WOOD GETS WARMED TWICE." Those two mottos, it seems to me, most tersely and eloquently describe the America that was; an America that we must revive to make it once again a land where men work and take pride in doing their jobs well. It used to be the American concept that the man who worked a little harder and a little better deserved a larger reward than his less industrious and less skillful fellow-worker. Until recently no one in this country had ever thought of denying to that better worker his right to a larger compensation. It was the competitive spirit between Americans, whether they were workers or bosses, which was largely responsible respons-ible for making America the most prosperous country the "world has ever knjown, with the highest standard of living for all classes. In recent years, sad to relate, certain individuals and groups have been trying to upset this American scheme of things which justly rewards individual effort, ef-fort, initiative, ability and thrift. They would have us abandon our right to pursue individual opportunity opportun-ity as it presents itself, of as Ave seek it out; they would deny to the individual the right to share in the profits ofhis own personal accomplishments. They demand that we set up here in America a different system under which there would be no incentive for the individual to work and to create. For lack of a better name we call this great A- . merican system "Free Enterprise." Under it, for over , a century and a half, as a nation and as individuals, we made great progress. If we cast out this system our forward progress will cease, 'decay will set in, and we will lose our place at the head of the parade of nations. Defeat of Hitler and Hirohito will have a-vailed a-vailed us naught, and the billions of dollars we are now spending abroad to head of Communism will be wasted, if we lose at home "those things for which our armed forces fought so valiantly and successfully in World War II, and which our dollars now fight for overseas. Let us, therefore, turn deaf ears to the defamers of our American System of Free Competitive Enterprise. Enter-prise. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this system. True, there are some individuals who a-buse a-buse it, but for one hundred and fifty years we were gradually eliminating those abusers. Let us resume with that refining process to make the best economic system ever devised in all the history of mankind, work even better. Let's have done with something-for-nothing schemes; let's quit looking for a daily visit from Santa Claus, instead of his time-honored annual pilgrimage. Let's recognize again the old truth that ''HE WHO CHOPS HIS OWN WOOD GETS WAEMED TWICE." Let's get back to work. Hard work brought us luck in the past and hard work will bring us even beter luck in the future. |