OCR Text |
Show Prevailing Opinions Comment of the American Presi Big Business and Small That "big business" is far from doing all the business of ths nation na-tion Is an Interesting discovery of the Twentieth Century Fund. Corporations Cor-porations having assets of $1,000.-000 $1,000.-000 and over. Instead of dominating dominat-ing the acene, are responsible for only two-fifths, or 40 per cent of the nation's economic activity. The other 60 per cent ia handled by Individuals, partnerships and small corporations. The small corporation! cor-poration! have a one-fifth share; individuals and partnerships two-fifths, two-fifths, or aa much aa the big corporations. cor-porations. The survey seems to Indicate that small business Is holding its own. There is not much material for soap-box orators in this survey, sur-vey, but that will not bother the soap-boxers. They prefer not to be hampered by facta anyway. Los Angeles Times. Fatalism Right and Left ' Dean Henry Grady of the college of commerce of the University of California put his finger on one of the troubling phenomena of our times when he warned a meeting meet-ing here against the theory that war is Inevitable. "I am not prepared to admit the Inevitability of world conflict" aaid Dean Grady, who haa been laboring at Washington as chief of the trade agreement division of the state department to break down trade barriers between the United States and foreign nations. "The trouble with the inevitability inevita-bility concept ia that those who hold it prepare for it. If you think a nation is going communistic, commu-nistic, yeu automatically lean toward fascism." Precisely. Or vice versa, he might have added. The problem today is to put dynsmics into democracy de-mocracy ao that it can cope with the two extremes, which by some obscure law of political physics show a tendency to absorb all the energy and enthusiasm. History will probably aee the Roosevelt administration as chiefly chief-ly important because it is the most promising test of democracy going go-ing on in the world today. San Francisco News. Bribing Satan From Reno romes a United Press dispatch that promoters of a tl.000,000 Nevada state lottery scheme are discouraged in face of a threat from a clergyman that if they go forward with their project the clergyman will rally his church and temperance associates to retaliate by wiping out the organised or-ganised vice and gambling "now nourishing under wide open laws." Presumably the idea is that if the forces of evil will forego their lottery scheme the good people of Reno will let them go on having their vice resorts, and gambling. It sounds like a fair .rade. but a atrange one to be made by pious people who apparently think they are atrong enough to wipe out am. Sen Francisco Chronicle. Revolution by Taxation President Butler of Columbia has called attention to the danger of what with his usual felicity of expression, he terms "revolution by taxation." The use of .the tax power haa been steadily extended ex-tended as the spheres of governmental govern-mental activity have increased and the aise of bureaucracies has been augmented. More and more efforts have been made even to reach out and remove the exemptions exemp-tions from taxation of great foundations, universities and other institutions rendering public service. It is ths effect of threatened tax increaaea on the Incomes of such public institutions which has particularly aroused Columbia s president America, as he rightly points out has been preeminent in the work done by ita great privately pri-vately endowed public institutions. institu-tions. At present. Dr. Butler states, more than half a billion dollars a year is given to public service Institutions by individual gifts and bequests. Such institutions are now in danger. From many sources have come demands that the tax power be used not only to take from them part of their wealth, but also to enable the government to control con-trol them. This, if carried far enough, can effect a "revolution", to the extent that it can give ths government the -power of death over these institutions. Certainly all those connected with the administration of institutions insti-tutions for public service .realise today more thaa ever the difficulties diffi-culties which taxation haa already , placed in the way of their responsibilities respon-sibilities as trustees, and the dangers dan-gers which threaten the very existence ex-istence of their institutions unless un-less some such policy as that aug- . geated by Dr. Butler can be enforced. en-forced. New York Herald-Tribune. . Matches have to be damp-proof In the Panama canal sons. A special spe-cial brand from Sweden ia used there. |