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Show , Fate of Free Enterprise Rests With Small Business Economic Processes Altered as Producers Seek to Beat Enemy Competition; Profit Motive Relegated to Background. By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. : ' . WNU Service, 1313 H Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. "The war is placing the United States on a basis of non-competitive economy." A cabinet member made this statement in a private gathering in Washington at which I was present a few days ago. He was urging the need for a study of post-war conditions. condi-tions. "If we are going to maintain the principle of free enterprise," he went on, "we must begin to think now about how we are going to change back from a non-competitive system to the normal democratic system of individual enterprise." What the cabinet officer was getting get-ting at Is this: the major paft of the energy of the nation Is gradually being be-ing turned into war production. War production is a national enterprise. The objective is to obtain the greatest great-est amount of armament and other supplies and necessities demanded for the creation of a huge military machine, as quickly as possible. Ihls is an entirely different economic econom-ic process from that upon which Tree enterprise is based. Free enterprise is the production of goods for civilian consumption on a competitive basis at a profit sufficient suffi-cient to encourage the producer to keep on producing. Under war conditions the only competition is with the enemy. Profits Prof-its may be made by the producer but every phase of his business must be government controlled. The government gov-ernment already says that automobiles automo-biles or ice boxes or radios or phonographs phono-graphs cannot be made for ordinary civilian consumption. The government govern-ment tells the manufacturer what ne can have in the way of raw materials ma-terials and tells him what he can do with them. The big corporations for the most part are already on a non-competitive basis working for the government. Prices are controlled. con-trolled. Big business which is convertible to war production has already been fitted into the new design. Big business busi-ness which is not convertible and which makes an essential civilian product is able to adjust itself. Small Business Problems But small business faces a different differ-ent problem. By small business is meant, according to government definition, a manufacturing plant employing 100 employees or less, wholesale establishments with less than $200,000 annual net sales volume; vol-ume; retail stores, service establishments, estab-lishments, hotels, places of amusement amuse-ment and construction establishments establish-ments with annual net sales or receipts re-ceipts of less than $50,000. About 35 per cent of the small businesses of the country, of which there are 168,81! establishments, according ac-cording to the classification of the United Slates department of commerce, com-merce, are capable of conversion from civilian to war production. This leaves 60 to 65 per cent of these small businesses which employ nearly Z'3 million men, in an exceedingly ex-ceedingly precarious position. The vast majority of the people in the United States and the officials in Washington believe that small business busi-ness must be preserved if free enterprise en-terprise is to continue. "What's to be done about it? Well I spent an hour in the office of the man selected by the department of commerce to fight the fight for small business. It is a very plain office the only wall decorations are a calendar cal-endar and a map of the United States. At the desk sits a man with iron-gray hair and a fine Scotch burr. Up until three months ago his business card read "William Shep-erdson. Shep-erdson. Financial Consultant, telephone tele-phone Worth 2-6400, 55 Liberty Street, Twenty-seventh Floor, New York." Today his card reads "William Sheperdson, telephone District 2200, Division of Regional Economy, Bureau Bu-reau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Com-merce. Department of Commerce, Washington, D. C." The Alternative. - Mr. Sheperdson takes his job very seriously. He believes that if small business is not preserved two steps must follow one big business will get bigger and small business will vanish two the government will have to take over. That is what he wants to avoid. His first function is to get the facts concerning the problems of small business together; his second is to get these facts' before government officials and before members of congress con-gress before they act; his third is to assist group action wherever it is necessary to assist private effort. Mr. Sheperdson cautiously points out that he can not solve the individual's indi-vidual's problems as such but wherever wher-ever a group of interests are concerned con-cerned or wherever the individual represents a group of allied interests, inter-ests, he can and will be of assistance. assist-ance. He admits that winning the war is America's first job. A part of small business can help in the war effort and the government can help small business in this field by advising the 35 or 40 per cent of small manufacturers who are "convertible" "con-vertible" in changing over their establishments es-tablishments to produce war products. prod-ucts. Specifically his job is to answer an-swer an avalanche of inquiries. This he tries to do in simple, straightforward straight-forward language. One of his chief tasks is to. help the small manufacturer to answer thfe complicated questionnaires and to fill out the forms required by all who get government contracts. His division has 31 representatives in the field talking to small business men personally. He has 12 consultants in Washington with him. He has also the tremendous resources of the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce com-merce of the department of commerce. com-merce. And he has the co-operation of a group in congress very much concerned with the plight of the small business man and he has the sympathy of Donald Nelson, head of the War Production board. Central Authority As an example of this sympathetic co-operation, by the time this is written writ-ten congress will probably have approved ap-proved of the formation of a hundred hun-dred million dollar corporation of which Donald Nelson, himself, will be the head, so there will be no split authority in war production. This corporation will have the power pow-er to make contracts for military supplies, it will see that these contracts con-tracts are let exclusively to the smaller manufacturers who are capable ca-pable of converting their plants to war production. As to the 60 to 65 per cent of America's small businesses which cannot be converted, Mr. Sheperdson Sheperd-son is rendering such aid and comfort com-fort as his long experience, his knowledge of the ability and the shortcomings of the small business man and his wide general knowledge knowl-edge make possible. , "Small business," says Mr. Sheperdson, Shep-erdson, "is usually managed by one, sometimes two, and rarely, three men. Big business has management specialists who hire brains. Big business busi-ness has research departments. Small business cannot afford these things. Many business men cannot even read blue prints. They do one job and do it well. They may have learned their business from their fathers. fa-thers. They have energy and genius or they would not have succeeded. But they need leadership and education. edu-cation. "Many of them keep no records. As a matter of fact 80 per cent keep none. In most cases the problem prob-lem they are facing today boils down to management. "The department tries to help in their education. It is now preparing prepar-ing a business guide and there is not a five dollar word in it. It doesn't even mention assets and liabilities. lia-bilities. It says 'what do you owe?' and 'what do you own?' " That guide may chart the course of many a small business through the stormy waters ahead and keep the flag of free enterprise flying. (Incidentally, if you are interested in obtaining a copy, I shall be glad to pass your request on to Mr. Sheperdson.) Shep-erdson.) Washington Cancels Cherry Blossom Festival There will be no cherry blossom festival in Washington this year. Far years people from all over the nation have been coming to Washington to see the cherry blossoms blos-soms along what we now call the Tidal Basin and what used to be more poetically known as the Lagoon. La-goon. I have lived in Washington on and off since 1914. But I never lose the thrill I had when I first walked under that magic arbor of white-pink white-pink blossoms. There is a delicate charm in their scentless petals. It is more than the mere captivation of the eye. It steals inside you, casts a gentle spell about you. The world fades away, time stops. The cherry blossoms will bloom this year as they always have. Thou-! sands will enjoy their beauty and ! forget that they are the symbol of something-we must ha4e. - In reality,- the, cherry blossom is a symbol of ,a -Japa,n that is gone, of a simple and poetic people who never have heard of a "new order," and who hated no one. |
