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Show US. Plans Simpler Aid To Business in Future Reduction in Forms Would Be Relief; Hope To Acquaint Small Operators With Vital General Trends. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. I ! I WNTT Service, Union Trust Building Washington, D. C. When the mysterious Ninth army suddenly rose full-armed on the western front and the First army, beside it, started General Eisenhower's Eisenhow-er's winter offensive there was one question on most people's lips. Will peace come in Europe before spring? In Washington, on the lips of many thoughtful people, there was another question, too: "If it comes (or for that matter when it comes) will we be ready for it?" In one of the many compartments of government which must be prepared for the ordeal of sudden peace, preparations are now going forward for-ward which, I believe, are both significant sig-nificant and hopeful. Specifically, I am thinking of a report made by the director of the budget, Harold Smith, a summary of which was passed along by Senator; Sena-tor; Murray, chairman of the committee com-mittee on small business, for the consolation con-solation It might bring. The director direc-tor of the budget believes that information needed by the government gov-ernment and valuable to small business busi-ness is going to be obtained, while the statisticians who obtain it are at the same time going to cut down on the number of forms which the small businessman will have to fill out. Filling out forms, especially the Income tax blanks, is the subject of considerable jesting these days. But there is a more serious side to the process if we accept form filling-out as a symbol of the growing part which government plays in regulating reg-ulating our personal and business affairs. That is why this promise coming from the bureau of the budget is significant, especially when it is considered con-sidered side by side with two trends to which my attention has been called this week and to which too few people have paid sufficient attention. at-tention. Expect Government To Take Lead One is the tabulated result of a poll made by the National Research center expressly for Factory magazine mag-azine a McGraw-Hill publication, and the other is a statement, which I heard recently. It was entirely unofficial and surely an expression of his own view, set forth by a British diplomat. The question which Factory magazine mag-azine had asked of men earning hourly or piece wages only (no su-, pervisors or formen) was this: "Who do you think will do the most to solve the job problem after the war the government, the labor la-bor leaders, or company heads?" Forty-seven per cent of those interviewed looked to government; govern-ment; 24 per cent looked to company com-pany heads; 11 per cent to labor leaders; 15 per cent undecided. The opinion expressed by the diplomat dip-lomat was this: "After the war we can look toward to-ward a United Kingdom where considerable con-siderable government control is exercised ex-ercised ownership of railroads, utilities, mines ... a sort of socialistic socialis-tic monarchy." Both these opinions together indicate indi-cate a trend in the thinking on both sides of the Atlantic along parallel lines. The American workman feels that the American government will take the responsibility for employment employ-ment after the war; the British official of-ficial feels that the British government govern-ment will take over several of the nation's important industries. More "forms to make out," if you will. Which brings us back to small business, Committee Chairman Murray, Mur-ray, and Budget Director Smith, and the promise of more help for business with less forms to make out, and (symbolically) we hope, less actual domination of business by government. Small Business Measure of Enterprise I chose this particular example because I believe that the relationship relation-ship of small business to government govern-ment is vital. The people who have made the most careful studies of the subject agree that the measure meas-ure of small business is the measure of the whole system of private enterprise, en-terprise, that if small business is crushed in the process of reconversion, reconver-sion, all private enterprise will eventually be stultified and not only those great semi-public institutions like the utilities and the mines will suffer the fate predicted for them in England, but eventually all enter prise will find itself in government hands. Let me say at this point, however that some industries have already reached the point where they have forced government operation ra other democratic countries and even some very conservative minds ia this country are beginning to fear that similar conditions are being be-ing created by certain businesses themselves here. But it is the purpose of those per-sons per-sons in government and out o( it, who are struggling with the problem prob-lem of preserving small business, to give it the aid it needs to pr serve its independence. In order to provide this aid it is essential that some compromises com-promises be made on the part of the businessmen. They cannot can-not expect the government to provide them with help they have to have to get them orer the hump of reconversion without making certain sacrifices sacri-fices government officials cannot can-not spend the public money without establishing some checks and balances on the Institutions In-stitutions which are thus benefitted. bene-fitted. Filling out forms is one of the minor afflictions which government-comforted government-comforted economic flesh is heir to. However, it is refreshing to read Mr. Smith's report to Senator Murray Mur-ray in which he tells us of how, according ac-cording to his custom, he has considered con-sidered the requests of numerous government agencies for surveys and has turned them down. (His job is to save the people's money by preventing duplicate effort of government gov-ernment agencies.) He announces that statistical services of the government gov-ernment are going to be "revised and overhauled" in order to produce "a rounded program to supply the basic industrial statistics needed not only by the government, but by industry as well." Most "of the failures in little business busi-ness are due to ignorance on the part of the proprietor of the one thing he ought to know most about his own business. In the first place, he doesn't know whether he is making money or losing it because be-cause he doesn't keep his books properly and he doesn't bicw enough about the conditions in bis line of business, outside his immediate imme-diate ken, to guide him. This is the type of information which the government wishes to collect col-lect and in turn place at his disposal. dis-posal. One of the plans already worked out is a census of manufacturers of 1944 covering a wide field of data, which it is not my inteution to enumerate here for that is not the purpose of these remarks. The purpose is to note hopefully the fact that here is evidence of a trend which, in some measure, balances the other two mentioned at the beginning of these columns, the trend toward government control. That is why I quote the following paragraph, not merely for the hope it brings to weary fillers-out oi forms, but because it looks like hopeful sign in an otherwise somewhat some-what cloudy sky: "An analysis made by one war agency of the need of preset informational needs shows thai about half such material won'0 , still be required by that asencf after victory; of the remaining half about two-thirds wld discontinued entirely and abont one-third continued by oWer agencies." t Railroads are now handling b,", 2 times the amount of freight tru fic and more than four times W volume of passenger business in they did before the war, the w ciation of American Railroads ported. .t "They , are carrying," e f added, "virtually double the ia0 the first World war, and they doing it with a fourth fewer fre 8 cars, about a fourth tewer P ger-train cars, and a thirc I tw locomotives than in 1918- ln duction in freight cars amounts to about 600,000 units. 1 |