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Show itfiiVfoglft. 1 Li Keleased by Western Newspaper Union.) LET'S THINK SANELY ON DEFENSE STEPS AMERICA SHOULD, and must, prepare for possible War, but why should we become hysterical about it? Why not do the job in a sane "way, by progressive steps? Why not push ahead on the production of pants, shoes, rifles, cannon, airplanes, air-planes, ammunition and everything our soldiers will need? Why confine the production of these things by ) taking the men who are trained to ' make them out of industry before they are made, before there is anything any-thing with which to equip and train soldiers? Why upset the industry we so badly bad-ly need by taking out the men capable capa-ble of production, or by threatening Dto take them out? Why disturb the father of a family fam-ily with a day-to-day threat of a call to the colors, when that father of a Jamily, that bread winner, will be more valuable to the nation as a producer than as a soldier without equipment? If we must train men, why not take those of 19 to 21 years who are not yet proficient in industry? There .are a million such young men available avail-able every year. They are the men who will fight our battles, if any, five years from now. They are the men who can be spared now with the least possible disruption to American industrial production. A little sane thinking and less ihysteria right now will be productive produc-tive of results should war come in the future, as it may. PRODUCTION IS RESULT OF THREE AGENCIES PRODUCTION in America employs three distinct and necessary ingredients. ingre-dients. It employs labor, the work of men's heads and hands, and in America it is the privilege of each one of us to engage in such production produc-tion effort as, in our judgment, offers of-fers the best opportunities, the largest larg-est or most permanently assured dividends for the work of head or hands we put into it. Production employs capital with -which to provide tools with which labor will work, the buildings, ma-chines, ma-chines, land and materials needed. That capital is provided by the you's .and me's of America who have frugally fru-gally saved our pennies, dimes and dollars that we may invest them in tools in such enterprises as, in our judgment, offer the least element of chance of losing our savings and the best assurance of continued dividends div-idends as compensation for the use of those savings. Production employs management men with executive ability to bring labor and tools together and to keep them operating, to find markets mar-kets for what is produced. At all times in America there exists for ach of us the opportunity of a place in management if and when we demonstrate that executive ability abil-ity which would make us of value to labor those who work with head or hands, and to capital the savings sav-ings of frugal you's and me's of America. Production is the result of these three ingredients applied to the farm, factory, mine and transporta- tion. That is but the simple A. B. C. of the American system of free competition, com-petition, the American way of life, under the operation of which we have become the most prosperous people in the world, with the most equitable distribution of wealth. Is it a better system than the totalitarianism totali-tarianism of Europe? I know it is. Of the dividends paid by production produc-tion in America, labor receives 70 per cent of each dollar for which the products are sold. The second partner capital gets 4 per cent. Management gets only 2 per cent, and taxes, insurance, etc., take 24 per cent. RECALLING THE BATTLE OF NORWAY MAJOR BURG, head of the municipal mu-nicipal government of the little city of Narvik, Norway, at the time of the German invasion, told me that when the town was the battleground between the invading Germans and the Norwegian and English forces. 70,000 were killed in the fight. The major had been condemned to be shot by the Germans but escaped es-caped over the mountains to Sweden, Swe-den, then through Russia and Siberia Si-beria to America. In Narvik he was f , a young lawyer, not over 35. He left a wife and small daughter, who escaped to the far north and were still living there several months ago when he last heard from them. He insists Norway will again be a tree nation. DIVIDING WE, each one of us, are inclined to endorse the form of socialism that would divide with us what the other fellow has, but we object to dividing what we have with the other oth-er fellow. If what you have land, houses, tools, cars, furniture, or other oth-er things has a value of as much as $2,325, you have your full share of all the wealth of the nation, including in-cluding all the farms, homes, live stock, railroads, merchandise, etc. If you have more, you might be called upon to divide. |