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»«j V? ^•*4r*- , ’|XANIUj’' tiriA * Thursday, August 18, 1955 THE CLINTON CHRONICLE By SPECTATOR... COMMENTS on MEN AND THINGS “The Story of Creative Capi tal”, a very readable publication of the DuPont Company, seems worthy of even wider publicity because it tells so clearly and at tractively what every one should know about what we call capi talistic business. Capitalistic bus iness is most of the business we know. The fanner buys a piece of land and either pays for it now or borrdws some money. In any case he hopes to own the land and all the tools and ma chinery on it. We are a nation of men and women who are small capitalists; we try to own and operate our farms and stores and shops. Let me quote freely from the entertaining book: “In a single day recently, near ly one million Americans acted as capitalists. The transactions in which these people took part bore a. familiar stamp. One man bought a farm; another, a store; a third, a share of corporate stock. Repeated thousands of times over in communities across th enation, gaining with each repetition, such individual decis ions to invest produced a finan cial vaalanche. On this single day, a total estimated at more than $290 million was invested. Most of them knew only that in accordance with basic Ameri can principles, they were prac ticing thrift—putting their sav ings in some investment with the hope of obtaining a return. Only a few, perhaps, fully understood how so many of the invested dol lars would come back in the form of better goods on the store shelves at lower prices; in new schools and highways, churches and hospitals; and in : all the things that spell progress not only in dollars, but in terms of human betteiment. Though some of their savings went into home mrotgages or government uses, the great ma jority found their way into the industrial economy. There, they provide the means to buy more efficient tools and build new plants, and by so doing bring greater indusarial output. If mass production symbolizes America’s unparalleled economic development, it is mass capital ism that has made it possible. The American people, aspiring to improve ways of life, have found in mass capitalism an artful suit ing of means to ends. Americans now are ,investing more than $40 billion a year in their future. In a national econo my which produces more than $350 billion a year in goods and services, an average of one dol- in nine is being set aside to build a more prosperous econo my for tomorrow. The nation’s private investment is comprised of the cumulative savings of people from every walk of life and income group. For the most part, stockhold ers are people of moderate means. Among the families in which stock is owned, one-third have an income of less than $5, 000 per year. Three-quarters are in the $10,000-or-less brack et. There are more htan one mil lion stock owners with incomes under $4,000. The figures belie the one time popular belief that “capitalists” are people with spectacular wealth. They deny, too, that capitalism is the singular prov ince of businessmen. More farm ers than business executives own stock, though the latter hold more shares; and housewives most one half of the shareholders of American corporations are women. From Biblical times there has been a sharp distinction between hoarded money, which serves no purpose, and capital. The Para ble of Talents tells of a noble man who richly rewarded two servants for investing, and doub ling, funds put in their hands; but cast out the third servant who buried the money entrusted to him. Then, as now, capital was an investment from which some return was expected. In early America, capital re quirements were small. Most men were farmers or artisans. Tools were simple and inexpens ive, and most workers owned their own. If their needs ex ceeded their funds, interested friends invested some of their Pace Thhrtcca Green Giant Peas No. 303 Can PIE CHERRIES 45' PIE CRUST Jiffy 9-Oz. Pkg. No. 303 Cans Nabisco HONEY MAID GRAHAM CRACKERS is 29c » MILD and MELLOW - 8 O’CLOCK COFFEE 78c 4, , * i SPECIAL! JANE PARKER CHERRY PIES “ 39c SPECIAL! »*#*««**»*«*»+«****+•*< Iona Green Beans 2 No. 303 Cans 23c 1-LB. BAG OWN TEA PEG 8 - 59c rnli. ^ VALUE! Sultana Brand PORK & ,. L , BEANS ^ 10c Jane Parker WHITE BREAD STOCK UP! Campbell's Soup TOMATO 2 23c VEGETABLE 2 s 27c 1-'*«‘^»'*^^^»** > ** > ******»*^*****»»»»^»» i »«»-»»^——rrrrrrrrj > • mtmon >••• aiiauc• . . iiao im* i-La LOAF 14c w •••*» *uaa»c • mciix Ha V\. savings. As late as 1850, four out of five workers were classed as individual proprietprs. Today, by contrast, four out of five workers are employees. The tools in use are so complex and so costly that no one man possibly could afford them. Men need organizations that permit them to share the costs, the risks and the effort with one another. The corporation is such an organiza tion. Reduced to its essentials, an industrial corporation is but a means of bringing together the savings of many to finance the facilities and manpower essential to modem production. Invested savings serve precisely the same function in a corporation, with an investment of more than $2 billion, as in the colonial artisan’s shop. They are still the means by which men buy tools, and thus produce and have more. Capital is the life blood of en terprise. It is as essential to all business ventures, both great and small, as blood is to a human body. The amount needed varies as widely as the enterprises themselves. Savings alone, lying unusued, mean nothing. A forgotten pig gy bank is useless. The hoarded gold of King Midas*created noth ing, and served no higher pur pose than gratification of person al greed. Only when put to use do savings become capital, and only when given direction in fill ing the needs of the market place does capital become creative. To this extent it might be said that savings, like men, become pro ductive only when purposefully employed. In modem practice, it is the function of management—wheth er it be the owners themselves or managers selected by the own ers—to direct capital into cre ative channels. In the past 10 years, the capital invested by U. S. industry in plants and equipment has totaled $215 billion, an amount equiva lent to $5,200 for every family in the U. S. This capital hAs spurred the rise of national in come from $181 billion in 1945 to $300 billion in 1954, and has help ed bring a steady rise, over those years, in the purchasing power of an average U. S. family’s in come. No one has ever been able to guarantee a profit. The men and women who help provide the capital for industrial growth al ways have encountered risks. But it is dead certain that noth ing ventured is nothing gained, and history is on the side of the venturesome. Past experience shows that the capital that makes man more productive leads to higher wages, lower prices, and rising human welfare. The workman of today produc- esas much in one hour as his 1850 counterpart did in five. Signifi cant to the comparison is a not able reduction in physical drudg- [ ery. Tools today provide 96 per cent of the energy used in manu facture, compared to 26 per cent in 1850. Significant, too, is the fact that there are nine times as many jobs in the U. S .today as there were a century ago. Throughout capitalism's his tory, providing tools to increase the individual's output, has made possible higher wages, more leis ure, and added job benefits. In the past 25 years, individual purchasing power has climbed 40 per cent. The average work week has been cut from 44 to 40 hours. It is no accident that over the same 25 years the total number of jobe has increased. Better tools lower production costs. As prices drop, demand increases, and more jobs are created. Tools, the greatest creators of jobs yet devised by man. have set a pattern of expansion that has Ifited total employment in the U. S. from 45 million to sixty mil lion in a quarter of a century.” '55 Traffic Toll Now 380; Nine Killed During Week South Carolina’s 1955 traffic death toll reached 380 as nine per sons were killed, 153 injured in 404 traffic accidents from Jaly 31 through August 6, according to the State Highway Department’s weekly report. ■Rie 1955 total now stands 44 above the toll for the same period last year. Chief Highway Commissioner Claude R. McMillan said that while this week’s toll was considerably better than the tragic 19 of last week, “the state can’t be very proud of killing nine persons.” He urged motorists to obey all the traffic laws to the letter dur ing the coming week. 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