The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, June 18, 1948, Image 2
THE NEWBERRY SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C.
Washington Dipestv
Throttling of Small Business
Can Kill Democratic System
By BAUKHAGE '
Newt Analyst and Commentator
WASHINGTON.—Over in England, where the majority,
voted to accept socialism because they felt the 400-year-old
“capitalistic experiment” had been a failure, they are finding
that you can’t vote yourself into a prosperity any more than
you can vote yourself into morality.
There are still a lot of Britons who think they have been voted out
of the frying pan into the fire. Prime Minister Clement Attlee, in a re
cent report to the Labor party, admitted that conversion into socialist
democracy was a long hard task, longer than they had imagined.
“We are engaged in a great ven
ture,” AtUee said, “We are trying
to build up a great, free, socialist
democracy." He warned that a so
ciety changed by
u n d e m o c ratic
methods is. apt to
lose the “habits
of democracy.” I
suppose he meant
by that that so
cialism had to
come by evolu
tion, which is an
ancient axiom of
the more conser
vative socialists.
Communists say
it can come only
by revolution.
Attlee also said that socialism
was a way of life—not an economic
theory. That will be questiond by
some people. He added that social
ism demanded a higher standard
of citizenship than does capitalism.
Some people wiU quarrel with that
too. Many will say that it isn’t
that capitalism doesn’t demand a
higher standard of citizenship, but
simply that capitalism (or any
other known system, for that mat
ter) doesn’t always get it.
Capitalism fails, when it does
fail, not because there is any
thing wrong with free enterprise
or competition, but because some
times the standard of morality or
standard of citizenship if yon will,
running the system, bogs down.
Then free enterprise is shackled
and competition destroyed. The
anti-trust laws were passed to
punish people who tried to check
free enterprise by killing compe
tition.
Those laws wouldn’t be needed,
government intervention wouldn’t
be needed, if the standard of mor
ality, of citizenship, were high
enough among the people who con
trol enterprise. Long before the
war, and increasingly so when
shortages began to appear later,
big business began crowding small
business out of exigence.
Because of war conditions and
the powerful influence of big busi
ness, the small buyer couldn’t com
pete. He wasn’t able to get the
raw materials.
Small business is the keystone of
capitalism. According to the Com
mittee on Economic Development,
98 per cent of the business units
In this country employ 50 people or
less. Those “business units” of
course aren’t limited to manufac
turing firms—they include the road
side hotdog stand, the one-woman
hand laundry, the tea room, and the
country store as well as the busi
ness men producing manufactured
items on a small scale.
If this 98 per cent of a capi
talistic country’s business isn’t
prosperous, capitalism can’t suc
ceed. In fact you can’t have
capitalism when big industrial
groups monopolize business any
more than you can have it when
the state monopolizes business.
What is happening to small busi
ness today? It can’t compete. Big
business is making big profits, pay
ing big wages (regardless of
whether the take-home pay of the
workers is equal to cover high
prices or not). Small business can’t
nfford to pay the big wages, and the
small town merchant is not mak
ing sales and profits because the
consumers in his company haven’t
the money to spend.
A recent issue of the Kiplinger
magazine made a survey of condi
tions in small towns as reported in
a thousand letters from small busi
nessmen, teachers, preachers, doc
tors, lawyers, housewives, working
men and working women in those
towns.
The net of the survey was that
there was a definite letdown in
business after January of this
year, and that the people sur
veyed believed that there is a
further letdown In prospect.
There is evidence of reduced con
suming power which is the first
sign of a depression. A sign that
the wealth of the nation is getting
out of the buyers’ hands.
Now that’s a pretty gloomy pic
ture and not wholly subscribed to
by commerce department people
here. They will tell you that busi
ness everywhere, large and small,
showed a tendency to level off after
January of this year, that there was
a definite weakening in the first
quarter of the year. But they be
lieve that was a temporary trend,
that it’s over now, that business
will reverse itself, and that the
general trend is now upward again.
They make no differentiation be
tween large and small businesses in
their prognostications and studies,
and they feel that the trend for all
business now is up.
But listen to what the people sur
veyed by Kiplinger say:
A food wholesaler in Iowa:
“Bread sales are extremely high,
also flour sales are good and the
sale of rolled oats is good, as people
apparently are filling up on these
nutritious foods in preference to
more expensive items.”
A baker in Ohio: “We are selling
fewer cakes and pies.”
Women are doing more sewing at
home, with clothing prices so high.
An Illinois businessman said: “The
local high school decided to have
a night school on sewing. The first
registration was 135 women.”
Young woman in Wisconsin:
“I’m not the only working girl in
this community who doesn’t have
the new look.”
Illinois farmwoman: “We planned
to buy some new furniture, but the
price is too high. I am making
slipcovers.”
Even electrical items, dreamed of
by housewives as an after-the-war
necessity, are not selling welL Said
an Iowa dealer: “The edge is defi
nitely off on hard goods, such as
refrigerators, washers, radios,
stoves, etc. Prices too high.”
A traveling salesman covering
the small towns finds the going
tough: “I cover New York state
and I am working twice as hard for
half the business.”
Many little signs of hard times
were reported by Kiplinger’s sur
vey. Examples:
A Texas housewife: “I am feed
ing tramps for the first time since
before the war.”
A deacon: “Collections are off
at our church.”
A loan company man: “More
borrowing from small loan com
panies.”
A village cobbler: “My shoe
repair business is good.”
As the Kiplinger magazine puts
it: “The folks in the small towns
are harder up. Their incomes
haven’t gone up as much as the
prices they pay.”
In other words, according to the
survey, the wealth is getting out
of the hands of the consumer. And
whether this survey or the com
merce department’s optimistic pre
diction are more nearly correct,
(congress abolished the small busi
ness section), this much at least
can be said:
You can redistribute the wealth
by the socialistic intervention of
government. That kills capitalism.
Or you can redistribute it by per
mitting full and free competition-
competition on the part of the pro
ducers of raw materials, competi
tion on the part of labor, (an ex
pensive item), competition on the
part of processors. Industrial or
labor monopoly, as I said before,
will kill capitalism in the end as
effectively as the Communist with
his little red hatchet.
• • •
Even Russians
Get Re-oriented
This item was passed along to me
by a friend. A high officer in one
of the armies which fought against
Russia was visiting this country,
and told this story:
Recently in Berlin, he was enter
taining a high Russian officer sta
tioned there. It was a farewell
party as the Russian and his wife
had been ordered to return to Mos
cow. The host remarked that it
was nice that the Russian could
take his wife back from the rigors
of occupation life in Germany.
The Russian had dined well, and
perhaps was indiscreet. Anyway,
he confessed that he was anything
but pleased; that he was dreading
the period he and his wife must
pass in the “camp.”
Then he explained that every
Russian, before he was allowed
to return to the Soviet Union, had
to pass through a re-education
center, and be indoctrinated with
Just what he should say to his
friends and relatives.
I repeat this item because it
comes to me in a direct, intimate
manner; not a part of any or
ganized propaganda.
• • •
It’s as hard to reach an agree
ment with 16 lawyers haggling over
every word in a labor controversy
as it is to get into heaven with
16 theologians haggling over how
many angels can stand on the head
of a pin.
• • •
Good pastures save grain, says
department of agriculture. Yes,
and around about foreclosing time,
good grain will save pastures.
• ’I
MO DEAL...After Got, Thomas E.i
Dewey of New York (left) end
Oov. Earl Warren of California
(right) had finished a con*-.
Terence In Sacrwaento, Calif*»
It was apparent that they had
nede no agrees:act on a coali
tion of forces. Warren told
newsmen that he definitely Is
• GOP candidate for president
and la not Interested in the
vice-presidency.'
SECRETARY... Charles F. Brannan,
assistant secretary of agricul
ture since 1944, was nominated
by President Truman to succeed
Clinton P. Anderson as secre
tary of agriculture. Anderson
resigned the cabinet post to
run for the U. S. senate froa
New Mexico. /
ALMOST NOTHING... Some dogs are
very small and this one is a
supreme example. It Is a new
born male chihuahua whose
aotber Is named Nada, the
Spanish word for ’nothing.'
This pup. of course. Is next
to nothing.
STIli, PITCHING...The diamond’s
loss Is a gain for the politi
cal arena--8onetlmes. Lefty
Grove, former major league
hurler, appeared as a Repub
lican delegate from Allegheny
county, Md., at the Republican
state convent Ion In Baltimore.)
AIRCRAFT CARRIER,HOLDS OPEN HOUSE...One of the nice thlnga
about living in the United States Is that you don’t have to join
the navy in order^to find out what a warship looks like. Some
times the ships'have visiting days and you can go and look as a
civilian. For Instance, the aircraft carrier Talley Porge, which
began Its mo^ld cruise at San Diego, Calif., on October 9, 1947,
stopped offhand held* open house in New York’s North river. Six,
thousand curious natlYes visited the ship,
■ *-*■ • - ’ . v T ■
TRtMAN AND ISRAEL’S CHIEF...Dr. Chaim Welzmann, famed Russian-
born chemist and president of the newly crested state of Israel, i
Is shown as he presented President Trunan with a Torah* fol
lowing s 30-nlnute conference at the White House. The Torah con
tained the first five books of the Old Testament, hand-written
on parchment and enclosed In a velvet case with the Star of Da
vid on the outside.
MEDITATION IN RESTING PLACE OP HEROES...No one can tell what
thoughts run through the head of this lime woman as she sits Ini
silent meditation among the graves In Arlington national ceme-j
tery. She nay be paying her own personal tribute to all the war
victims rfio sleep there, or she may be offering a prayer for a
particular loved one. Whatever the reason. It is enough to say
that she did not forget, even though Morld War II already has
become distant In time and memory.
UNCONVINCED... Despite over
whelming scientific opinion
to the contrary, Adolph Grauer
Of Miami, Fla., believes the
moon does not rotate on Its
axis as It revolves around the
berth. He made this device—I
s lunetsrlum—to preve his
point,/
CARE TO DO AS THIS ROMAN DOES?...Arced with nothing more formid
able than a friendly smile, Capt. Roman Proske, proprietor of m
Miami, Fla.,' tiger farm peers happily Into the gaping and well-
armed maw ef a Bengal tiger as he puts the animal through its
paces. The handshake seems to be friendly enough, although the
tiger shows a trace of ungraciousness in offering his left ps«
Instead of the right one./
Old-Age Pensions
A t a SECRET POWWOW with
congressional Democratic lead
ers President Truman was told there
was little chance of congress ap
proving any of his proposals to in
crease old-age pensions. However,
the leaders advised that the peo
ple were entitled to a frank report
on how old-age insurance benefits—
on which millions of Americans de
pend for retirement security—have
lagged behind higher wages and
living costs. That was why Tru
man decided to send his message
to congress anyway.
Michigan’s aggressive represen
tative, John Dingell, an original
champion of the social security
law, summed it up bluntly: “Unless
pensions are increased in ratio to
higher wages, higher taxes and
higher living costs, counties that
have sold their poorhouses for the
aged will have to re-establish
them.”
Dingell said it would be “actu-
arlaliy sound” to increase pen
sions because of increased reve
nues from payroll taxes. He
added: “Sixty million people are
employed now, more than we
ever dreamed of when we
changed the law in 1939. We
thonght then that we wouldn’t
have that many employed until
1980.”
“I want to cover as many people
as practically possible,” comment
ed the President.
Biggest problem, observed Fed
eral Security Administrator Oscar
Ewing,, is providing protection for
casual workers, such as domestic
servants and farmhands.
“We might try the stamp system
they use in England,” suggested
Ewing.
“I doubt that it would work here,”
remarked Mr. Truman. “It’s a
nuisance to employers, difficult to
administer and such casual em
ployees frequency build up less
credits for contributory pensions
than they could get in an old-age
assistance dole.”
• • •
Whit* House Visitors
THE PRESIDENT HAS RE
SORTED to new strategy in han
dling White House callers.
For some time, Washington ob
servers were amazed at the num
ber of visitors President Truman
saw daily. But now the calling list
has tapered off. The official list
released every morning shows only
a handful of visitors.
What most people don’t know,
however, is that there are five
separate entrances to the White
House, and in recent weeks Mr.
Truman has been fooling the
press. While regular White House
correspondents wait in the lobby
of the executive offices watching
for presidential visitors, various
private callers slip in other
doors. Sometimes as many as 25
will flow into Mr. Truman’s
office unnoticed. They come in
through various side doors, some
times even the distant east wing, ’
and then are spirited around the
back through the rose garden and
in to the President.
Some old senatorial friends also
drop around to see Mr. Truman at
breakfast. Others come in after
breakfast, but before the press
arrives. Ed Flynn has been in
twice lately, unnoticed. Former
Judge Sam Rosenman is again a
White House regular using the east
gate, as is George Allen, the old
court jester.
Another new favorite Truman
rendezvous is the presidential
yacht, the Williamsburg, where he
holds stag poker parties with old
buddies, sometimes sleeping on
board and walking back to the
White House early in the morning
before most people go to work.
• * *
Western Water Shortage
THE STORY OF A MODERN
RUSH to California, more signifi
cant than the ’49 gold rush, was
laid before President Truman the
other day with a warning that the
state soon will not have enough
water to go around.
Calling at the White House,
Congressmen Dick Welch, Re
publican, and Frank Havenner,
Democrat, both of San Francisco,
described how the East was mi
grating to the West at the rate
of 1,000 newcomers a day.
This tremendous Influx has cost
California millions of barrels of
precious water from her danger
ously dwindling reservoirs.
Yet 73.770.000 acre-feet of fiVsh
water from San Joaquin and Sac
ramento rivers empty into San
Francisco bay each year. The con
gressmen urged the President per
sonally to look into this problem on
his trip to California and recom
mend what can be done to save
the water.
Mr. Truman pulled out maps of
the bay region which he already
had been studying, and assured the
congressmen that he previously
had intended to give the matter his
personal attention.
“There shouldn't be a shortage
of water in that area,” he agreed,
“with water running wild into
the bay.”
‘NEW LOOK' REVOLT
Must the women of America dress
to look part awning, part inverted
tepee and part fashion slave? The
question is being Ased, and by the
women themselves. From what
this department hears the women's
dress designers at last have suc
ceeded in making the female worm
turn, or nearly so. The current
modes are not doing the gals any
good pictorially and they know it
•
Those long, loose, bell-bottom
skirts not only make it difficult
for a woman to look thin; they
make it impossible for a thin one
not to look fat. And nnless the
girls are Just talking to hear
themselves talk, a revolt against
resembling a wigwam with a head
and neck is on.
Any dress shop will tell you the
women are mad clear through. “I
am not a Mexican ballerina, a half
opened umbrella or a poster for
a colonial ball” insisted the missus
the other day. “And I resent a
conspiracy to make me look like a
combination of all three, I have
lived on lettuce and other rabbit
food for a year to get fairly slender,
and look what the garment industry
does!"
*
“Yon women have yourselves
to blame,” we said. “Your slavish
surrender to whatever some er
ratic style ozars decree has been
uninterrupted down through the
years. Why don’t yon turn and
kick them in the teeth by a simple
refusal to toe the line? Your
wardrobe is full of the recently
outlawed models. This is a time
for sense, thrift, and . . .’’
*
“There you go on that thrift stuff
again! I am discussing styles, not
•conomics. And I am not against
smart changes in modes. What
makes me boil Is the abrupt switch
from clothes in which a woman
could look pretty good, if over 16,
to those 1948 get-ups which make
almost any woman look as if she
was understudying a free balloon.”
— * —
“I am with you, my sweet,” we
insisted. “The 1948 modes do for
a woman what sailor pants do for
a man.”
“In the past a woman could al
ways take something from her left
over dresses in a pinch like this
and weather the tide, but you can't
make a 1947 dress look like a forty-
eighter unless it is for New Orleans,
Mardi Gras purposes,” she replied
sadly.
“I have seen some women who,
wearing the new look thing could
enter a Mardi Gras as a decorated
float,” we said.
•
“Don’t look at me,” snapped
the missus. “The simple truth is
that few outside of this year’*
high school classes can blossom
forth in modern fashion without
resembling Whistler’s Mother or
Barbara Fritchie both wrongslde
up and very unhappy.”
.
She put on her hat and started for
the door.
“Where are you going?” we
asked.
“To the United Nations! The
matter belongs on their agenda.
And what’s more no candidate for
president gets my vote who doesn't
come out with planks to compel
dress designers to register, take an
oath they are not malicious, swear
they are not undercover agents for
Old Mother Hubbard and stop rack
eteering in feminine vanity.”
THE DOVE
I can’t make peace with any
men, .
Except through Mr. Wallace,
(Hen);
To each approach my stare is
blank—
But not to Mr. Wallace (Hank);
It’s fanny how I give the gate
To all except ONE CANDI
DATE;
Ah, I am sweet and short of
malice—
But only via Henry Wallace!
The Country Editor Says:
Quent Parker hat switched from
regular to high test gas and is con
sidering a cash offer to appear in a
magazine advertisement as a gaso
line user of distinction. Tootsie
Benham’s new 1948 bathing costume
arrived yesterday in a regular sized
envelope.
• • •
An appendix operation was the
theme of a musical suit* played
at Hunter college the other night.
The score, obviously, took a lot of
cutting.
•
"Muted strings symbolized the pa
tient’s concerns,” says an explana
tion of the composition. “Wood
winds and brasses depicted the ac
tions of the surgeons. Classical
tonal patterns described the fanta
sies at the patient under anesthe
sia.”
Police Break Up Gang War
Of High School Students
OAKLAND, CALIF.—Police broke
up a gang fight involving 350 pupils
of Frick and Elmhurst junior high
schools by nabbing the leaders —•
and these weapons:
Two sawed off baseball bats, four
two-fcot lengths of pipe, one bicycle
pedal fashioned into brass knuckles,
one butcher knife and a dozen
small metal bars.
The trouble started after a hair
p-Jling by two girls at an all-girl
track meet
Roulette System Collapses,
Collegians Quit "Forever"
LAS VEGAS. NEV.—The two
college men who thought they
had a sure fire system for beat
ing the roulette wheels gave up
gambling “forever.”
“You can’t win,” they said. A
$200 loss in 24 hours at roulette
convinced them.
The pair, Albert Hibbs, Chilli-
cothe, Ohio, and Roy Walford,
San Diego, Calif., both 23, made
their system pay $12,000 in Reno.
Their first attempt at Las Vegas
won $300. But they lost $800 in
their last two.
Hibbs and Walford decided to
get a boat for a Caribbean
cruise.
.JL
CLASSIFIED
DEPARTMENT
TRAVEL
CHERRY GROVE BEACH, Ocean Drivt, 8
C. Reservations available: “Jolly Rofers’*
Apts., modern — hot water. Pew weeks In
June, July, Aug.. Sept., hall rates. Mrs.
D. 8. Altman.
LAKE LURE—Cabin on water front, run
ning water, electric range, refrigerator, fur
nished, $42.00 week. Reply Box 1290, Spar
tanburg, S. C.
Vacation Time Is Here
Come To
GRANT'S BEACH COTTAGES A APT&
COMPLETELY FURNISHED
2095 S. Atlantic Ave.
DAYTONA BEACH. FLA.
Directly on the Ocean
MISCELLANEOUS ~
WE BUY, SELL HANDICRAFT, ODDITIES.
Anything on Commission. Write what you
have. UPNICKE, 612 McAllister St., WAU
KEGAN, ILLINOIS.
AMAZING NEW “DRY” SHOE POLISHER.
Replaces Messy Pastes and liquids! Say
“goodbye” to Cans, Bottles, dirty rag*
soiled hands! Send name, address for ON
APPROVAL NO RISK OFFER. KRI8TKB
SHOE POLISHERS, KINGMAN 2, ARIZ.
30 PER CENT DDT emulsion concentrate.
$9.00 per dozen quarts, plus express. Cleve
land Chemical Co., Grover, North Carolina.
BOAT KITS and Assembled Boats; 11% ft.
WELDWOOD Plywood EasUy assembled
SEABOARD CARPORTABLE Motor Row
boat. sloes and bottom. Wt. 100 lbs.
KIT: $55.00. ASSEMBLED BOAT: $75.00.
Write for literature, or ask yov? dealer.
SEABOARD BOATS. P. O. Box 806, Charles
ton, South Carolina.
POPCORN, Peanut, Candy Floss, Snow Ball
Machines. New and used. Bought and sold.
CfiUNK-E-NUT, Philadelphia 6, Pa.
ALCOHOLICS
NO hospitalization. No nausea, nq. vomiting.
Practically painless. Eliminates craving.
QUICK RELIEF PROM HANGOVERS. 3
CONN ALLY BLDG.. Atlanta, Ga. MA. 0775.
HELP WANTED—MEN
PLASTERERS A LATHERS WANTED—Must
be good mechanics and apply 150 to 176
yards per day. Highest wages paid. Lots of
steady work. Will repay hue transportation
for those who are satisfactory. For full par
ticulars write to Milton Cousens & Co., 3210
Joy Road, Detroit 6, Michigan. Give fnll
particulars about yourself.
PERSONAL
Asthma Permanent Relief
Cause known and can be removed. Perma
nent relief in high percentage of cases. At
lanta Asthma Clinic. No. 3 Connally Bldg.,
Atlanta. Ga. Phone MA. 9775.
HAY, GRAIN & FEED
NEW CROP OATS A WHEAT—moving now.
Truck or Car Lots, FOB or Delivered. Bruco
Harter, Fairfax, South Carolina.
DOGS, CATS, PETS, ETC.
AIREDALE PUPPIES
Black and Tan. Big Bone Type. Registered
and Guaranteed. Virginia Airedale Kennels,
Radford, Va.
clothing; furs, etc
BUY shirts, pants, shoes, underwear, etc.,
15% to 25% less by mail. Send for our
FREE catalog TODAY. TARHEEL TRADING
CO., P. O. Box 1789, High Point, N. C.
BUSINESS & INVEST. OPPOR.
BUSINESS PARTNER wanted. For sale, 1-3
of G. P. Brown & Company for $10,000 or
45% for $13,500. Reason for selling is poor
health of partner. We do all types of re
pair work, including iplnting, decorating,
carpentry work, sign installation, and main
tenance upkeep for two large oil companies
In both Carolines. Buyer may work with
company as secretary and treasurer if he
wishes and if qualified. The business Is 16
years old and are at present doing approxi
mately $200,000 worth of business annually,
of which 24% is profit. Our inventory is
$29,000. Phone 4-4420, or write G. F. Brown
& Company, 2601 Rozzells Ferry Road, Char
lotte, North Carolina, for appointment.
FRANCHISE—Wanted for some reliable elec
trical appliances, such as, stoves, washing
machines, vacuum cleaners, etc. Write or
call Bryant-Wyatt Hardware Co., Pacolet,
8. O.
FOR SALE—Premium candies and premiums
enamel ware, etc., on consignment cash or
terms. Phone 4-3372 or 1418 W. Trade St.,
Charlotte. N. C.
HELP WANTED—WOMEN
LADIES—FREE NYLONS
One pair $2.00 nylons free as an In
troductory offer with the purchase of
each Black Balerina skirt. All sizes.
No. C.O.D.
EARN HIGH COMMISSIONS
Being an agent for the
DUCHESS FASHIONS 0
P. O. Box 12 Bronx 56, N.Y.
FARMS AND RANCHES
CANADIAN FARMS—WrlU as for FREE IN
FORMATION on farm aettlement epporUmitiee.
Fertile solli. Reaiooably priced. R. C. Loiwortb,
Canadian Pacific Railway, Ualon Station, it
Paul. Minn.
WNU—7
24-48