ENEMIES OF BUSINESS

The Harvard Crimson, in an editorial appearing on this page, says we have pimples. Well, we like our pimples better than the gay ninety mutton chops betrayed by our esteemed contemporary.

It is surprising to find that youth in these days should still cling to the idea that anyone who believes in the government guiding to some extent the economic processes of the nation must necessarily hate business and all business men, must think that no man who wants to make money is honest, must be out to destroy all private initiative and enterprise.

Our friends do not realize that the true enemies of business will urge that it be let strictly alone. For these enemies remember that it came near hanging itself in the early months of 1933, and that if some blundering fool had not stepped in, it might very well have completed the job. These enemies realize that, because business has not been providing new industries enough to take care of the men its machines were throwing out of work, it has been gradually destroying its market. They know that certain notable farming businesses have not been able to keep prices high enough to cover costs.

The haters of money makers would have them continue to lose money on their railroads, would have the utility holding company executives go right on squeezing their operating companies until stockholders and consumers alike rise in wrath against them.

The opponents of the capitalistic system understand that a balance between saving, investment, and buying is essential to that system's success, and that these three are getting more and more out of gear. They look forward with keen delight to a higher boom and a final collapse.

These are some friends of business who see no indication of its ability to solve these problems by itself. Yale Daily News, Nov. 18, 1935.