Funny Business

It had to happen. Last week, in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, some 519 businessmen crawled out of the woodwork and endorsed Barry Goldwater for President. Unlike the Johnson businessmen whom they view as a leech on the body politic sustaining themselves by their "vital interest in continued big government," the 519 claimed that their success was based, predictably enough, on "free enterprise."

We were at a loss for a moment to think of even 500 businessmen who get along without the federal government in this day and age, but luckily the ad had a list of sponsors. Foremost among this group of rugged individualists were the president of a giant sugar company--which depends on the government to control its foreign sugar supply; the chairman of a drug company--which makes an unusually high profit each year from sales of its tetracycline to the government; and the president of a textile firm--protected from ruinous foreign competition by a high tariff.

As they must all be well aware, the moment the government stops "interfering" with their business, they face bankruptcy within the month. We can therefore only commend to all right-thinking Americans the action of these 519 businessmen placing political principle, however wrong, above their own personal economic welfare.