XIV.A Program for Free Enterprise

XIV. A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE A good society—prosperous, strong and free—is achieved only by hard work intelligently directed. The conditions necessary for its development are numberless. Its workings are too complicated to be described or even understood. A man who had never lived in a modern, industrialized nation would scarcely believe such a complex society could function. Its existence depends on synchronizing the efforts of millions of individuals, each of whom is also a complicated and delicate mechanism. Yet somehow these individuals do what is needed at the right time and place, so that their efforts fit in with the efforts of millions of others of whose existence each is barely conscious. Is it surprising that we do not fully understand how and why it works, or that the most intelligent and best informed students disagree on what is needed to improve it ? Yet a few basic facts and principles most of us can agree upon. One of these is that a good society can be built and preserved only by a people zealous in performing the duties necessary for vitalizing their rights.

Rights Flow From Duties We often boast of our Bill of Rights, a list of liberties embodied in the Constitution of the United States. Do we at the same time list the duties which go with these rights? And do we as fervently pledge ourselves to discharge these duties as we proclaim our determination to protect our rights? Every right implies a corresponding duty and full enjoyment of the right depends on full discharge of the duty. The right of free speech involves the duty not to abuse that right, as, for example, by calling a false alarm of "fire!" in a crowded theater. It rest9 on the duty of other people not to infringe on that right, as for example, by mobbing an unpopular speaker. It also rests on the duty of the police and courts to help restrain those who abuse the right or infringe on the rights of others.

A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 145 Rights are the fruits of justice; and justice springs from the character of the people. But good character is far more than good intentions and pious words. It is doing things which help make a good nation, one in which a Bill of Rights is a living reality. In some nations a Bill of Rights remains a scrap of paper no matter how often it is enacted or how loudly it is acclaimed. In our own nation it is too often flouted by legal forms or unlawful violence. Free institutions do not spring full-fledged from written documents, out evolve slowly along with the people's progress in understanding and good conduct. Prosperity Expands Opportunity We can also agree that prosperity provides tools and opportunity for enjoyment of rights. Freedom of speech and press means far more as a people can afford books and newspapers, churches and schools, telephones and telegraph, radios and loudspeakers.

Property laws and property rights are rules for using these tools. Anyone who buys a theater ticket or rents a house or a room is acquiring a property right. A theater ticket gives its owner a right to a certain entertainment at a definite time and place. A lease gives the tenant a right to use a farm, a house or a shop for a stipulated time and under certain definite conditions. The acquisition and use of such rights are governed by property laws. As wealth of many sorts is necessary for civilized living, so are the complicated rules we call property laws and the rights we call property rights. If everyone grabbed what he wanted, paying no attention to property Iaw9 or the rights of others, the result would be anarchy, rioting and civil war. Soon everyone would be reduced to the level of the lowest savage. On the other hand, property arises as soon as people are protected against violence and fraud. Then they make things and exchange them as the only way to make a living. So production and trade arise.

In nations where producers and traders are protected against fraud and violence, the individual's success depends on his ability to make things or perform services which other people want.

146 DO WE WANT FREE ENTERPRISE ? For example, the success of a Henry Ford, an Edison or a George Eastman depends on his ability to devise things which millions of other people want and on his ability to organize the production of these things in large quantities. The more successful a producer is the more he adds to (a) the purchasing power of other people's money, (b) the value of their services, and (c) their opportunities for enjoyment and well-being. The more millionaires which a country develops in this way the greater is the prosperity of all the people. Progress Depends on Production A third fact upon which we should be able to agree, therefore, is that our individual and group progress depends on increasing production of commodities and services which promote human welfare. It follows that every policy is reactionary which reduces the incentive or opportunity of any person to produce to the maximum.

Progressive policy seeks to enlarge opportunity for production. As between the inflationist who wants to print currency to enlarge markets and the restrictionist who wants to restrict production or trade to maintain prices, the inflationist seems less obviously reactionary. Both the inflationist and the restrictionist lack faith in free enterprise. They doubt that free enterprise can supply enough purchasing power to distribute all that can be produced. But at least the inflationist votes for full production as well as high prices, whereas the restrictionist asks only for high prices. Production, however, is far more than processing of materials. It is a far more complicated matter than multiplying goods of a particular kind. Economic progress means expanding output of goods faster than population increases. It means improvements in the kinds of goods produced, changes in the proportions in which they are supplied, and advances in the methods of producing them.

The rate of economic progress, therefore, depends on the amount of thrift, industry and enterprise devoted to improvements in the tools and methods of living and working. Primarily, production is service. And the possibilities for service in a great and good nation are limited only by the vision, intelligence, ability and industry of its people.

A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 147 Man's Work Is Never Done Some there may be who hope that someday—after the war, perhaps -.—we in America may relax, sit back and take it easy. They believe we should adopt a 30-hour week. They believe that incentives and tools for increasing output are no longer needed. They say that, with modern equipment, we can guarantee a rich living for all with little work and no sacrifice. This hope, or belief, is false and vicious. This, not "free trade," threatens to "give our country away." The present war, no matter what its military outcome, will not end the struggle between nations and between ways of living. That struggle will last as long as life itself because its roots lie deep in the will to live. Nations, families and individuals who measure progress in terms of shorter hours and increasing opportunities for self-indulgence lose out in life's battles to those who measure success in terms of expanding opportunities for work and achievement.

The future lies not with those who ask for security, but with those who demand increasing opportunity to grow in efficiency and power. How Much Is a Man Worth? By the same token, the value of a man to his nation does not consist in the amount of money he spends on himself or on the goods he consumes. This spending and consumption constitute the cost of keeping him. Instead, the value of a man lies in the surplus of his production over his consumption. This surplus adds to the strength and welfare of his own and later generations. It adds to the owner's credit and to the nation's wealth. This surplus of production over consumption may be increased (a) by raising productivity, (b) by reducing consumption, or (c) by raising productivity faster than consumption. Probably progress comes mainly through raising productivity faster than consumption. The more productive person is likely to consume more—as, for example, in equipping himself with a better education and in experimenting with new ways of living.

What will be our attitude, then, to questions of shorter hours, distribution of tax burdens, and "social security" when considered from this point of view?

148 DO WE WANT FREE ENTERPRISE? 1. Shorter working hours will represent a social gain when they result in an increase in the workers' net contribution to production. This means that increases in leisure time must be so used that the workers produce more in their remaining working hours. This additional output, however, must exceed any increased consumption in the leisure hours. The contrary result—decreased output, or increased consumption as compared to production— represents reaction and degeneration. 2. Taxes should be levied only to support functions of government which directly or indirectly increase the national strength, efficiency and productivity. These taxes should be levied so as to reduce as little as possible the power and incentive of the people to produce. By all means let us tax in proportion to "ability to pay." But let us measure ability to pay, not in terms of ability to produce, but in terms of ability to consume.

Taxation on this principle would bring about an equality in individual well-being greater than any proposed by the average socialist or communist. But it would stimulate production to levels which would make possible the abolition of poverty as we now conceive it.* 3. The term "social security" now covers all forms of government relief, or aid. The fact that those who receive it at one time help pay for similar aid to other people at another time does not change the fact that it is government charity on a mass basis. Some charity, or relief, of this sort there must be. As a producer protects his machinery against rust when it is not in use, so the nation will try to prevent deterioration of its working force when idle. But scientific philanthropy is that which helps people help themselves. It converts nonproducers into useful workers. Both the extent of the aid and the way it is given under this principle will be vastly different from the extent and method of relief under inflationist or restrictionist theories.

"And the Greatest of These Is Charity" Sentimentalists object that such emphasis on production, efficiency, competition and success is "materialistic" and "hard-hearted." The charge of materialism comes from failure to appreciate the broad scope of economics. •Poverty in the sense of "less successful" we shall always have, because opportunity for quality creates inequality. But poverty in the sense of hunger and physical suffering can be made at rare *» typhoid or smallpox.

A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 149 Economics deals with the production and distribution of economic goods. Economic goods are those which are undersupplied compared to people's desires for them. They include the services of religionists, philosophers, doctors, scientists, musicians, baseball players, and economists. The budgetary problems of the churches ought to bring home the fact that even religious progress is an economic as well as a religious problem. The charge of hard-heartedness springs from failure to see that nature, not the economist, created the facts of scarcity, desire, struggle and competition. Competition can be humanized, but it cannot be abolished. To humanize competition means to organize it so that the winners are those who contribute most to the production of goods which other people want and need. The more productive farmers win control of the farms, the more capable employers hire the workers, the more efficient merchants get the trade, and so on.

Even the less competent and the helpless benefit from such competition. Someone may ask, "But isn't it more blessed to give than to receive?" 1. In reply one may point out that a gift of money is worthless unless goods are being produced and offered for sale. It is the fact that someone has produced more than he consumed which makes real giving possible. 2. A business investment is the best way to help most people. Suppose, for example, that a philanthropist owns a stock of goods sufficient to support 1,000 persons for a year. If he gives them away, at the end of a year his charitable work is finished. But suppose he gives these goods on condition that the recipients in return will produce for him goods like those he is giving away, or other goods which he may sell or trade for the necessaries of life. At the end of the year he then has a supply of goods with which he can continue his giving. If he has been an efficient manager he may have at the end of each year as much as he gave away. In that case his good work may continue indefinitely. If more is produced than is consumed during the process of production he can expand the scale of his good deeds accordingly.

Which is the better way to "bestow one's goods upon the poor" ? Some charity there must be for those who can never make any return. The virtues and values of such charity are not easy for an economist to describe, but they are none the less real. At the veryleast it is a "comfort," or "luxury," which a civilized community can well afford.

160 DO WE WANT FREE ENTERPRISE? The total amount of such charity, however, is insignificant compared to that which can be justified on strictly economic grounds when it is scientifically administered. "By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them" The highest type of giving, however, is the giving of service in producing goods which other people need. That such service is usually paid for in money or goods does not necessarily detract from the moral merit of the giver. When used to maintain and increase the producers' usefulness the payment for service is like a loan or a trust to be returned later to the community in the form of new production. This is true whether it is used to buy food and other necessaries of life, to buy equipment to aid in production, or to pay for education which will increase efficiency and capacity for further service. •i, Only when rewards for service are used in wasteful self-indulgence do they subtract from the social value of the individual giving the service.

The ideal society would be made up of individuals who would produce and serve to their maximum capacities and consume only according to their needs. This ideal is expressed, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs/* This is the moral ideal of all great religions and ethical systems, including Christianity. Communists claim it as their own, as do single-taxers, socialists and others. Opinions differ widely, however, on how to promote this ideal. On the one hand, Christianity, as usually interpreted, holds it as a moral goal for the individual. It seeks to show him by precept and example that his own welfare is ultimately best promoted by a life of maximum service to his fellows. This provides freedom for the individual to work out with his fellows the specific ways in which each can serve best. At the other extreme, the Communist Party and most socialists set up the principle as a legislative policy. They seek, through the power of the State, to coerce the individual into service.

They hope that eventually the mass of mankind will serve without coercion. They believe, however, that a large amount of coercion is necessary to teach the masses the advantages of such service. Therefore, during a transition period, at least, they would reduce or abolish the individual's freedom to decide whether he would serve or how. They would give the power to make and enforce these decisions to bureaucratic officials and agencies, A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 151 Freedom of Choice Is Necessary for Progress An advocate of free enterprise holds that people will progress more rapidly towards the ideal society under conditions of freedom. 1. The ideal society is one in which there is a minimum of conflict between the individual's view of his self-interest and his actual duties. In such a society each person will give maximum service at minimum cost because he prefers that course to any other.

Such a society will have a minimum of coercion and a minimum of conflict. It will be a free society. And how can people prepare for freedom except in freedom? 2. Within a large field of human behavior, no person or group of persons can decide for an individual as well as he can decide for himself what he can do best to serve the community. Within that field, a constantly shifting one, the individual must be left free to follow his own inclinations, subject only to such noncoercive pressure and persuasion as his fellows may find it in their interest to use. 3. The proper scope for individual liberty is greater in a nation, like the United States, which is in the van of progress than in less advanced societies. The less advanced nations can learn from the experience of the others. The people of the more advanced nation must learn by trial and error under conditions of individual liberty. This liberty is dangerous, but it is an unavoidable risk of leadership and a necessary condition for progress.

Freedom of choice, however, means absence of coercion, not absence of control. In a free society the individual will remain subject to pressures from other individuals and groups of individuals—parents, relatives, playmates, school teachers, fellow students, churches, business associates and so on. This pressure is exercised mainly by persuasion and by offers of reward for good conduct or by withholding reward in case of bad conduct. These pressures build preferences, loyalties and habits which control the individual's conduct. Thus they build selfdiscipline which makes a free society work, in contrast to the coercion of a slave state. "Make Sure You Are Underpaid!" *ise motto to express n consumption might 'Make sure you are underpaid!" A free enterprise motto to express the ideal of maximum service and efficiency in consumption might be, 152 DO WE WANT FREE ENTERPRISE? Of course, the only way for anyone to make sure he is underpaid is to produce to the limit of his ability. And the only way to make sure that he contributes to the community more than he takes out and that he will never become a community charge is to consume only according to his needs.

The communist will say that this motto is intended only to enslave and exploit the workers. That might be true if it were accepted only by wage earners and if employers were permitted to organize capitalistic monopolies to take advantage of workers and consumers. Under competition, however, the results are different. In fact, some of the most underpaid people in America have been certain high-income business executives and owners who have contributed to production and to the national income many times what they have been paid and many times what they have consumed. But how could such a motto be sold to the individual? 1. Under competitive conditions the wage earner who makes sure he is producing more than he is paid will not have to worry so much about the security of his employment. 2. If all the workers in an organization, including the managers, have the same attitude, the company is more likely to grow than to fail. Therefore, it pays each individual to sell to his fellow workers the idea of trying to keep ahead of every pay raise.

And, of course, one good way to sell the idea is by setting a good example. And if this motto were accepted generally throughout the nation a number of desirable results would follow: 1. The supply of capital, especially of venture capital, would increase. 2. Output of all goods and services would expand. 3. The demand for labor would rise, unemployment would decline and wages would increase. 4. Strikes for shorter hours and higher wages would be replaced by worker agitation for more efficient methods of production. 5. Conspiracies to form monopolies and restrict output or trade would be replaced by keener rivalry in reducing prices and improving service. What difference would such an attitude make in politics?

A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 153 Demagogy vs. Statesmanship Politicians and government officials, if they tried to make sure they were underpaid, would become statesmen. They are paid by all the people. They would try, therefore, to serve all the people, not a particular class or group. They would regard public funds as a public trust. They would spend only for those things which would yield the community more than they cost. Citizens would promote statesmanship by working for the election and appointment of public officials possessing courage, ability, experience and knowledge. They would not seek rubber stamps for their special interest groups or patronage hounds for party hacks. They would see to it that government officers had the necessary facts on which to decide and administer policies in the community interest. But they would not try to high-pressure, threaten or bribe their servants into policies promoting the interests of the few at the expense of the many.

But let us be more specific and list in detail some of the steps which might be taken by citizens and government to expand opportunity and increase incentive for maximizing production and service. It should be clearly understood that the following proposals represent only my own opinions. And at this point I wish to express my sincere appreciation for the freedom of expression which the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce has permitted me, a freedom as great as that which I found in the academic institutions with which I have been connected in the past. In the presentation of my views within or outside the Chamber no restriction has been placed upon me other than those which were dictated by my own sense of propriety and good taste. The tolerance of criticism and open-minded search for truth which I have met in this and other business organizations in recent years has made me proud to be known as a "chamber of com—V. ORVAI, WATTS.

154 DO WE WANT FREE ENTERPRISE? First Steps Towards Freedom and Prosperity A. Taxation 1. Abolish or greatly reduce all taxes on business profits, which are capital until paid out as dividends to the owners. 2. Reduce greatly the surtaxes on personal incomes, especially in the upper income brackets. 3. If tax increases should be necessary to meet costs of government, increase taxes on income receivers below $10,000 and tax less essential items of consumption, e.g., tea and coffee. 4. Abolish discriminatory taxes on chain stores. 5. Simplify the tax structure as it affects business by abolishing certain low-yield taxes, e.g., the capital stock tax and the declared-value excess profits-tax. B. Price Policies 1. Repeal the "fair trade" laws and other forms of price maintenance legislation. 2. Abolish crop loans and other devices designed to maintain prices for commodities. 3. Abolish the Office of Price Administration and abandon price ceilings, rationing and allocations. (For wartime price-control policy see above, pp. 65-66.) 4. Abolish state and local government devices for maintaining prices of commodities and services, e.g., prices of milk and prices for services of barbers, beauty shops and dry cleaners.

5. Gradually reduce and abolish all "protective" tariffs in foreign trade. 6. When maintenance of an industry appears justified on grounds of national defense, use subsidies or government contracts, instead of tariffs, to maintain the nucleus considered necessary. 7. Abolish all interstate and intercity trade barriers except those for control of certain pests and diseases which could do more damage than the costs of control. 8. Reduce business license fees to the point that they no longer act as restraints on competition. 9. Enforce antitrust laws and make this legislation applicable to organizations of farmers (including farm cooperatives), as well as to organizations of business owners, wage earners and professional workers. C. Banking and Finance 1. Restore the gold standard.

A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 155 2. Liquidate and abolish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and other governmental lending agencies. 3. Restrict governmental control of private banking by eliminating the special privileges of governmental securities as a basis for monetary expansion. 4. Amend the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act and modify the administration of these laws: a. to reduce costs, delays and risks for dealings in corporation securities; b. to remove the power of government officers to influence security prices through changes in margin requirements or through other means. 5. Repeal usury laws. D. Labor Policy 1. Amend the National Labor Act to increase protection for wage earners against intimidation and high-pressure methods by union organizers and union members. 2. Amend anti-racketeering laws to make them apply to members and officers of trade unions. 3. Amend antitrust laws so as to outlaw organized labor boycotts and organized labor restrictions of output.

4. Repeal the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and all state minimum wage laws. E. Public Works 1. Abolish all work relief projects except for prison labor. 2. Place public works-expenditures on a business basis. a. Undertake only such public works as may be expected to repay their costs, including interest and upkeep, through increased community efficiency. Returns from expenditures OH schools, parks and playgrounds can only be roughly measured. But certainly these returns should be considered and expenditures for such purposes should be limited accordingly. b. Place all public works on a contract basis. c. Reduce costs of public works by encouraging contractors to hire labor and buy materials in competitive markets. d. Plan to postpone public works when costs are high, so that they may be undertaken in periods of low prices and low wages at a saving to taxpayers. 3. Avoid public enterprises, such as electric power projects, which private enterprise will undertake.

156 DO WE WANT FREE ENTERPRISE? A Utopian program? Revolutionary? Reactionary? Politically impossible ? Perhaps. But perhaps free enterprise is impossible after all. Certainly many of these proposals must be adopted if our progress in freedom and prosperity is to continue and if we are to save our representative institutions. How can such changes be brought about? By talk, mainly. This Simian World As Clarence Day, in This Simian World, points-out, human beings, more than any other animals, love to chatter. In this they resemble monkeys and other ape-like creatures. But this talkativeness has been one of man's most useful traits. His ability to talk has made cooperation possible, and this cooperation has been the basis for all human progress, including progress in "individualism." In general the talkers have ruled even the bullies and the strong men. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power, not because of their physical strength, or intellectual genius, but because of their ability to talk fast, loud and long. Hitler's "Propaganda Ministry" was a leading agency for Nazi conquest, first in Germany and later outside of Germany.

The Japanese militarists had to have the help of talkers, such as priests and politicians, to help them enslave their people. Business is organized and run largely by talkers—promoters, salesmen, and managers. Politicians usually rise to power in large part through their talking ability. Freedom of speech and press is our greatest hope for reversing recent trends towards monopoly and bureaucracy in the United States and the British Empire. Talking Points Following are lines along which those who believe in economic liberty may direct their talking. 1. Explain that increasing production is necessary for increasing national strength, prosperity and purchasing power, A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 157 2. Show how payment for effort, thrift, inventiveness and enterprise according to market estimates of worth stimulates output of goods desired by productive and thrifty people and by their dependents.

3. Show how freedom of exchange, with prices and rates of pay determined by supply and demand in competitive markets, is necessary to (a) freedom of choice as to occupation and ways of living and (b) full production and employment. 4. Expose such fallacies as the underconsumption (oversaving) theory of depressions, the technological theory of unemployment, the Marxian myth of the Industrial Revolution, Midas theories and Robin Hood economics. 5. Explain the difference between scientific and unscientific philanthropy. 6. Point out the elements of compulsion in governmental activity and show the limitations, as well as the usefulness, of compulsion as a method of promoting human progress. 7. Inform the public concerning the share of owners and managers in the national income and show the uses made of their income. 8. Impress-upon the well-to-do the responsibilities that go with wealth and large incomes.

9. Show that enjoyment of rights depends on performance of duties. 10. Show that the individual finds greater self-satisfaction in work and achievement than in idleness and dissipation. 11. Explain the nature of self-interest and the importance of harnessing it to community ends. Do We Care? As Eleanor Roosevelt recently said: "The war for freedom will never really be won because the price of freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and over our Governments." One of the chief dangers to our liberty comes from the very prosperity that it has given us. A successful nation, built by long practice of the economic virtues, may be demoralized by its success. "Imagining itself unassailable it may then begin to waste its energies, to devote itself to self-expression, graceful consumption, eminent leisure, or motionless contemplation of its own perfections. Under such conditions the carnal mind is peculiarly open to the arguments of the 'pig-trough' philosophy of life, which conceives that the purpose of life, of labor and of wealth is enjoyment. But this 158 DO WE WANT FREE ENTERPRISE?

process also will come to an end because the society in which such a degenerating process gains headway will eventually give way before a society with sounder ideals—ideals of selfdiscipline, efficient production, and growth. "The world belongs, by a law of nature, to the disciplined and productive races and not to those who devote themselves to graceful idleness and self-indulgence/'* Well-to-do and prosperous individuals, those who have greatest opportunities and responsibilities for leadership, often become more interested in their hobbies than in public service. Or they become more concerned about protecting their present positions than in seizing new opportunities. America's greatness was not built by the stay-at-homes interested only in security. Nor will it be carried forward by those whose sole ambition is to cling fast to what they have. If every farmer and every worker, every businessman and every professional man is determined only to go on doing the same old things, in the same old way, in the same old place, at the same old prices and incomes, American progress must stop. This cowardly conservatism finds expression in price-rigging, restrictions on output, and the clamor for government handouts. All these have been holding us back, keeping us poor, and threatening our political liberties.

The nation that tries to stand still, in fact, will not hold even what it has. The march of science and the worldwide surge of human desire will carry other nations forward and leave the craven, vestedinterest nations impoverished and defeated. "The Monopolist is a Sissy" —ERIC JOHNSTON America can continue, to lead the march of human progress. But she cannot do it merely on the strength of her resources or her past record. If we are to lead, we must preserve competition and freedom for enterprise in order to incite and enable men to do their best. We must be willing to make the changes necessary to keep step with new methods. As our efficiency in production increases, labor and capital must be shifted to new industries. That means some workers must learn new jobs and owners of wealth must write off the value of old investments and make new ones. We must stop trying to hold onto our places as long as possible.

•T. N. Carrer. The Religion Worth Having, (l?4Q ?d,), i». 64, A PROGRAM FOR FREE ENTERPRISE 159 We must stop asking governments to give us special privileges and to support us so that we may continue producing goods under uneconomic conditions. We must stop trying to get what we have not earned. And we must drop the silly excuse for anti-social grabbing that taking things from others benefits them as well as the grabbers. Security—in the sense of abundant opportunity to work, achieve, and prosper—depends on high standards of work and production. These high standards of work and production depend on political and economic freedom, on abundance of capital seeking investment, and upon voluntary enterprise. Except as business keeps on giving jobs and turning out goods, no social insurance scheme and no scheme for "planned" production is worth anything. For without business prosperity there can be no taxes, no unemployment insurance or relief, no old age pensions, no incomes, and no worth-while security for anybody.

Prosperity is a fragile thing, a rare achievement, like life itself. It can be built only by hard work and sacrifice. It can be maintained only by ceaseless struggle. It depends on high qualities of mind and character: faith, mutual trust and respect, tolerance, good sportsmanship, and willingness to cooperate. All of these are easily destroyed and hard to rebuild. They are the price of prosperity and progress. Are Americans willing to pay it? / / OLYMPIA IMPRESSIONS THE ECONOMIST OBSERVES* "Business people in Olympia, no less than elsewhere, are thirsty for a philosophy of business, a justification to themselves and others of the value of the thing they are trying to do and an ability to distinguish right from wrong in business and economics. Most of them don't want to argue or defend themselves very much. They want religion! That means a moral fervor on behalf of the best in business and inspiration to defend it against enemies and traducers.