What Free Enterprise Means to Me; K.S. Wood

WHA T FREE ENTERPRISE MEANS TO ME t'l J~il~ S. Wood ~ FREE ENTERPRISES are the things free people undertake to do-as individuals or in groups. Before a free enterprise can be undertaken, certain basic human rights must exist and be protected. The most fundamental of these is the human right to the fruits of one's own labor-private property. This right should exist with as few restrictions as pos sible: there should be freedom from excessive regulation, excessive taxation, and from expropriation by govern ment-and government should be so ordered that these desirable conditions can be depended upon to exist over a long period of time. From the wellsprings of private property and the free enterprises which it supports spring forth all the ingeni ous and benevolent undertakings with which our coun try is so generously blessed. Our churches are free enterprises! So are our private schools and hospitals.

Individuals in whatever kind of free enterprise they find themselves should help those in other kinds defend Mr. Wood is President of Wood Brothers Manufacturing Com pany, Oregon, Illinois. 76 WHAT FREE ENTERPRISE MEANS TO ME 77 the freedoms which make their undertakings possible. A free enterprise need not be for profit to its owners (though such an organization is one of the finest exam ples of free enterprise). The purpose can be anything its owners choose for a purpose-except the destruction of, or infringement on, the freedoms upon which the lives of all free enterprises depend. What is "free enterprise"? It is the means used by free people to provide for their wants and their needs -the only means which has demonstrated its ability to provide these things abundantly. Its endless variety is simply a measure of how uncommon a man can be!