Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JULY 10,
1920
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
£. R. JOHNSON DISCUSSES WORLD PROBLEMS—(Continued from page 7)
are victorious, but that is not all—we now have
a new duty and one which cannot safely be
ignored; we must make permanent the fruits of
victory.
"The people of the United States, through their
President, promised the Central European Na-
tions an humane and practical peace if they
would break away from militaristic government.
The revolutions which ended the war were in
response to that promise, and that promise has
not yet been fulfilled. Some of these peoples are
now crying to America 'You have fooled us' and
that cry is sounding all through Central and
Northern Europe. Members of the old Imperial
military governments are beginning to say to
their people 'We told you so' and a great many
similar things we never hear anything about in
the United States. This is having its effect.
The old Prussian militaristic spirit is beginning
to revive. The recent German elections show
that very plainly.
"For the first time in the history of their race t
the German people have revolted against their
rulers, have overthrown their Imperial Govern-
ment and taken their own affairs into their own
hands. While it is quite right that they should
pay for the material damage they inflicted on the
invaded countries it is foolish and dangerous to
try to saddle them with the burden of a debt
that will make them nothing but tax slaves for
the next century.
"If the hand of national fellowship by a just.
practical peace had been held out, as was prom-
ised, they would not be' in the process of
becoming a new nation with high democratic
ideals, and would, I believe, be content to pay
their debts, attend to their business and become
a useful member of the Society of Nations. But,
unless prompt steps are taken to this end the
demoralization of that people will be complete.
They will become hopelessly embittered and a
terrible menace to civilization will be perpetu-
ated in Central Europe. The League of Na-
tions may be advisable eventually, but the world
needs a practical peace immediately.
"I present this statement of conditions as I
see them to show you why I think no busi-
ness man or group of business men can know
what is in prospect.
Future of Business the Problem
"The Victor Co. has plenty of business. The
crop conditions are fairly satisfactory, the pur-
chasing power of the average citizen is greater
than before the war, far greater, but this is not
sufficient. The future welfare of business is a
present problem. There should be an armistice
declared on all questions vital to the interests
of the country during this period of recon-
struction. Labor leaders should check all agi-
tation save in the most extreme cases. Labor's
olaims must be adjusted liberally and fairly, but
the financial situation, too, calls for careful ad-
justment; there is a limit past which it is not
safe to go.
"Business men have made many sacrifices, but
every interest should be content to suffer some
temporary inconvenience for the general good.
Labor unions have been led to believe that their
rights are of more importance than the rights
of the other one hundred million people in this
country. This is a dangerous and impractical
doctrine. There are still many people whose
wages should be raised, but the ones who are
making the most trouble are the ones who are
fairly well paid already. Our Government, how-
ever, has failed in many things that it has under-
taken in the way of. constructive accomplish-
ments, and is largely responsible for the com-
plicated labor situation.
Effect of Government Regulation
"The effect of our Federal laws is felt in every
line of commercial enterprise. The American
Merchant Marine at one time carried its full
share of the world's commerce, but the United
States has been out of it for the last sixty years,
and the situation at present seems to be hope-
less. One important reason is that our ship-
ping laws, many of them well intended, are im.'
perfect. The proposed legislation applying to
marine commerce, while displaying a desire on
the part of Congress to do something, is cer-
tainly very imperfect. The railroads have, I
believe, been under Government regulation in a
general way for the past twenty years. During
this time we have lived in a fool's paradise in
the belief that we had the cheapest transporta-
tion in the world, but it now appears that our
past low freight rates were achieved at too high
a cost and that we shall have to pay dearly in
the future for this error of the past.
"We trusted the Government to regulate busi-
ness, but the results have been very unsatisfac-
tory. For many years business men have been
criticised and persecuted by the Government in
spite of which the American business man has
made good during this time, while the Federal
Government has made bad. American business
men have constructed the greatest group of
business enterprises ever known in the history
of business in spite of bad government. Com-
modities are made at less cost and of better
quality, under higher wages and shorter hours,
than by any other country.
"We trusted the Government to keep us at
peace and to prepare for war und woke up to
find the Government asleep. Then we had to
break our backs and our pocketbooks, and our
hearts, doing in frenzied haste what we should
have been fully prepared for. There had been
plenty of time. The war started in 1914, and
we did not enter it until 1917.
"We trusted the Government to finance the
war. We bought bonds knowing they would
fall far below par. Our War Bonds are now a
dangerous embarrassment to us. They represent
inexcusably bad financiering. They failed as a
popular investment. They have absorbed en-
tirely too much of the credit provided by the
Federal Reserve Banks; and the natural expan-
sion of business will be seriously checked.
"We trusted our Government to tax us fairly
and intelligently, but it has passed all records in
uneconomic and vicious taxation. No nation on
earth can long.endure such confiscatory taxes.
False Ideas of Economy
"The group of radical politicians who have
controlled the affairs of this country for the
past twenty years, and who have been respon-
sible for these false ideas of political economy,
do not constitute the majority in Congress.
Their ideas do not even have the virtue of origi-
nality. As a rule, they are very clever men'who
believe they can hold themselves in office by ao-
pealing to the selfish instincts of unthinking
people. Their ranks have been materially
strengthened of late by the most dangerous
political parasite of all—the labor union politi*-
cian. He is not a friend of labor. He uses
labor unions as a means to an end. His plan
is first to secure Government control of every-
thing and then to control the Government—very
simple!
"It would be useless for business men, as a
class, to enter into direct political competition
with these men. Politics is not the business
man's game; he would be hopelessly outclassed.
Very few business men are fitted by tempera-
ment and experience to hold public office, and
the only defense that business men of America,
and any other country for that matter, have to-
day is a direct appeal to the public by spread-
ing a propaganda of education in the matters
they know about, financial, industrial, and busi-
ness matters in general.
Regarding Business Regulation
"I do not disapprove of the theory of business
regulation. I believe that the Interstate Com-
merce Commission could be made an efficient
organization to stabilize transportation matters,
and I believe the Federal Trade Commission is
the proper organization to guide business, but
the Department of Justice should co-operate
with them. Furthermore, they must be sup-
ported by sound public opinion. In the light of
experience in the last few years it is very
ppparent that the Sherman Law end thci Clayton
Act are very imperfect. No Government agency
can successfully regulate business in this coun-
try under such imperfect laws, no matter how
well disposed it may be, and no progress can
be made in the matter of Government regula-
tion, either of railroads or other .big business
enterprises, until these laws have been redrafted
to conform to the needs of the time. Even the
United States Supreme Court, which holds the
greatest responsibility of any body in the land,
appears to be confused by these bad laws. As
bad as these laws are, however, business men
must abide by them at any sacrifice so long as
they remain on the statute books. The De-
partment of Justice apparently means to enforce
them, and it can although many of the decisions
tinder the Sherman Law and Clayton Act are
promoting unfair competition and restraint of
trade in direct opposition to their purpose.
Taxes Must Be Revised
"There is a great cry against high taxes and
these taxes will have to be very intelligently
revised; if made too low the cost will be greater
than the present cost of high taxes. This is a
great country and it needs a great sum of money
to run it. There are many beneficial things that
only the Government can do. The problem is to
develop a fair and practical tax law and then
spend the money economically after it has been
collected.
"This is not a difficult problem. It is a very
simple one. The difficulty lies in creating a
sound public opinion that will support sound
methods. There are plenty of good men in Con-
gress but they do not get people's support.
"This country is really ruled, as it should be,
by public opinion, but public opinion has been
misled. There is every sign, however, that the
people are suspecting that something is wrong
and I believe they are in a listening mood. If
every business man in the country will study
the situation until he fully understands it him-
self much may be accomplished. A complaint
to be effective must be intelligent.
"Many well-intending people seem to be under
the impression that in order to secure better
government some radical change is necessary.
I do not subscribe to this theory. Our present
form of government is 90 per cent good and
the remedy lies not in radical changes, but in
efficient administration and simplification of the
laws.
"All governments are an experiment and they
will be for ages to come. To some extent there
will always be a feeling of unrest, for such is
progressive thought.
"We must have a better and more efficient
government system and I believe the tide has
turned. The business men of America can do
much to help, but they will have to work along
intelligent lines in the matter of creating whole-
some public opinion rather than enter the race
for political office. They will have to think
right, talk right and act right.
"While I do not believe a man with nothing
but a business training would make a good
president I do believe it is necessary to organ-
ize the Federal Government more on business
lines. This could be accomplished very quickly.
The Cabinet should be reorganized into a sort
of executive committee representing not only
the different branches of the Government, but
also the different social and industrial interests.
The strictly governmental departments are al-
ready fairly well represented. Agriculture and
labor are also represented and there should be
added men experienced in finance and invest-
ments, banking, railroading and manufacturing.
Then something could be accomplished. This
executive committee should have some power. It
should not be wholly subservient to the presi-
dent. The vice-president should be an effective
member of the organization and it should be
able to transact business when the president is
ill or absent. This country is too big for one
man to run. It requires a group of wise men
who are fairly representative of the various in-
terests of the country."