Flex Your Muscles

Every chance he gets, Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer tries to persuade the Administration to take the heat off business. Last week, Charlie Sawyer told nearly 700 admen at White Sulphur Springs that they could help the cooling-off process. The way to do it, said the Secretary of Commerce, was for business to win back the political power which it has lost.

"Not only the ownership but the power of business has been dissipated," said Sawyer. "Both politically and economically, but chiefly politically, its power has dwindled. Agriculture and labor exercise the great political power. Business should regain some of that lost influence so that business, as well as labor and agriculture, becomes a major concern of the Government and the public at large."

Business, said Sawyer, should do things for the benefit of the public--not just talk about them--and allay the "belief, in some cases justified, that every suggestion for improvement in the lives or well-being of our people has met the instant and vigorous opposition of business." It should explain the "relationship of capitalism" to daily life. The American business system "is inseparable from the texture and pattern of our civilization," said he. In selling itself, business must convince the millions of employees that "business is on their side."

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