Sweet Reasonableness

More than a few of the 3,000 members of the National Association of Manufacturers, gathered for their annual convention in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last week, felt like small boys worrying about a trip to the woodshed. None knew how vindictive or friendly toward business the Truman Administration would be. But Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer would tell them; he was due to give a speech which President Truman had read and approved.

Just the sight of Sawyer in the glittering banquet hall made the N.A.M.s feel better. With his grey hair, rimless spectacles and prim manners he looked exactly like the businessman he once was. When Earl Bunting, N.A.M. chairman, introduced him as "a fellow whose mother probably called him Charlie," Sawyer smilingly set him straight: "My mother called me Charles."

From then on, it was plain that Sawyer had come to extend the hand of fellowship to businessmen. Though the talk was vague on taxes, controls, etc., Sawyer hoped for "a new philosophy of cooperation that will unite Americans ... to make the greatest use of our energies and our resources."

Ignition System. It was true, he said, that if military spending is increased much more, taxes might have to be boosted. Also, the voluntary allocation program of scarce materials might have to be extended to other products besides steel. But business is not in the doghouse.

Said Sawyer: "I am a believer in private enterprise . . . Government officials should remember that businessmen are working for profits. Profit... is the ignition system of our economic engine. The importance of profit must be recognized and utilized. Government should assume that businessmen are honest and have the welfare of the country at heart. Many people are inclined to think that businessmen are tough, selfish and hardboiled. In my experience, I have found them to be no more tough and selfish than any other group."

While some companies had shown "admirable restraint" in holding down prices, others had raised prices more than justified by increased costs. Therefore, "business should give careful and thoughtful consideration to the inflationary effect of large profits and unreasonably high prices." Although the economy was turning out more than ever, "more and cheaper consumer services" are still needed. "As long as these needs exist, we should not worry about having a 'mature' economy. We still have a frontier to push forward." When it was over, one delegate commented: "This was a damn good speech. I say that, and I'm an old Tory!"

Utah Pies. The atmosphere of sweet reasonableness was so pervasive that N.A.M. brought forth none of the resolutions that often raise the hackles of more liberal businessmen. It contented itself with a mild request that the U.S. budget be held to a $37 billion ceiling, and a plea for a "readjusting" of income taxes. It listened politely to the demand, by Chrysler's B. E. Hutchinson, for a return to the gold standard, but gently pigeonholed it.

To show that it had the interest of small business at heart, the N.A.M. chose a small businessman, Wallace F. Bennett, as its next president. He succeeds Big Businessman Morris Sayre, president of Corn Products Refining Co. A friendly, easy-talking man of 50, Bennett began learning about business early. During high school and college he worked summers in his father's Salt Lake City paint and varnish company. He likes to quote his father's credo: "No transaction of any kind is any good unless both sides profit from it."

Bennett went to work in the company full-time after serving as a lieutenant in the Army in World War I and graduating from the University of Utah ('19). He has run the company since 1938. His fingers are in a dozen other Salt Lake pies. He is a director of the Zion's Savings Bank & Trust Co., the Utah Home Fire Insurance Co., Utah Oil Refining Co., and vice president of the Clayton Investment Co. He operates a jewelry store in Logan, Utah, and with two brothers runs a Ford agency. He is a Mormon, and two of his three sons are serving in Europe as Mormon missionaries.

At his first press conference Bennett said he did not feel at all "squeezed" by big business. He cagily avoided committing himself on prices, wage increases and labor unions. But he let it be known that he gets along with his help. Said he: "The man who sweeps out the plant still calls me Wallace."

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