American business

“ The spirit of competition ruled the American business world at the beginning of the last century, the forces of combination dominated at its close. The new order was the product of necessity, not of choice. ”

“ The great business opportunities of American life consisted, consequently, in supplying some popular or necessary article or service at a cheaper price than that at which any one else could furnish it; and the great effort of American business men was, of course, to obtain some advantage over their competitors in producing such an article or in supplying such a service. ”

“ These acts of good corporate citizenship are good for employees, but many, many thousands of American businesses have proved they're good for business, too. Our changing economy puts a real premium on skill, ingenuity, creativity, and loyalty of the work force. The quality and productivity of America's workers are our greatest source of economic strength. ”

“ Recently a careful study was made of the concentration of business in the United States. It showed that our economic life was dominated by some six hundred odd corporations who controlled two-thirds of American industry. ”

“ We ought long ago to have sent the best eyes of the Government out into the world to see where the opportunities and openings of American commerce and American genius were to be found—men who were not sent out as the commercial agents of any particular set of business men in the United States, but who were eyes for the whole business community. ”

“ While theoretical economists abroad, of course, applaud every movement in the economic policy of the United States which they consider as emanating from sound principles, I know, from personal observation, that European manufacturers who understand their business look forward with grave apprehension to the time when American industry will be relieved of the clogs which now hamper it and enter the markets of the world to compete with them. ”

“ No doubt this situation was due as much to the temper of the American business man as to his economic environment. The business man in seeking to realize his ambitions and purposes was checked neither by government control nor social custom. ”

“ Here’s the truth about today’s economy: if we’re serious about fighting for American jobs and American businesses, one of the most important things we can do is open up more markets to American goods around the world. ”

“ Business and trade have always been central to the American experience. In the period since the Industrial Revolution, the extraordinary growth of our economy has created a marketplace that is the foundation of global commerce. ”

“ Consumers need to understand the market economy, both here and abroad, and their options for earning, spending, saving, and investing income. Increased consumer and economic education in schools, workshops, the media, and the distribution of informative materials from government and business give consumers a greater appreciation of their rights and responsibilities in our incomparable American economy. ”

“ It not only brought Young America to the front in speculation, commerce and general business, but it imparted an impetus of genuine enterprise to every department of trade and industry, from the good effects of which the country has never since receded. ”

“ To these worthy pioneers belongs the credit of laying a secure40 foundation for a trade that from humble beginnings has developed into one of the most prominent industries of the country, requiring extensive capital, liberal business capacity, and one that gives employment to a large, intelligent and skillful class of people. ”

“ By freeing commerce from the fetters of mercantilism, our Founding Fathers released the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. Small merchants and businessmen provided the simple beginnings of what has become a vast and innovative economy. ”

“ Economic conditions require readjustment, important matters of trade must be regulated, vital questions of finance and taxation must be handled, in fact, the whole country must settle down to production, manufacture, distribution of merchandise, and the transaction of the nation’s regular business. ”

“ The business of America begins with small business-millions of men and women, bold and imaginative self-starters, seizing opportunities and providing the jobs that help to ensure that our Nation will remain economically strong and free. ”

“ My countrymen, it is not alone the volume of money which the people want, but they demand its activity in trade and commerce. If you ask me how this can best be accomplished, I will answer by saying, protect American industries and universal confidence will surely follow. ”

“ One of America’s greatest strengths is our free market. A thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy – it’s how we create jobs, expand opportunities, and give everybody a shot at success. ”

“ Those Who Do Not Get
Let us now look a little at another aspect of this process of individualistic competition which is the economic process in America, and which is giving us on its upper side the spenders of Fifth Avenue, the slow accumulators of the Astor type, and the great getters of the giant business organizations, the Trusts and acquisitive finance. ”

“ Large corporations, which can afford the best machinery; which control abundant capital, and which can plan with scrupulous economy all the details of producing and selling an important product or service, are actually able to reduce the cost of production to a minimum; and in the cases of certain American corporations such results have actually been achieved. The new organization of American industry has created an economic mechanism which is capable of being wonderfully and indefinitely serviceable to the American people. ”

“ The world has progressed, or retrogressed, as the most powerful interests at any time adjusted the institutions and customs governing wealth production to their own advantage. As the controlling interests in our present scheme are the business interests, it is the business man, not the workman, who directs industry and determines its policy as well as the general policy of the nation in which it operates. ”

“ In the higher grades of economic society the advantages of the recent changes were more distinct, the disadvantages less so. The rise of capital and business enterprise into greater importance, and the extension of the field of competition, gave greater opportunity to employing farmers, merchants, and manufacturers, as well as to the capitalists pure and simple. ”

“ The men and women who own and operate our Nation's 25 million small businesses have made, and continue to make, an indispensable contribution to America's economic strength and success. These entrepreneurs possess many of the characteristics that have always defined the American spirit: a fierce independence, an extraordinary work ethic, and an uncompromising commitment to building a better life. ”

“ Government wages turned over and over again to make consumer purchasing power and to sustain every merchant in the community. Businessmen with their businesses, small and large, had to be saved. Private enterprise is necessary to any Nation which seeks to maintain the democratic form of government. ”

“ We give unstinted praise, we Americans, to one man who succeeds in building up one business under favorable auspices; but here is a man whose success lies in his ability to take over businesses of varied sorts that have been all but ruined and then restoring them to their pristine vitality—a man who has done this for banks, for railroads, for sugar refineries. ”

“ The American enterprise system has given us the greatest and most diverse outpouring of goods and services of any economy in history. We are the most prosperous nation in the world with unequaled opportunities for individuals to enjoy the fruits of their labors. ”

“ I call upon government officials, industry leaders, and the American people to recognize the vital relationship between our economy and our citizenry, and to join me in reaffirming our commitment to fairness in the marketplace. ”

“ THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES It is evident from the signs of the times, the business situation, our interstate commerce laws, and the domination of the trusts and combines by the Federal government, that there will soon come a great change in our business methods, and practices.
We are expecting that competition will be restored to the place it occupied before men were forced out of business by overpowering interests and vast aggregations of capital. ”

“ The Economic Function.—The nation has an economic function. It is its business to encourage trade by means that seem most likely to help, whether by subsidies, tariffs, or expert advice; to protect all producers, distributers, and consumers by just laws and tribunals, so that unfair privileges shall not be enjoyed by the few at the expense of the many, and to provide in every legitimate way for the spread of information and for experimentation that agriculture, mining, and manufacturing may be improved. ”

“ No longer must industry be thought of as a mere revenue-producing process, in which Capital, Labor, Management, and the Community meet like so many rival and contending factions, each to appropriate to itself by force or might the largest possible share of the fruits of industry. Industry must be thought of, as in reality it is, as in the nature of social service, and participation in industry, whether in the form of labor or capital investment, as social service of the highest kind, since upon its successful accomplishment rest all other forms of human service. ”

“ In America and in Europe the chief concern is industry,—industry in the large sense, agriculture, manufacture, commerce. These are the interests that concern the people, [312] that control their policy. ”

“ We have studied as perhaps no other nation has the most effective means of production, but we have not studied cost or economy as we should either as organizers of industry, as statesmen, or as individuals. ”

“ They, even at the present time, take the place, frequently, of freedom of competition in retail business, in the book business, and in the determination of lawyers' and doctors' fees, as well as in the distribution of a nation's income among the three great branches of its general economy,671 deciding, instead of competition, how much shall go to each. ”

“ The Nation grew as our free enterprise system became the mainspring of American progress by encouraging entrepreneurs to compete in meeting the demand for new products and methods of production. Competition enabled us to develop our human resources more effectively and enrich our society. ”

“ The corporation employing thousands of men and supplying millions of people with some necessary service or commodity may reduce the cost of production only for its own profit. The state may use its great authority chiefly for the benefit of special interests. ”

“ On the contrary, the number of manufactories and the amount of capital invested in them is steadily and rapidly increasing, affording gratifying proofs that American enterprise and skill employed in this branch of domestic industry, with no other advantages than those fairly and incidentally accruing from a just System of revenue duties, are abundantly able to meet successfully all competition from abroad and still derive fair and remunerating profits. ”

“ And it must not be forgotten that this trade has developed into a great and growing business, actuated by exactly the same economic interests as any other business. [315] With the agencies making so much per day for each man employed, the way to improve business is to get more men employed. ”

“ Manufacturer: It looks so to me. That gold-standard fight taught me that you could trust the American people to make a wise decision, if you would only have a country store, schoolhouse, cornfield debate, in which every man in the country got into the game—preacher, lawyer, teacher, farmer, merchant, manufacturer, laboringman, townfolks and country folks, all alike.
Mr. Merchant: Nothing more true has been said since we have been talking about this question than that remark about the importance of a public discussion of this whole matter. ”

“ Do I grossly exaggerate in saying that this company, candidly, quite excitedly self-conscious, as all companies not commercial, in America, may be pleasantly noted as being, formed, for the time of its persistence, an almost unprecedented small body—unprecedented in American conditions ”

“ That’s why our economy hasn’t just been the world’s greatest wealth creator – it’s bound America together, it’s created jobs, and it’s made the dream of opportunity a reality for generations of Americans. ”

“ Industries--and I believe this is most vital--industries will move their plants and jobs and capital inside the walls of the Common Market, and jobs, therefore, will be lost here in the United States if they cannot otherwise compete for its consumers. ”

“ The employments of agriculture, commerce, and navigation are all branches of the same domestic industry; they all furnish employment for American capital and American labor. And when the question is, whether new duties shall be laid, for the purpose of giving further encouragement to particular manufactures, every reasonable man must ask himself, both whether the proposed new encouragement be necessary, and whether it can be given without injustice to other branches of industry. ”

“ Government can be expected to cooperate in every way with the business of the Nation provided the component parts of business abandon practices which do not belong to this day and age, and adopt price and production policies appropriate to the times. ”

“ The framers of our Constitution sought to establish a free market in which competition, ingenuity, and productivity would flourish. Today, it is more apparent than ever that their intent has been realized-Americans can choose from the greatest variety of goods and services in the history of the world. ”

“ In the United States we welcome the investment of the money, the intelligence, and the industry of foreigners, and recognize them as assets added to the prosperity of the country. Because we have pursued that policy we stand to-day without a peer in national prosperity, wealth, and credit. ”