United States Gypsum Company

3oo S/est Adams Street, Chicago, Illinois PLASTERS. ROCICLATH'. METAL LATH. SI|EETROCK'. FIBER WALLBOARD. SHEATHING INSTULATING BOARD. INSIT'LATING WOOL ACOUSTTCAL MATERIALS PAINT PROD. UCTS STEEL PRODUCTS. ROOFING PRODUCTS. SIDING PRODUCTS. LIMT PRODUCTS

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UNITED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY

3oo !7. Mams St ' Chicago, IIL

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The New Year is beginning to unfold. Congress is in session. And every employer, business man, and property owner in America is doing just one thing-watching Washington. In the "horse and buggy" days business men paid very little attentiorr to Washington. The Federal Government was a thing far removed. But now, since the Government has moved into every home and every place of business, there is only one thing a business man can do whether he wants to or not, and that is, concentrate on what is going on in our capital city. Because every man, from the bootblack on the corner to the big industrialist, depends-not dr those fundamentals of supply and demand, cost and selling price, cause and efiect, which formerly were the exclusive arbiters of his business fate-but on politics. One hundred per cent. We can have a boom, or we can have Hell to pay and positively no hot pitch available. Such is the opinion of all thoughtful men. The boys in Washington will make the decision. Let us pray !

Personally, f am not a Jeremiah with a lung filled with lamentations. I am getting so hopeful of the situation that I have to keep warning myself not to start whistling until f am out of the woods. But I see many signs that please me. f have passed through the mental condition of a man who recently ran a display advertisement in a certain newspaper in Texas. I have the adveriisement before me as I tickle this typewriter. This property owner offers everything he has for sale, stores, warehouses, stocks of goods, farms, equipment, etc. And the ad continues: "Reason for wanting to sell, cannot continue under present government regulations and restrictions. I believe in honesty, integrity, hard work, perseverence, individual initiative, and the right of private ownership of property. Hence f can see no future for honest business under the present regime, whose every move tends to encourage laziness, graft, and class hatred. Thrift is being penalized; honesty is being perverted, and individualism is being crushed. Collectivism and regimentation is being thrust upon us by a bunch of political appointees, 80% of. whorn have never met a pavroll in their lives and were it not for their government jobs would be on relief themselves."

Personally, f have passed through the same stage that gentleman was in when he wrote the ad, and I have met countless others in the same fix. But most of the men I talk to today, are very, very hopeful. They think the tide has turned, and that Americanism is on the way back. I find that the older the men, the more pessimistic. In the last week I talked with a very rich, elderly Californian, and he was as discouraged as this Texas advertiser. He told me he was getting out of business (he is mixed up in a d,ozen different kinds in a big way), and that regardless of the sacrifice, he was quitting. "I just can't take it," he said, shaking his head. Fortunately the large majority of business men right now are getting optimistic. Fortunate for the country, and fortunate for themselves, because every man isn't in position to make a sacrifice and get out, like my rich California friend.

**r<

The hopefulness of countless business men today is based on the present apparent attitude and activities of a little Texas gentleman by the name of John Garner. Everyone knows that John Garner does not believe in most of the things that have been done in official Washington in late years. But John Garner is a most loyal Democrat, for one thing, and a naturally very m,odest and retiring man for another. It was but natural that a modest man in publicitymad Washington should attract a lot of attention. And Garner's aloofness in the presence of the press, at a time when everybody in Washington right down to the newsboys in the hotel lobbies hold press conferences, was one of the things that spotJighted him. He stood it in Washington as long as he could, and whenever his sense of justice wouldn't allow him to watch the'doings of the left-wingers any longer, he went home and stayed there as long ap he felt like it. And he stayed silent.

But now his patrioti"-*"rrl rlr," or country is bringing him out from under cover. The political writers are watching him more keenly than any other man in Washingtonand headlining him. The first sign of his new attitude was when he permitted his friends in Texas to hold an old-fashioned rally at his birthplace, and start a Garnerfor-President boom. Now, I don't believe that he has any definite ambitions to be President. But I think he has made up his mind that this country has got to be saved, and that whatever part he is called upon to play to assist in pulling this nation back from the brink of bankruptcy' he will accept. Personally, I have watched him for the past two years, struggling between his love of party, and his love of country. I have always believed that there is no more abject slave, than a political one. The political slave will swallow the bitterest pill prepared for him because he is a "party man." He will call himself a free man, yet be the rnost pitiful slave that ever wore a yoke. And John Garner has been swallowing many a bitter pill, as he watched brain trusters and bureaucrats evolve their weird philosophies, and place them as a yoke up.onr the neck of this nation that was once composed of American Sovereigns.

Which prompts'me a*r*r, ,or a moment right there, to quote the remarks of a very fine gentleman, made to me just the other day. He said: "There are millions of men accepting alms and asking for more in this country today, who ten years ago would have busted you in the nose had you offered them charity. Their moral fiber has disintegrated." With the relief rolls getting no smaller, and unemployment dwindling hardly enough to be noticed, the above opinion strikes home to many of us. The greatest loss that has come to this nation is loss of moral fiber.

John Garner isn't saying much of anything to the news writers even yet. But he is ACTING, and the reports are getting out. Secretary Wallace of Agriculture heard that Garner didn't like his farm plan, and called at the VicePresident's office to inquire. He came away faster than Hitler would pass a synagogue, his face so red it would make a red splotch on a red fannel petticoat. Another headline hunter was going to make a speech to a radical organization in Washington. Garner grabbed the phone, buzzed angrily into variotrs e€lrs' and the administration "name caller" not only didn't make the speech but gave out an interview against radicals. So the newSpapers are watching Garner like hawks. They scent big news coming. And business watches him, hoping that he may be the Moses that will lead it out of the house of bondage.

When I was a kid I lorred to read the story of Theseus, and how he killed the monster in the labyrinthine maze, and then found his way out because he had had the thoughtfulness to tie a string to the entrance, and keep the other end in his pocket, so he could follow it back. I'll say this' that any man who leads the business interests of this country out of the labyrinth that coercion has led them into during the past few years, will require not only a well-tied ball of string to direct well his returning way, but likewise an inortinguishable torch, and a stout piece of chalk to mark the turns, if he ever hopes to find his way back to the sunshine