We Have Taken Our Blessings For Granted - 1941

August 26, 1941 – DEWITT M. EMERY, President of National Small Businessmen's Association

The broadcast by DeWitt M. Emery, President of the National Small Businessmen's Association, addressed the widespread "confusion" and "hunger for facts" felt by Americans in August 1941 regarding the nation's looming crisis. Emery urged small business owners to take the lead in organizing town meetings across the country, inviting their Congressmen to participate in fact-finding discussions and question-and-answer periods. These meetings, he suggested, should focus on critical issues like Priorities, Lend-Lease, Taxes, and Labor disputes, emphasizing that citizens must exercise their right to be articulate and actively engage in self-governance. Emery particularly highlighted the dilemma over war production priorities, noting that the economic disruption, exemplified by a mid-west town facing factory shutdowns due to material shortages, underscores the urgent need for clear communication and democratic action.

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For a quick video summary see below:

The original speech text is provided below:

WE'VE TAKEN OUR BLESSINGS FOR GRANTED

By DEWITT M. EMERY, President of National Small Businessmen's Association, Akron, Ohio

Broadcast over WGAR Cleveland and the Columbia Coast-to-Coast network, August 26, 1941

FOR the past several weeks I have been traveling al-

most all the time and while my contacts were mainly

with small businessmen I nevertheless talked with

men and women from all walks of life from day laborers to

Corporation Presidents. The result of all these conversations

can be summed up in one word-confusion. I doubt if there

ever was a time in the entire history of this country when

such a large percentage of the people were so utterly con-

fused, so hungry for facts, and most of them haven't the

slightest idea where to turn to get the facts.

most all the time and while my contacts were mainly

I made a suggestion to these people which I repeat to all

of you. Get the facts from your Congressman. He is your

representative in Washington which is the focal point for

everything these days. He is right on the firing line, has

taken an active part in many of the things which have hap-

pened and will be a vital part in whatever lies ahead. Now

that Congress is recessed is an excellent time for him to

meet with you.

I, therefore, suggest to small businessmen in every com-

munity throughout the nation that you take the lead in set-

ting up a mass meeting to which everyone in town is invited

and ask your Congressman to be present at the meeting and,

tell you what it's all about.

Naturally, in order to make such a meeting effective it

will be necessary for your Congressman to know what you

want to know. He isn't a mind reader and unless he knows

what's in your mind he can't be as helpful to you as he'd like

to be. Therefore an important part of each of these meetings

should be a question and answer period. You-the people at

the meeting-ask the questions and he'll supply the answers.

Or, write out your questions before you leave home and hand

them to the chairman of the meeting as you go in.

I can't think of anything which will be as helpful in

clearing the national atmosphere, nor which will do more

in straightening out the confusion in the minds of the peo-

ple than a series of town meetings up and down and

across the country. These meetings will also be quite help-

ful to members of Congress as it will put them in much

closer touch with the folks at home, therefore enable each

one to more accurately represent the wishes of his constitu-

ents.

Last week I visited a mid-west town of about twelve

thousand people where such a meeting would be a "God

send" to practically every one in the town. This town has

two factories both in the same line of industry. About

eighty per cent of the employables in the town are on the

payroll of these two factories and the other twenty per cent

of the employables-the grocers, the butchers, the druggists,

and so on—are rendering service to the eighty per cent. It

has recently become common knowledge in this town that

unless there is a change in the present trend at once, both

these factories will run out of materials, one in about thirty

days and the other in not over forty-five days and they will

have to shut down, thereby cutting off the income of the

entire community. Is it any wonder these people are wor-

ried? Is it any wonder they are asking "What's to become

of us?" Can't you readily understand their wanting to

know for sure that the great sacrifice they are about to be

called on to make is necessary and justified?

I know that the people in the town we are talking about,

and the people in every other town in the country for that

matter, will gladly and willingly do whatever needs to be

done once they are firmly convinced it is necessary. The

American people are that way. Always have been. They

never shirk a responsibility nor run away from a fight. What

they want now are facts and who is in a better position to

give them the facts than their representatives in Congress?

One of the principal difficulties is that not nearly enough

of the people in the United States are articulate. Altogether

too many of them fuss and fume, cuss and grumble among

themselves and that's all; they don't do anything about it.

Here's an opportunity for everyone to exercise his right of

citizenship sometime other than on election day. Take ad-

vantage of it, each and every one of you.

Quite often you hear someone say that Congress is hope-

less, just a bunch of rubber stamps. It's true that some

Congressmen, and Senators too, are rubber stamps, don't

do any thinking for themselves and always vote as they are

told, but the vast majority of the members of Congress are

honest, highly intelligent, capable, and work a whole lot

more than forty hours a week doing their level best to ac-

curately and satisfactorily represent their districts or states.

There isn't even one member of Congress who dosen't have

his ear close to the ground all the time and who dosen't re-

act quickly to sentiment back home. That sort of puts the

shoe right on your foot, doesn't it? Which, incidentally, is

exactly where it belongs. Don't blame Congress or the Ad-

ministration or anyone else except yourself. We are a self-

governing people and any time we don't get the kind of gov-

ernment we think we should have it's up to us to say so.

That is not only our right and privilege but is also our

highest duty; otherwise, our Republic and all it stands for

goes into the discard.

In all probability most of the town meetings will revolve

around Peace or War, Priorities, Lend-Lease, Taxes, the

Draft, Labor, and so on because these are the things in which

everyone is interested. In every community there are people

on both sides of all these questions which is as it should be.

Care must be exercised, however, to see that neither side

runs away with the meeting. If the interventionists want to

hold a meeting which is advertised as such, that's alright,

and by the same token if the isolationists want to hold a

meeting, that's their privilege. But the meetings I'm recom-

mending are for everyone, and therefore in order to be suc-

cessful they must be conducted on a fact-finding basis. Con-

sequently it is desirable for those of you who set up the

meetings to keep the fact-finding idea firmly entrenched in

your minds from the very beginning. The purpose of these

meetings is to find out for sure what's what and why. Then

when accurate factual information is available to guide you,

each one can make up his mind concerning what he thinks

should be done about it. And I, for one, am ready to trust

the considered judgment of the American people on any-

thing.

There isn't any one thing in the entire picture which,

directly or indirectly, is causing greater concern to more

people than priorities and on it there are two schools of

thought: One school, which is typified by Mr. Henderson,

believes that everything should be subordinated to the pro-

duction of war materials. If five thousand or fifty thousand

small businesses are put out of business and from two mil-

lion to ten million men and women thrown out of work,

that's too bad but it can't be helped. The other school of

thought, typified by Mr. Knudsen, believe that the tran-

sition from peacetime to war time production should be

handled carefully without unnecessary disruption to the flow

of regular production.

This is a mighty important question and the way it is

handled will have a profound effect on the lives of all of us

for many years to come. England, even though fighting for

its very existence, has been able to carry on a considerable

volume of "business as usual" not only for home consumption

but also for export markets. We know for any number of

reasons that this is true: two of these reasons will be enough

to serve our purpose. The June 1941 issue of the British

Export Gazette, a fifty-year-old publication, published in

London, contains advertising offering for immediate delivery,

"paper and rubber insulated cables and wires, electric meters,

overhead equipment for railways, tramways, light and power;

copper and aluminum wires, sheets and sections; electric

welders, magnetic moulding machines" and so on through a

long list. This same ad states "The best British goods have

been delivered in the past; the best British goods will be

delivered in the future, but most important, the best British

goods can be delivered now." As guarantee of immediate

delivery, one of the ads shows a picture of British warships

escorting a convoy of Merchant vessels. The other reason

we know that England is carrying on "Business as usual" is

that a few days ago the British Government, through John

Maynard Keynes, promised the American government that

"England no longer will sell in Latin America goods she has

received from the United States under Lend-Lease." I men-

tion this because if the British, in an admittedly much worse

position than this country, can still find materials and manu-

facturing equipment to carry on "business as usual", it might

not be a bad idea for us to follow their example.

This, I think, is particularly true when we consider that

everyone in the United States, directly or indirectly, has a

stake in business. A school teacher sells his or her services

on a contract for so much per year. Making the contract is

a business transaction. A surgeon performs an operation and

renders a bill; that, too, is a business transaction. When a

farmer sells a dozen eggs or a bushel of wheat, he's "doing

business." When a laborer or a skilled mechanic applies for

a job and is put on the payroll at so much an hour, day,

week, or month, that too is a business transaction. So it is

not an exaggeration to say we are all in business. The con-

dition of the plants, factories, mines, or shops in your com-

munity, whether or not they can keep on operating, is a

matter of major importance to that community. We are

really all in business.

Another question which will undoubtedly be discussed at

most of these town meetings is labor. Almost everyone I talk

with mentions labor unions and the consensus seems to be that

so long as wages and hours are satisfactory and working

conditions are alright, strikes should not be called, certainly

not on defense jobs, to enforce demands for a closed or union

shop. This also is a vitally important question and there are

two sides to it, both of which should be heard before a deci-

sion is reached.

In conclusion, let me again urge the Small Businessmen

in every City, Town, and Village to take the lead in holding

a meeting for their Congressman and to be sure that every-

one in town is invited. Such a meeting, particularly at this

time, when the United States faces the gravest crisis in its

history, will be most helpful to all concerned. We must all

be ready and willing to express ourselves. This is no time.

for anyone to hide behind the bushes or, for any reason, fail

to express himself or herself. No matter what your views

may be, as an American citizen you have the right to express

them and right now is the time to exercise that right.

We all know that the Constitutional Government we have

in the United States is the greatest blessing ever bestowed

on mankind any place on earth. Let's not let anything hap-

pen to it. For more than a thousand years the vast majority

of the people in every country in the world lived in abject

poverty. In many lands, the attention of the entire family

was all the time centered on one thing-getting enough food

for the next meal. Then came the Constitution of the

United States and under it, in the short space of one hun-

dred fifty years, this country became the wealthiest, most

progressive, most powerful nation in the history of the

world with a standard of living for even its lowest paid

workers which is the envy of all the rest of the world.

It has been said many times that "Eternal Vigilance is the

Price of Liberty." It is. We all know it. But many of us

haven't been too vigilant. We turned our share of "Eternal

Vigilance" over to someone else and he wasn't even taking

care of his share. That's what's wrong. Most of us just are

not working at being American citizens; we've taken our

blessings far too much for granted. But we can change that

quickly by taking a larger, more active interest in public

affairs. A good way to start in this direction is to get busy

immediately on helping to set up a Town Meeting in your

community. Let's go.