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    "label": "Address by Secretary of Commerce Rogers C.B. Morton to be Delivered before the Protestant Foundation of Greater Chicago Annual Dinner [Speeches by Others]",
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    "title": "Address by Secretary of Commerce Rogers C.B. Morton to be Delivered before the Protestant Foundation of Greater Chicago Annual Dinner [Speeches by Others]",
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    "ocrText": "Digitized from Box 18 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nUNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF\nCOMMERCE\nOFFICE\nOF THE\nSECRETARY\nNEWS\nWASHINGTON, D.C. 20230\nFOR RELEASE FRIDAY A.M., DECEMBER 5, 1975\nADDRESS BY SECRETARY OF COMMERCE ROGERS C. B. MORTON\nPREPARED FOR DELIVERY BEFORE THE PROTESTANT FOUNDATION\nOF GREATER CHICAGO ANNUAL DINNER, PALMER HOUSE, CHICAGO,\nILLINOIS, 6:30 P.M. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1975\nIt's a great pleasure to be here this evening, and\nto join this very distinguished gathering in its support\nof the Protestant Foundation of Greater Chicago.\nOne of the suggestions for my address was that I\npresent a challenge to the leaders of American business.\nThe thrust would be to challenge you \"to provide leader-\nship in restoring to our country the high value standards,\nethics, morality and spiritual commitment upon which the\nNation was founded.\"\nNow, that is clearly a worthy theme, to the tune of\nwhich a master organist could pull out all the stops at\nonce and pound out some thundering chords. But frankly,\nconsidering what you are here for tonight--and what you\nhave been doing so well for so many years--I'd be a little\nembarrassed to preach you that kind of sermonette.\nSo, I'd like to approach the same kind of thoughts\nfrom a slightly different angle--not as your friendly\npastor, but simply as a fellow American; as one who has\nspent many years in business; and as a member pro tem of\nthe Executive Branch of the Federal Government.\nI don't think there's any question but that America\nwas founded upon the highest moral, ethical and spiritual\nstandards. The imminent approach of our 200th birthday\nbombards us with daily reminders of that fact.\nBut, as Professor Paul Samuelson has pointed out,\n-2-\nAmerica was also conceived in the search for a better\neconomic life. For every family that arrived here\nseeking religious freedom and relief from despotism,\na hundred settlers came in search of jobs.\nI'm always reminded, in that context, of the\njournalist who traveled to the furthest boondocks of\nIndia immediately after independence-- to learn how the\nnatives felt about the departure of the British. To\nhis amazement, most of them were unaware that the Brit-\nish had ever been there. Their political awareness\nbegan and ended with an empty stomach.\nI have to agree with Professor Samuelson that\npolitical and religious freedom are irretrievably\nbound up with economic freedom. The American free\nenterprise system, our free economy, is the found-\nation stone without which all our other vaunted\nfreedoms would be--at best--academic.\nIf there is a genuine flaw in the American business\nsystem, it is that it may have succeeded too well. Grind-\ning out a Gross National Product in 13 figures, to provide\nthe highest standard of living for the greatest number of\npeople in the world's history, the U.S. economic system\nhas made the miraculous appear mundane.\nThe prevailing attitude, therefore, too easily be-\ncomes: \"Ho hum, what have you done for us lately?\" Ex-\npectations, based upon performance to date, have grown\nso voraciously that there is no possible way to fulfill\nthem all for any reasonable future term.\nFaced with this fact, there is a growing tendency\nto turn against business and the free enterprise system\nitself. We hear calls to break up the big corporations;\nto nationalize this or that industry; to allocate credit\nby government fiat; and to adopt some form of the central\neconomic planning that has hardly distinguished itself\nin any country that has tried it.\nI suppose that normally we could attribute that\nkind of clamor to what I call the \"economic illiteracy\"\nof a great many citizens, some of their elected repre-\nsentatives, and many of the informational and educational\n-3-\nmedia. The kind of illiteracy that leads to an amazing\nparadox: everyone is in favor of more and better jobs,\nhigher real incomes, and a steadily improving standard\nof living for all. Yet, most of the people who cheer\nfor all these good things feel that American business\nis making too high a rate of profit.\nSo you have to wonder. It's kind of like wanting\nmore and more eggs all the time--but trying to wring the\nneck of every hen you can get your hands on.\n\"Normally,\" as I said, we might attribute these\nalarming trends to a simple lack of economic understand-\ning. But when illegal campaign contributions, bribery\nof foreign officials, and the like enter into the equa-\ntion, there is no point in trying to blame it on mis-\nunderstanding or a lack of understanding.\nSimilarly, the public hears business complaining\nabout \"stifling government regulation\" and I will\nagree that there is entirely too much of that. But\nwhen the President makes specific proposals to get the\ndead hand of government off of various businesses, and\nto let the forces of free competition prevail, sudden-\n1y the \"regulatees\" appear not to want to be deregulat-\ned after all.\nIt boils down to what Preston Robert Risch, of the\nLoews Corporation, recently told the Executives' Club\nhere in Chicago. \"Leaders in almost every field, includ-\ning business,\" he said, \"have fallen into a habit. It\nhas become something of a reflex--of thinking of public\nopinion as something to be molded and manipulated for\ntheir own purposes. They do not tell the truth; they\ntell a carefully varnished version of the truth, de-\nsigned to produce a predetermined result.\"\nI don't say--nor believe--that anyone in this room\nis guilty of any of the things I've been talking about.\nBut I will say this: anything a firm or company does to\ndiminish the confidence of the public in American business\nas an institution--is a disservice to the company itself,\nto all business and industry, and to the Nation.\n-4-\nI don't believe there's any question but that our\neconomy is going to need somewhere between four and five\ntrillion dollars in new investment over the next ten years\nin order to grow at a reasonable and stable rate. That\nlevel of investment can only come from a decent rate of\nprofit--and from the savings of millions of people who\nhave the confidence to invest in American business.\nIf profit is allowed to become a dirty word--or\nworse, if confidence and trust in the business community\nare permitted to erode to the point of no return--there\nsimply will not be enough capital formation to provide\nsome 15 million new jobs we're going to need over the\nnext decade. And if that happens, bewailing the eco-\nnomic illiteracy of the American people is not going to\nbe of much help to a failing economy.\nI've addressed myself so far to business--first,\nbecause you are influential business leaders with an\nearnest concern about ethics and morality; and second,\nbecause it \"goes with the territory\" if you happen to\nbe the Secretary of Commerce.\nBut I also recognize that any crisis of confidence\nwe may be going through applies with equal force to gov-\nernment, the professions, the media, labor unions--indeed,\nto any institution large enough to have gathered power to\nitself.\nPerhaps it is as Walter Lippmann saw it back in 1913,\nwhen he wrote: \"Business and political leaders don't mean\nbadly; the trouble with them is that most of the time they\ndon't mean anything.\"\nWell, I think our 200th birthday is as good a time as\nany--in fact, the best time--to start meaning something, to\nstand for something. And what we've got to stand for, as\nwe look to our third century, is what we stood for back at\nthe very beginning: Duty.\nAnd that means all of us: business, government, media,\nlabor, citizens, Republicans, Democrats, just plain Americans.\n-5-\n\"I know my rights! How often have we heard that\ndeclaration?\nYet rights are only the other side of a coin called\n\"obligations\" and the simple word for obligation is \"duty.\"\nBut how often do we hear someone assert: \"I know my\nduty\"?\nIf we take the ratio of the first to the second, it\nwould appear to be much easier to demand one's rights than\nto insist upon one's duty. But there are no one-sided coins.\nThere are no rights without concurrent duties.\nVital new rights have been written into law: the rights\nof minorities, of women, of workers and of consumers--and it\nis right that these things have been achieved through the\nstruggles of the great civil rights movement.\nBut where is the civil duties movement? Where is that\ngroundswell demanding equal opportunity for everyone to\ncarry out his or her inalienable responsibilities?\nI don't see it. I don't notice the crowds marching\nin the streets, flags and banners flying proudly. I don't\nhear the singing and the shouting and the slogans ringing\nout.\nCall for a civil duties march and the streets will be\ndeserted.\nSing a civil duties song--and you'll be drowned out\nby the clamor for more rights.\nWith good and ample reason, we cherish our Bill of\nRights. But where is our Bill of Duties?\nIt is recorded that the soldiers at Valley Forge left\ntheir bloodstained footprints in the snow. No one had to\nread them the Orders of the Day about their duty; they lived\nby it. And many died for it.\nThe Stars and Stripes does not fly over the Land of\n-6-\nthe Free because people were preoccupied with enjoying\ntheir rights. It flies there because brave men and women\nwere doing their duty!\nThe first Americans had a vision. It was their\nvision--and their sense of duty--that shaped America\nfor 200 years.\nIt was that vision and that sense of duty that\nbrought us safely through wars and recessions and de-\npressions. It was that vision and sense of duty that\nmoved a people and a Nation to greatness.\nNow we ourselves--and others in the world--are\nquestioning whether we have the stamina, the plain old\nguts, to continue building upon the greatness we have\nknown.\nI for one am confident that we can do it, that we\ncan go on to build a Second America even greater than\nthe first--morally, ethically and economically.\nBut the world in which we have to go forward is\nfar more complex today than it was in 1776; every nation\ndepends upon the others as Spaceship Earth speeds through\nthe void.\nThings are no longer simple, with clear blacks and\nwhites. We live in a world with few if any absolutes.\nThe great multinational corporations were perhaps the\nfirst to recognize the concept of an economy as being\na global concept. In the last analysis, I am convinced\nthe record will show that the multinationals bring ben-\nefits not only to their home countries, but also to the\nother lands in which they conduct their operations. They\nare the lead pioneers of the one world that I feel we will\nultimately have to become.\nYet today we face a dilemma in the fact that practic-\nes of which we heartily disapprove are not only legal in\nother countries, but are a long-established way of life\nand of doing business.\n-7-\nThat is only one of the many gray areas - like the\noceans and population control and the distribution of\nresources - that abound in a world which is tugging in\nmany different directions, despite the obvious fact that\nwe are all growing more and more dependent upon each\nother.\nUntil that happy day when all of these issues shall\nhave been resolved by international accord, our surest\nguide must be our individual conscience, our duty to our-\nselves and our country, and our duty to all mankind.\nThat sense of duty, I know, is what impels all of\nyou here to give so freely of yourselves and of your\nefforts in behalf of the Protestant Foundation of\nGreater Chicago.\nI am proud to have been here to be a part of what\nyou are doing.\nThank you."
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