Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 6
SPEECH TO BE DELIVERED BY SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN FEBRUARY 11, 1943 IN UNITED STATES SENATE FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY Mr. President I am taking this opportunity to tell the Senate about the biggest business monopoly in the history of the world, which has been created in Washington under the very eyes of Congress, In my opinion, it threatens to impair or destroy many of the social, economic, and political gains made by the everyday citizen and businessman through constructive, legis- lative enacuments during the past decade. Public Law 603 was unanimously enacted by Congress in order to mobi- lise aggressively the productive capacity of, smaller business concerns in bedey successfully to carry out the war program. Previous to its enactment, several efforts had been made so that small business might obtain its right- ful share of war contracts. By small business, I mean primarily those busi- nesses which employ from 5 to 500 men, and whose capital investment is from $10,000 to $10,000,000 Mr. Robert Mehorney headed the first attempt with very limited suc- cess. He was followed by Floyd Odlum. Both of these men tried honestly and conscientiously to help small business. Both failed because they had no pro- curement powers and little or no cooperation from the armed services and the War Production Board. Government statistics show that at the beginning of the war program there were about 175,000 firms in the United States employing millions of people, who, between them, produced about 70% of the nation's nanufacturing. The re- maining 30% was produced by 100 or more major corporations, commonly termed "blue chips of Wall Street." This peacetime production balance was sound and provided a firm foundation for the social, economic and political life of our democracy. SS KRUMAN NARA

Terms