Let’s Define Our Terms
Warner & Swasey deserve high praise among the many manufacturers who have been spending their advertising appropriations promoting the American way of life.
In fact, we think that the story they told on their advertising pages in several national weeklies during February, 1947, titled, “The New Industrial Dictionary,” should be fold again this year. It goes like this:
“Words are being misused to confuse important issues. It is illegal to be untruthful on a food label; it should be illegal to be untruthful in a written article or a speech, whether made by a politician, businessman or labor leader. Here are true definitions of some words that have been misused.
“Com’mu-nist—one who puts loyalty to a foreign idea ahead of loyalty to his country, com’mu-nism—dictatorship; loss of personal freedom; bringing all down to level of least competent.
“co-op’er-a’tion—American trait of give-and-take; teamwork; understanding that the other fellow has rights, too
“cus’tom-er—the real boss. If what you and I make is low in quality or high in price, customer stops buying, you and I stop earning.
“fas’cist—same as communist. Fas’cism—same as communism.
“job—the opportunity to produce and so earn an honest living; something which must be earned, not doled out as a political plum.
“price—sum of labor plus materials plus taxes plus the profit which keeps business going. If too high, buying stops and so jobs stop.
“pro-duc’tion—the goods or services a workman turns out in a day, out of which he must be paid and out of which must also be paid all the items which make his job possible.
“profi’t—wages paid to the savings of millions of people who make factories, machines, jobs possible. Average 1/7th as much as wages to workers.
“strike—the argument everyone loses. Last resort of the wise; first resort of the dangerous. (Synonyms: waste, irritant, tragedy, defeat.”
We feel that the American businessman is too complacent with respect to his expressions regarding matters of this kind. As we have said before, he seems to be too busy with his own affairs to make anything more than a conversational contribution among his friends.
The same situation holds for the business press of the United States which seems to be leaving it up to the newspapers to carry the ball in this direction. We think it’s about time for Mr. Average American to wake up.
