THE SMALL TRADER
Snt,—It is impossible in the space of a short letter to set forth exhaus- tively the case for the small firm in trade, but it would be a pity to miss an opportunity of endorsing the remarks in Mr. Nicolson's " Marginal Comment " of May 29th, which he seems to regard-as almost an obituary notice for the small shopkeeper.
It is indisputable that the small man in all branches of trade, commerce and industry is being crowded out. The war has hastened the process to such an extent that quite a number of disinterested people are beginning to notice it. Those who have remarked on this development usually express their sorrow, but rarely seem able or willing to touch on either the reasons for the decline or the reasons for the regrets.
The great reason for the decline of the small man would appear to be due to the difference between his philosophy and that of the big combine which is crushing him. The small man is content to make a living by supplying a need to the best of his ability. He neither has the wish nor the cash to sell by advertising ; he sells by worth. With the big combine the outlook is entirely different ; the only goal is " More net profit." Money is used not to improve the article for sale or the service offered, but to force it on the public. Millions of pounds are squandered on propaganda-advertising, and the destruction of competition by buying-up small businesses, and price-cutting operations. Customers are counted in thousands and treated like a commodity. The small man cannot survive such assaults ; he is utterly overwhelmed, in exactly the same way as we have seen small nations overwhelmed, by a vast pre- ponderance of organised force.
Unthinking people can see no reason to deprecate this tendency. There are many reasons, for which there is no space here ; but one arises naturally from the preceding paragraph. The description contained therein of the type of trader who is suffocating and superseding the small man needs no labouring ; this is the type of trader we shall have to deal with when the small man goes—the monopolist ; it is more than a pity, it is a danger. The philosophy of the would-be monopolist admits of no moral scruples: the law and expedience are his only sanctions. When he has attained his aim, the law is the only curb to his ambitious power. The liberty of the subject is seriously endangered.
Some might argue that capitalist monopolies are a safeguard against Communism. Unfortunately they are not. As soon as a business becomes large enough to be classed as of national importance, it is immediately earmarked by Left-Wing politicians as suitable for nationalisation. This seems to be where " big-business-capitalism " and Communism meet.
The President of the Board of Trade is unquestionably right in describing the small man as the backbone of the nation. The proof of this assertion is that, in spite of the colossal weight of capital and the clever scheming brains that are against him, in spite of the passive dis- approval of Government officials and the innumerable pinpricks of red-. tape, in spite of drastic war measures and still more drastic bombs, the small man survives. Surely he is a backbone worthy of the nation, and woe betide the nation if that backbone is removed.—Yours faithfully,
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