48
PARTISAN REVIEW
neled into
his
special field, and for all else there remained only a
paltry set of conditioned verbal reflexes. Ah, how infinitely wearisome
a thing it is to listen to the after-dinner speech of "a leading business–
man!"
Because this country has been so predominantly a land of busi–
ness, and because businessmen are still so powerful a segment of the
national community, we cannot lightly dismiss this extra-curricular
ineptness of the typical businessman. Unfortunately, he is not a
tamed domestic who can be chained within
his
corporate boundaries.
His stupidities, as well as his genius, have their momentous effect on
the national destinies. In relation to the struggle against world com–
munism, there is grave question what effect that will turn out to be.
I am inclined to believe that the attitude and actions of the business–
men are the factor in the struggle about which we must have the
gravest doubts of all.
In relation to the struggle against communism, the American
businessman is too ignorant, too greedy, too reactionary and, in a
certain sense, too cowardly. I am not, of course, qualifying individual
businessmen by these adjectives; I am referring rather to social or
"class" characteristics of the businessman as a type.
As
individuals,
businessmen are no more frequently ignorant or cowardly than individ–
uals from any other social group. They are perhaps somewhat more
often greedy and reactionary, but that is no doubt an unavoidable
response to their social function. I want to specify my meaning with
some care.
American businessmen seek, and often obtain, really enormous
personal incomes for themselves, and colossal profits for the corpora–
tions which they own or manage. During these past few years, corpor–
ate profits in the hundreds of millions have not been extraordinary,
and in one case (General Motors) a single year's profit has gone
beyond half a billion dollars. In the published lists of the salaries of
corporation executives, we read the names of hundreds of men who
are being paid from one hundred to more than five hundred thou–
sand dollars by a single company. These figures tell only a part, and
sometimes a relatively small part, of the story. Each of these men, and
their wives and children, have other sources of income-from other
companies, from bonds and stocks and mortgages, from expense ac-
