Speech to the Small Business Service Bureau

"The small businessman in America today is being short changed. And it is time some policies were adopted to give him the fair share of the dollar and a fair share of the marketplace…to ensure that he isn’t smothered by big government and cornered by big business. What this country needs is a new Bill of Rights for the small businessman."
Worcester, MA • October 19, 1975

It’s a great pleasure for me to be here this evening. I appreciate your invitation, and I appreciate as well your kind reception. I want at the outset to extend my congratulations to Senator Kevin Harrington for receiving this year’s outstanding public service award. It is a high honor, and it is an honor that Senator Harrington richly deserves.

I consider it a privilege to appear on the same program with so many political leaders tonight. As some of you may know, I’ve decided to compete for political office myself. So I’m delighted to spend the evening with so many people who have done so well in that field, and I hope that some of their success will rub off on me.

And I am happy for the chance to visit Massachusetts. I have a brother-in-law who lives up here and he’s told me all about this state. I think I’ll arrange to spend more time here in the months ahead.

I’m glad to see my friend Art Buchwald is with us this evening. Art is an appropriate choice to speak at this gathering...with his columns, his books and his lectures, he’s a small business all by himself.

Actually, the reason he came up here tonight is that he was afraid he was losing his title of America’s most famous cigar smoker to Luis Tiant.

But, seriously, I am pleased and privileged to be here this evening. This is a distinguished gathering, and I consider it an honor to be asked to address it.

I feel somewhat at home here tonight. For one thing, I do have many ties and bonds with the state of Massachusetts. And for another, I think I understand the concerns of the small businessman because began my working life in the business world myself.

I started my career managing the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, under a very demanding businessman, Joseph P. Kennedy.

And when I left that business to work for the government, I think I started my public service with the same feeling of adventure and challenge that the small businessman feels when he starts out to create his own enterprise. I remember, after we had worked in the campaign of 1960 and the election was won and I had gone back to my job in Chicago, President Kennedy called me and asked me to help him again. He said “Sarge, I want you to come to Washington and be the Director of the Peace Corps.” And I said, “I don’t know anything about a Peace Corps.” And the President said, “Neither does anyone else. Furthermore, everyone says the idea of a Peace Corps is going to be a flop. And if it is a flop, I’m going to have to fire the Director. And it’s easier to fire a relative than it is to fire a political appointee. So, I want you to come to Washington and take the job.”

So I went to Washington and took the job. And the Peace Corps was, by the standards that apply among the budget conscious people of Washington, a small business. But, I think we were successful, and I think we touched some lives all around the world and I am pleased to have had the opportunity to take part in it.

But we are in a different age now, even if only 15 years later. And we have to face the realities of the days we live in. These realities are not pleasant. And perhaps no one knows that better than the small businessman.

Our nation is in an economic decline which rivals the slump of the early 1930’s. And as always in an economic down-turn, small business is the first business affected; it is the business that suffers the most; and it is the last business to experience the benefits of economic recovery.

The first small business loan made by the United States government was made to Paul Revere -- a direct loan of ten thousand dollars to assist him in establishing a copper rolling mill. But two hundred years later, as we approach the bicentennial year of 1976, the prospect of the small businessman in America is a bleak one. Small business, the cornerstone of our free enterprise system, is becoming its victim. Government, which started out to encourage the small businessman, has become its oppressor.

For the individual entrepreneur is now the person caught in the squeeze of modern economy…the squeeze of tight money; the squeeze of high interest rates, the squeeze of rising costs. He or she is finding it tougher each day to survive in the face of competition from ever-larger corporations…corporations much better prepared to endure inflation and recession…corporations big enough to bend the federal government to their will while the small business languishes in the backwater of a failing economy.

Ninety-five per cent of all the businesses in this country are small. They employ fifty per cent of our citizens. They provide almost half of our gross national product. They provide a living for one hundred million Americans. They help to preserve competition. They offer a marketplace for new ideas.

And yet, for all this, where are the small businessmen today? Small business, which is the father of free enterprise, is treated like a second cousin.

Calvin Coolidge once said, “The business of America is business.” Change that now to read, “The business of America is big business.”

And that just isn’t right.

It isn’t right that small businessmen pay about twice as much of their income in federal taxes as the large corporations.

It isn’t right that more than half of the yearly burden of government paperwork is borne by small business.

It isn’t right that the small and independent firms which comprise a major part of the housing industry have been forced to cut their production almost in half because economic policies have priced most families out of the housing market.

It isn’t right that federal regulations applied across the board to all firms are draining the time, funds, and productive energies of the small enterprise.

And it isn’t right that small business should be on the bottom of the priority list for help to get through a recession which is the worst this country has experienced since the disastrous days of the 1930’s.

The small businessman in America today is being short changed. And it is time some policies were adopted to give him the fair share of the dollar and a fair share of the marketplace…to ensure that he isn’t smothered by big government and cornered by big business. what this country needs is a new Bill of Rights for the small businessman. and this is what I think that Bill of Rights should do:

It should establish a climate which favors the growth and progress of small business.

It should provide a tax policy which gives small business a fair break.

It should act to end the overregulation of government...the unnecessary paperwork, the needless reporting requirements, the discriminatory taxes which discourage capital formation.

It should provide for vigorous enforcement of the antitrust laws, so that no new monopolies are established, those in existence are broken up, and competition is restored to the marketplace. And it should call for the elimination of the kind of trade practices that prevail today...practices that assist the conglomerates and the giant businesses, and drive small businesses into bankruptcy.

That is the kind of program that the small businessman deserves. That is the kind of program that the country needs. And that is the kind of program that I would strive for if I were President of the United States.

We are approaching our two hundredth year as a nation. For these two hundred years we have been working to build a society which would provide prosperity for all, and equality for all. We are yet a long way from reaching that goal. There are many more strides we must take, in virtually every area of our national life, to fulfill the promise of our heritage.

And among those strides is a return to our historic commitment to the right of the small businessmen to survive and prosper. It is time for us to remember that this still young nation was built not on a foundation of big business, not on a foundation of conglomerates, not on a foundation of multi-nationals…but rather on the strength and independence and freedom of the small businessman. That is our heritage, and we must return to it. I pledge myself that I will try.

Let me add one final note, a personal one. I am honored that you have asked me to address you tonight. Although I was not born in Massachusetts, I am delighted to return here, because of the affection I have for this state and its people. The group that is here tonight, the small businessmen and women of Massachusetts and New England and the Northeast region, represent the finest tradition of American independence and strength. I will be returning to this region during the months ahead, asking for your consideration and your support. Whether or not I win it, only time and you will tell. But I am honored to be with you tonight, and I hope to see all of you sometime in future. Thank you.

Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.
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Sargent Shriver
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