We have taken tops and bottoms—now we choose to ride in between. For, indeed, there is one fellow we have nearly all forgotten. He is the man who neither steals nor speculates, nor works with hammer and saw.

And this man is represented by my old friend, Nic Tengg, Jr., whose funeral I attended not so many months ago. We all know how the Cowards and the poor people are doing—but how about the people who have generally done pretty well?

What, I would like to know, is going to become of his class, the major class of America?

Until about two decades ago, the people who ran the American Show were small business men, although there were big operators then as now. That is the reason I keep thinking of the funeral of my good friend Nic. The funeral itself was no greatly important event—just the funeral of a good man who had died.

But Nic represented the backbone of America. At his funeral I saw America, those who like Nic and his people were neither rich nor poor. There were his brothers, Tom, Ed, Julius, and William; his wife and children, and all the relatives, including Mrs. Fest, a sister, who married a prosperous grocer, and who remained prosperous until the chain-stores hit the country.

There was the family—the American family—all putting Nic, Jr., in the cold ground.

There was the family—a strong and vigorous one—doing just as they had done since old Nic Tengg, Sr., came from Germany just after the Civil War and established his store on Commerce Street in San Antonio, which was then a thriving center for all West Texas, and with trade routes going into Mexico, North and South.

There were my friends. And the politicians, half friends and half enemies. Grocers, young doctors, lawyers, merchants, clerks, salemen. This is the group in America we should like to see survive, but who, as a class, seem slated to disappear.

Shall we, can we, break down big business in order to re-establish little business? Do we want to do it?

As a matter of fact, food and clothing stores are becoming as impersonal as the telephone company and the post office. The reasons they have become standardized is because of new marketing facilities, rapid transportation, refrigeration, and a host of other advantages of a modern age. Certainly, also you don't have to be an economist to know that a standardized product can be produced cheaper.

The whole trend is toward a closer knit nation. I can remember when we had a small automobile plant in San Antonio. There were little plants all over the country. I would prefer to have them spread around, but if we "busted the automobile trust," and had little factories everywhere with dozens of brands of cars, they would cost two or three times as much, and we could hardly take a chance of leaving town because there would be no standardization of parts.

Emotionally, I think, we would all like to destroy big factories and big business, but it would not only be impossible, but wrong to do it. That does not mean we should submit to blind economic forces, merely to get low prices and because big business is inevitable.

Big business cannot be allowed to run just to suit itself. To do so is to allow powerful inside governments, opposed to the interest of the national government, or the people's government, to operate. Many great businesses have in effect operated as competing with the legally set up government of the people. It is perfectly plain, then, that big business must be controlled or regulated, just as a restaurant is controlled in matters of health.

In view of our serious problems, we must determine the function of business, large or small. One function of business, and I think the major function, is precisely the same as in government. It is responsibility to the public, to the workman and the consumer. If business gives men opportunity to work, and affords them happiness, it is good business. And when it does not, it is bad business, just as a government which does not afford opportunity for work and happiness is a bad government. Bad business must go out, just like bad government.

This is plain common sense. And if business, whether it is little or big, wants to preserve itself with what it calls capitalism, it must see to it that these functions are carried out by all businesses in America. If business does not do that, if it does not co-operate with its own government in doing it, it is destroying itself as well as the rest of the country.

In saying this, I am still thinking of the millions of Tenggs in America. For if their business is taken from them, they must have something quite as good in its place. And in the greater control of American business for the protection of the great body of the people there is no reason for the usual tantrum thrown by the "big business man."

His idea of the government is an agent spying on him, turning his books upside down, and giving his secrets away to the enemy. But the time has undoubtedly come when there shall be more laws to regulate industry, to prevent great economic break-downs, to stop the locking out of millions of workers, and to avoid the bankruptcies and financial crises that come time after time.

One of my good friends said to me "Ah, but you want to standardize mediocrity."

No, I do not. But I do believe that we should have reasonable minimum standards of living. If we do this we can still have rich men—in fact, I think many more than now, because then the constant purchasing power of the people, combined with a stability of business, will make greater prosperity possible.

From the time we are born we are taught that life is a sort of economic slot machine and that it is proper for us to stand beside the machine and be quiet and docile, because we may win next. But the slot machine of natural resources just hasn't got as many nickels in it as it used to have, and so the small business man hasn't the same chance as he had before. Nor has he the chance against superior, and very powerful competition.

Our teachings give us the idea we can all be President—and the poor boy a millionaire. Included is the idea "that business ought to be let alone." I have heard business men say that when they themselves were being destroyed by monopoly or unregulated business. And of course, everyone knows that if we actually "let business alone" it would be busted in no time. Legitimate business especially must be protected against unregulated monopoly.

Monopoly of all kinds must either be publicly owned or controlled. In this, of course, we enter the field of American prejudices, and there is neither chance nor wisdom in nationalizing all monopolies at once.

To all the legislation or movements by the public to own or control its monopolies, I have seen the most violent opposition. The citizens begin a battle over communism and socialism.

In these situation, I think the best attitude is to view the inevitable, and act accordingly. My idea is that, if it becomes necessary for the government to regulate or own, the government should simply go ahead and do it. America should not, and cannot, be held back by the reckless use of words, and the use by the reactionary groups of symbols long since dead.

Our job in America is to save the people worth saving. And the Tenggs are worth saving. They are good people, with pleasant manners. But the main thing is, they are willing to work, to help build our communities over the nation. That is the reason we must stand by men like my friend, Nic Tengg.