What Business Executives Think

For eight years U. S. voters have been periodically asked what they think of Business management. But Business management has never had any mechanism through which all its leaders could regularly record their opinion each month on the U. S., present and future. This week FORTUNE, pioneer in the sampling method of learning what the U. S. thinks, announced it had created such a mechanism, published its first installment of executive opinion.

Unlike its Survey of Public Opinion, FORTUNE'S Forum of Executive Opinion uses a blanketing instead of a sampling technique. The executives whose opinion FORTUNE invites (mail) are a permanent panel of some 15,000--including: 1) presidents of all firms rated AA1 by Dun & Bradstreet; 2) directors of the 750 biggest U. S. corporations (which own some 52% of all corporate assets); 3) all businessmen whose salaries indicate clearly that they play an important part in management.

Results of the first FORTUNE Forum:

Defense. No profiteers, 1940 businessmen strongly favor (68.1%) some form of limitation on profits from Government contracts. On the cost of expanding to meet Defense needs, they overwhelmingly support (88%) a Forum suggestion--amortization of the cost of plants devoted to war orders within the period of the emergency, with the amortization charges paid into a suspended account, subject to taxation only in so far as the plant proves useful after the emergency. They believe that competitive bidding on war orders should be waived, to allocate orders to the plants best equipped to supply them fastest (75.5%). Most of them have not yet been given a preview of M-Day. Only 6.6% had received definite instructions on what the Government expects their business to do in wartime; 35.6% did not know; 36.9% thought the Government has not yet got around to expecting anything.

Labor. A shortage of skilled labor was reported by 32.6% (in manufacturing and industry, 41%). A small majority (56.6%) favored abrogation of the right to strike during the emergency, more (59.9%) favored adjusting wage rates to marked changes in the cost of living. Even in case of labor shortage, 52.5% thought labor's hours could not be increased beyond 48 without harming productivity. A minority (19%) thought the work-week could be pushed to 56 hours.

Foreign Policy of Business is, in FORTUNE'S words, "economic opportunism." Only 2.6% were definitely opposed to trading with a Hitlerized economic bloc in post-war Europe. If Hitler wins, 48.3% thought U. S. business could go along without changing; 35.3% thought reorganization could be confined to foreign trade; only 14.1% thought U. S. domestic and foreign business would have to be reorganized on a totalitarian pattern. Fencing off Southern Latin America with an added fleet appealed to about half (49.8%), undertaking to guarantee its exports as well, appealed to only 19.5%. Though U. S. foreign policy should be directed to "keeping Japanese ambitions within reasonable bounds" (56.2%), most executives thought this could be accomplished peacefully. They were skeptical about trade with the Orient, reflecting a growing disillusionment with foreign trade. A surprising 29.2% favored U. S. contraction toward self-sufficiency, instead of expanding foreign trade (47.4%).

The New Deal social reforms were supported in whole or part by 74.6%, but the Forum had a poor opinion (77.1%) of New Deal recovery programs, was unimpressed by New Deal foreign policy. Only 12.3% thought Franklin Roosevelt could handle U. S. foreign relations better than Wendell Willkie. As to whether Roosevelt or Willkie would do a better job on preparedness and industrial mobilization, a wholehearted 91.3% said Willkie.

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