This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower said: "Other peoples find it hard to believe that an American working man can own his own comfortable home and a car and send his children to well-equipped elementary and high schools and to colleges as well … .
"Relatively few nations have the socially conscious type of private enterprise that we enjoy. Here, private enterprise, with minimal intervention by government, strives to benefit all the people … .
"As each of the nations of the free economy examines its own actions and unflinchingly takes the greatest possible responsibility for its own economic advance, it must make certain that the blessings of production benefit all its people, not only a favored few."
Eisenhower and the entire generation of post-World War II leaders understood that a prosperous working class was essential to the continued success of America. It is a lesson that has sadly been forgotten by the current generation of business and government leaders.
Roland Kayser
Murray