We hear a lot of talk these days about free enterprise here in the United States. It has become a favorite subject for newspaper columnists. Radio and television commentators are daily drumming into us the fact that free enterprise is something that we have and the communist countries don't have; that we are a fortunate people because we have it; that we must be prepared to make any sacrifice to keep it. This is all to the good. But we sometimes feel that the average American, if asked for a definition of free enterprise, would be somewhat at a loss to explain the whole thing. Recently a West Coast public relations firm conducted a poll of a cross-section of California residents, asking the question, "What, in your opinion, is free enterprise?" The answers ranged all the way from - "free enterprise is the slogan of one of the major political parties" to - "free enterprise permits big business to grow bigger and make tremendous profits." Apparently among many prople there is no clear-cut idea of just what free enterprise really is. The folks in California who said free enterprise was the sloagan of a political party were not wrong, nor were those people wrong who stated that free enterprise permits business to grow and make a fair profit. Their error in thinking was in relating free enterprise to one single subject or set of conditions, such as a political party or the growth of business, big or small. free enterprise is not a law. Free enterprise is not a government regulation. Free enterprise does not belong to any one political party or to any one group of people. Consider free enterprise as two easy-to-understand words. First we have the word free, which the dictionary defines as "having liberty - without restraint." Enterprise is "any undertaking attempted by man." Put the two together Free Enterprise - "any undertaking attempted by man freely and without restraint." Free enterprise in America means the right to work at any job, anywhere, freely and without restraint, be it as a steelworker in New Jersey, a farmer in Iowa or a miner in Butte. In the communist countries the government tells a man what he shall work at and where. Free enterprise in America gives you the right to lock your door at night before you go to bed. In the communist countries the government police can break down your door at any hour of the day or night. Free enterprise in America means that you can worship god as you please, freely and without restraint. In the communist countries freedom of worship has long since disappeared. Free enterprise in America gives each of us the right and privilege to criticize our government, freely and without restraint. In the communist countries secret police and concentration camps and torture and death make such criticism impossible. Free enterprise in America permits all citizens to think, and to live and to work out their problems, not as a state controlled, fear-driven flock of sheep, but as intelligent individuals, freely and without restraint.