Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-08-27

lished by the Brookings Institution,
and 1t contains two important state
ments. The one affirms the theory Of
capitalistic enterprise and the other
reveals that this theory was not put
into practice when capitalism was
supposed to be strongest--during the
boom years.
II we are not to abolish capitalism
altogether, as a few people begin to
desire, or put it under complete gov
ernmental control, as other groups
demand, then the issue will be in
creasingly one of low prices versus
high prices. So far no administra-
ton has faced the issue and framed
its political practices, whether they
concern taxes, or social assurances, or
a thousand other matters, with this
question clearly in mind. With all
the talk about the radical innovations
of the New Deal and the difference
between this administration and its
predecessors, in this particular they
have not been diSsimilar, and Mr..
Roosevelt has merely continued the
policy Of many who preceded him.
That policy has been the protection
Of high prices.
White Collars Suffer.
The people who suffer most acutely
from this kind of economic theory are
the middle and white-collar classes,
the people engaged directly neither
in industry nor agriculture, but who
dispense services of one kind or an
other. And as it happens, they are
one of the largest groups in the coun-
try. They are school-teachers, house.
ployes, BARRIERS, clerks, journalists,
doctors, lawyers, ministers-all the
people who are neither farmers,
manufacturers, nor industrial work
ers capable of being organized into
trade unions.
Mr.. Hoover's Research Committee,
which reported to him in 1888 on
social trends, found that between 1919
and 1923 more than !, 200 mergers had
involved the disappearance of more
than 5000 independent enterprises.
Theoretically, these monopolies should
by increasing efficiency and lowering
costs. have lowered prices. But that
was not, in fact, their result. On the
contrary, and with, of course, some
exceptions, they sought higher
profits-for both labor and capital
by maintaining higher prices, thereby
frustrating the play of forces of
capitalist enterprise.
There are outstanding examples in
industry to the contrary-the auto
motive industry, for instance, which
because of its policy requires no tariff
to protect 1t. The constant reduc-
ton in prices has resulted in Ameri-
cans owning more automobiles per
capita than any people in the world.
We do not, in contrast, have the best
standards Of housing by any means,
because the materials which enter
into housing, as well as labor. taxes,
inflated land values and high mort
gage rates, have the effect of monopoly.
Public Demands Value.
A large part of England was re-
built in the last few years because
mortgage money could be gotten at 3
to 324 per cent. That hundreds of
thousands in this country will buy
houses at a price is illustrated by the
growth Of the trailer industry, at this
moment the fastest-growing manufac-
turing enterprise in the country. A
hundred and fifty thousand Americans
are buying trailers, not because
Americans are nomads but because
the trailer offers them at this mo-
ment the best return for their money,
everything considered. They get
more for their money from the trailer
factory than they do from Mr.. Tug
wells Resettlement Administration.
Probably the most persistent Of all
illusions is that mans income Is