The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-02

COnGAQuulS IuuCC1Onlng or the Capl- talist system requires a continuing flow of investments. The authors point out quite properly that this means that private industry as a whole must pay out in capital and operating expenditures more than it receives back in prices. Strange as this may seem, it is true.
 Private industry has ceased to do this because capital investment has almost come to an end. There fore these gentlemen ground their whole plan upon the proposition that, as private investment has seemingly come to an end, the government must step in and be- come the great investor.
 The whole problem, therefore, is to organize and finance vast gov ernment investment program which will be permanent. The authors disclaim any plan to disrupt the economy of private ownership. Pri- vate ownership having abdicated al present the function of capital in- vestment expansion, the government will undertake it merely to protect the remaining functions of private ownership.
 FIvE-POINT
 PLAN
 Here is the program. Q) A 50- year program of rebuilding America its houses, starting with homes for the slum dwellers. (2) A vast expansion of our recreational fa- cilities. (S) Great projects to mod ernize our traffic facilities. (N A great program of conservation of resources, particularly soil through reforeStation and fire protection, engineering works to retard surface erosion and national program of river and dam coordination for flood control. (5) National program of educational and health expan- sion.
 On the welfare side they would extend old-age benefits to all classes and abolish the old-age reserve &C., count and would reorganize unem- ployment benefits to include all workers and supplement benefits by elastic work projects to afford longer subsistence when insurance benefits run out.
 The problem of financing gov- ernment investment becomes the terrifying ogre in any such plan. The authors advocate both taxa tiOn and borrowing. They insist tax revenues can be expanded enormously by putting an end to existing evasions and by abolish
 ing tax-exempt securities. They also advocate what this writer has advocated, the taxing of corporate
 earnings in the hands of stock
 holders rather than in the hands of cOrpOratiOns-taXing earnings rather than dividends.
 AS for borrowing, they face witt equanamity continuous borrowing wholly unterrif1ed by the constant ly rising level of the public debt The rising tide of taxes to pay in- terest they dismiss with the propo- Sition that this can be rendered l harmless in economics if the owner ship is spread out among all the people. Then as all the people will be taxed to pay the interest, the interest will go back to them as owners of the bonds.
 As to private business, they urge an end of trust busting. Great ag- gregations of capital are useful The government should regulate those that can be regulated by con- trolling prices and should take over those which do not yield to regu- lation. It should take over the rail- roads, regulate prices of great basic industries and try both regulation and ownership of utilities.
 These measures they think, would restore better times and keep them among us.
 Copyright, 1888, NEA Service, Incl