Evening star., 1940-11-09

robes or Office IN
the G. I. O., he David Lawrence.
remains as president of the United
Mine Workers of America and he
retains, moreover, certain convic-
tions which he held before election
and which he may take occasion to
repeat from time to time as events
unfold.
There are many observers who
are thinking today only of the tech
nical questions involved in merger
of c. I. o. and A. F. of L. Mr.. Lewis
looked beyond that when he offered
publicly to resign. Those in the ranks
of labor who abused him for it will
live some day to regret it, for, while
they may never elevate him to office
or power, they will some day be
asked to decide for themselves
whether Mr.. Lewis contributed to the
protection of the American work.
ingman in The inf1ationary crises of
our times, or whether the public
officials and union executives who
opposed him will be able two years or
four years hence to use the term
traitor" which they employed in
the last few weeks.
Mr.. Lewis has not told his plans
publicly except in his speech of
October 25, but in that address he
aid down some fundamentals which
the third term administration will
find itself reminded about from time
to time in the next few years.
Sees Threat to Savings.
For Mr.. Lewis feels that the public
debt and public spendin,, have grown
too rapidly and threaten the savings
of the workingmen.
This week stock markets scared as
the Secretary of the Treasury an
bounced his intention of borrowing
Federal debt limit to s65 100000 900.
When this is added to the $20,000,-
100000 Of state and municipal debt,
America faces a national debt of
s85 200, 600 ,000-the largest that any
solvent nation has ever had.
The security market traders an
ticipated an inf1ationary trend and
the buying of stocks naturally sent
prices upward. When imitation is
on its way, the public does not feel
1t Immediately. There is always
glow of satisfaction as the prices
rise and the spending continues.
But the history of initiation in all
countries is that the Government as
sures everybody it can put on price
controls" This requires a severe
economic discipline and leads to
bootleg prices. In the famous in
fiation In France III the 18th Cen
tury and in the German imitation of
II years ago, the governments in
each case tried price control with
out success.
Hits Fixed Income Groups.
Initiation usually falls hardest on
the working classes. Their wages
do not rise as rapidly as does the
cost of living. Persons with fixed
salaries suffer too because their
wages are not raised fast enough.
Spectators usually see far ahead
and protect themselves, but the
average man doesn't.
Thus it remains to be seen
whether the major question before
the American Government today
control of and management of fiscal
affairS-will be solved by some new
method of managed economy and
currency that has not been tried
before, or whether when the arma-
ment boom is over there will be a
collapse of gigantic proportions.
During the campaign much was
heard about the road to bank
ruptcy." Mr.. Roosevelt in 1882 &C
cused the Hoover administration of
turning the country toward bank
ruptcy because it had an unbalanced
budget and had increased the public
debt by five billions of dollars. Since
that time the public debt has been
increased by % billions more by the
Roosevelt administration and now
it is planned to add another 20 bill
ion of debt to the Federal Govern
ment.
The problem is not how much or
what size public debt a nation can
stand but how rapidly is it being
accumulated. Unfortunately for
America, there is no sign as yet of
an economy program for the non-
armament expenses. The eXtrava-
gances of the depression period in
Government services are being
maintained.
Lewis May Speak Again.
If the administration were to have
announced this week a program of
curtailment of ordinary expenses
and had begun to make some pro-
vision for the balancing of the
budget other than on the armament
expenditures, there would have been
less of a tendency to regard the
addition of the 20,000000,000 to
the public debt as inf1ationary.
When imitation reaches a climax,
the poor people suffer. Mr.. Lewis
may some day be able to make
another speech to the laboring
classes of America and to point
back to his address CT October,
1910. For if an economic crisis
comes as a result of bungiing fiscal
policy, the people may become as
indignant about the exploitation by
Government as they were about the
exploitation by the Wall Street OF
1929. To prevent such economic
collapse from arising, MIR. Lewis can
IN his position as head of the United
Mine Workers of America express
himself freely on public questions,
addressing labor groups from one
end of the country to the other in
the coming years. So it would be
better to wait a year or two before
counting out such an aggressive
figure as Mr.. Lewis from the ranks |
of labor's warriors. He may prove
a polltlcal factor of major import