Evening star., 1941-09-10
Hendersons Views on Price Control Called
More Importont Thon Any Communist Links


" Communist Links
I well recall, was held by part Of
Wall Street.
The important question Is
whether Mr.. Henderson is doing
his job well and If not why not.
This question involves thought
calling names won't help. Obvi-
ously the office was created in
order to stop an imitation, which
would be a catastrophe to Amer
lean economy and to the capital
ist system. Is there need for such
an office?
Imitation occurs when there IL
no balance between the money in
circulation purchasing power
and the amount of consumers
goods that can be bought. II there
is more money than consumers
goods-radically more n1oney-we
get imitation. Goods become more
and more precious and money
progressively worthless.
Now, the Communist party line,
as of pre-war-it has all changed
since Germany attacked Russia
was that this course of events
was desirable, since it would de-
stroy the capitalist system, even
though 1t ruined the people in the
process. Therefore, if Mr.. Hen
derson were following the old
party line of the Communists, he
should have been against price
control of any kind, since the
worse the better. At present,
however, the Russian government
does not desire to see any country
on which it is dependent for sup
plies go to the dogs, so the party
line has changed.
But Mr.. Henderson will not be
able to control prices unless he is
prepared either to put a ceiling
over wages or divert part of
wages into savings. And it is
just this fact that lot of New
Dealers and most trade unionists
are unwilling to face. If Mr.. Hen
derson were following the old
Communist party line-and if he
Is, he had better meet the boys
again and get the new tip-then
he might pretend to be controll-
ing prices while leaving wages
uncontrolled to rise at will. Then
he would fail and We should get
imitation. We are nicely on the
way to 1t right now.
Criticism Should Stick to Policies.
Mr.. Henderson will fail un-
less he realizes that the popula-
ton may not have more money
to spend than there are con-
sumers' goods to be bought. If
young men get $50 a week in
machine tool factories and have
long suppressed hunger for
cars and furniture and lots of
other things that factories can't
turn out because they are con-
verted to munitions works, there
is going to be an imitation. A
large part of that money either
must not be paid in wages or
must be forcibly converted into
savings.
There are several ways of doing
the latter. Mr.. Morgenthau made
a constructive suggestion: In
crease the social insurances. 1t
should be done quickly. Mr..
Keynes made another: Insist
that part of the wages be put
into Government bonds, repay
able later, when there is a slump
after the war production era.
There is no price control In
the face of imitation without con-
troll of purchasing power, and
there are only two ways to re-
duce purchasing power: Put q
ceiling over wages, or force the
partial investment or saving of
wages.
Mr.. Henderson's Affiliations
with the Spanish relief organiza-
tion are matter of indifference
to the Nation, but his view of
price-control measures is not. He
might be the most ardent Tory,
but If he can't see through the
imitation business he could bring
disaster on the Nation, and out
of disaster we might get Com
muniSm, or-on the record
more likely Development
Fascism.
Let us confine our criticism to
policies and not to doubtful "evi-
dence" about Communist afilia-
tions. Then, maybe, we will get
somewhere.
Relessed by the Bell Syndicate. IncD