Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-16
Action Now
Can Prevent
Crash Later
Postwar Problems Need
Careful Study
BY PAUL MALLON

'AAAh - W. Wv = faf|iA fAAAh 800 -
The nervous. system of the ma
ton seems frozen 10y fear of
what comes next.
Business has pinned itself in
by putting on its safety belt.
You can see il in the stock mar
ket, in the production figures, IN
the cash box of housewives. But
while every one is letting this
fear-inspired timidity dominate
him, no one is doing anything
about II.
Mr.. Roosevelt once said some
thing about accommodating a
public works backlog of a few
billions. but this holds out as
much hope as a project 10 re-
lieVe complete evaporation OF
the oceans by turning on the
bathroom faucet. Plainly the
government"doeS not have the
financial resources 10 take up
the slack of a defense cXpendl-
ture which already has reached
$4,000, 100000 and is about TO
be doubled.
VET anything that can be seen
L in advance as clearly as
"the coming crash surely could
be avoided by careful thought
and planning. If the ingenuity of
American leadership has become
so deficient as not 10 be able TO
avoid a disaster, visible months
or years in advance. and OF its
own making, the crash will GER
tainly bring some new leaders
who can.
There are men who are de-
voting careful thought 10 the
problem. among them Meyer
Jacobstein, economic consultant
of the political Brooklngs
Institution, famous endowed re-
search organization Mr.. Jacob
stein, furthermore, h s the
beginnings of some ideas OF
what to do. He suggests work
ing along the following line:
When our plane program gets
going we will have half mil
lion persons working in plane
factories, persons apt TO feel the
first shocks of the passing OF
the emergency, because when we
started this defense business the
plane industry employed only
10000. Some one should study
the possibility of developing
cheap types of airplanes that
could be sold by mass produc-
ton methods, like automobiles.
He points out that after the
last war, Henry Ford pulled the
country out of the depression by
making a low priced automobile.
If il cannot be done this time
with low-priced planes. how
about something else, a lot of
other things. television. cooling
systems, perhaps even a new
low-priced car.
EDSEL FORD is supposed TO
IL be working now IN some
secrecy upon new really low
priced automobile that would
sell for $500. Any one who can
make a better car for less money
after this defense boom is over,
will find a pent-up demand that
will keep his line of business
out of any depression.
Another line of production
which should be studied very
carefully, is chemicals. The fields
of plastics and synthetics has
only been touched.
Rebuilding the railroads is an
other possibility. Any one who
tries TO sleep in an upper berth
on most Of the roadbeds these
days. will appreciate fully that
the snake-winding systems are
as obsolete as horse and buggy
roads. Sooner or later they will
have to be Strengthened out and
graded like the new modern ex-
press highways. The time to
plan II is now, and the time to
do it, is the moment the de-
Tense boom slackens.
The utilities might spend 81
0O0.O00,000 a year for five years
in an expansion program after
the war. What factories viii
need rebuilding?
THESE are just the beginnings
Il of the ideas of one very able
man. The problem needs the
attention of all the able men.
Congress is bestirring itself 10
conduct On investigation which
may offer some incentive. Bust
ness men themselves could do
much more effective inveStigat-
ing Of tn cir own problem on
their own accounts.
The government has been neg
lecting the matter. Many bureaus
are working on II. the Army
Industrial Col lego. National
Planning Board. Bureau OF
Labor Statistics. Department OF
Agriculture. Social Security
Board. but there is no co-ordi-
mated effort No central clear
ing house for thought has been
furnished. A special commission
appointed by the President and
composed not only of Congress
men and government experts
but with full representation OF
forward thinking outsiders would
help.
% YEARS AGO TODAY
July rs, 1916
1 l.,