Evening star., 1941-09-10
Morgenthau Appeals
For a Holding Down
On Wages and Profits
Worms Public Must Be
Taxed More and Spend
Less to Avert InfIution
~ the Associated Press.

~ the Associated Press.
"a BOSTON, Sept. 10.-Secretary of
the Treasury Morgenthau asserts
that an immediate threat of inf1a-
ton faces the United States and
that to oversome it the public must
be taxed more, must spend less,
save faster and submit to increased
regulation.
Pledging that the administration
would do everything humanity posi-
BILE to prevent imitation, he called
last night for laborers, farmers and
businessmen, in the interests of the
Nations welfare, to curb their de-
sires for increased wages and profits.
He made these two general rec
concentrations in addressing the Ad-
vertiSing Club of Boston:
/. Higher taxes, regulation of in
stallment credit, increased savings
and curb on the demand for COM
modities.
2. Control of prices, by releasing
surpluses of all commodities-espe-
cially- farm products-for consump-
ton "as fast as necessary to prevent
unreasonable price rises"
Must Tax More Heavily.
The Treasury chief said:
I'VE shall have to tax ourselves
much more heavily next year than
this year, great and far-reaching
as the present tax bill will be.
I'VE shall have to invest much
more widely and Systematically
In Defense savings bonds and
stamps
we may have to extend general
controls over bank credit and Gre
ate controls over selected capital
expenditures.
Il hope that we may extend the
social security program so as to
increase the flow OF funds to the
Treasury from current income dur
ing the emergency and increase
the outflow of funds when needed
In a post-defense period.
AS complementary step, Mr..
Morgenthau renewed his plea for
reduction of "non-essentiaP Fed
eral expenditures and for economy
in State and local governments as
well.
Praising President Roosevelt's re-
cent veto of a bill to freeze Govern
ment stocks of cotton and wheat, the
Treasury chief declared:
I'VE ought not to withhold cotton
surpluses, or any other surpluses,
from the market in times like these"
Would Release Wheat.
He proposed that Canadian wheat
of which he said more than 498,-
100000 bushels of surplus were
evailable-be admitted in larger VOL
lime as was done recently in the case
of Cuban sugar.
1T is sheer folly from the farm
ers point of view to push prices up
by creating scarcities in times like
these. The farmers suffered cruelty
for IL long years after the collapse
of the imitation of 1920 and 1921;
they should not be made to suffer
again.
TT is sheer folly in the same way
for labor leaders to seek new H.
creases in wages every few months
new increases which in turn pro-
duce higher manufacturing costs,
higher prices and higher cost of
living.
TT is short sighted for land
lord to charge all that the traffic will
bear in defense centers where hous-
ing space is at premium.
TT is poor business, in the long
run, for any businessman to seek
exorbitant profits in this period of
defense spending.
1T is bad banking, in the long run,
for any banker to exploit the pres
ent demand for funds by seeking to
charge unreasonable interest rates.
Destructive of Morale.
There are always selfish groups
In any country which think they
can profit from imitation. They are
wrong.
Imitation does more than merely
rob the wage-earner of a portion
of his earnings. 1t does more than
saddle the farmer with a load, of
debt which he cannot repay. 1t is
more destructive of morale than any
other single force. Initiation divides
the country. 1t sets up producers
against consumers, workers against
employers, the people who owe
money against the people to whom
the money is owed.
No group in a community profits
from imitation in the long run ex-
cept the three horsemen-the spec
ulator, the profiteer and the hoarder.
The cost of imitation is too ruin
GUS to producer and consumer alike
for any one in authority to tolerate
st now. I can give you only this
pledge-that this administration will
do everything humanity possible to
prevent imitation.
I'VE have been talking about in
fation for long time as if 1t were
a threat remote from our daily lives
It is a distant threat no longer. We
are facing 1t now and we must deal