Evening star., 1942-03-31

as the total out David Lawrence.
lay is already being used here as q
conservative estimate. The official
debt limit has been raised to $l25.-
900 100000, but this is academic in
the face of the rising expenditures.
It will be raised again and again.
To date America has spent on
armament only about $4,000 900 900
That's the accumulated expenditure
since May, 1910, when total war
began in Europe.
The proposed expenditure for the
year 1912 is calculated at $47,0OO.-
900 900 and for 1943 it is expected
to reach $4,000, 1000, 900.
Do the people care anything about
the cost? Does Congress care?
Does labor or management care?
Unhappily no group seems to care,
because every group is still out to
get as much as 1t can.
Can Overtime be Afforded?
The 40-hour week controversy, for
example, isn't debate over whether
20 hours shall be the limit for work.
It is debate as to whether America
can afford to pay time and a half
for overtime. The Navy Department
estimates that the overtime penalty
on its contracts alone runs about
$4,000 ,OOo, 900.
Efforts to change the 40-hour
week law have unloosed furious
outburst from organized labor. The
leaders openly say that it means
cut in the pay envelope to change
the overtime rate that prevails
above 40 hours and that this might
bring disunity. In other words, the
labor leaders say, in effect, the rank
and file will so bitterly resent not
being paid enough to fight the war
that disunity will result.
The employer viewpoint, as re-
fected by spokesman for the
National Association of Manufac-
turers, is that the overtime pay con-
troversy is not one between employ
ers and workers but between workers
and their Government. In other
words, if the Congress and the
people want to foot the bill, why
should employers care? They pass
the expense on to the taxpayer and
deduct the expense from gross in
come before the company profits are
figured for tax purposes.
The Treasury is bearing down
harder and harden on individual
incomes and the profits of corpora
tions. The pay envelope of the
managers is being cut and there
are plans afoot to freeze salaries.
There is as yet no sign that Con-
gress will ever limit the pay envelope
of the rank and file of the workers.
Workers Victimized.
theoretically, the workers are be-
ing benefited. Actually they are
being victimized. For while the ad-
ministration is attempting price con-
troll, the result is far from effective.
Farm prices aren't held down and
the prices of a thousand and one
articles that enter into the cost OF
living are not restrained. This
means that as the cost Of the war
piles up the cost Of living Will
ultimately rise and real wages VIII
tend to decline.
The United States, like other ma
tions absorbed in war economy, is
IN the midst of an inf1ationary cycle.
Debt is piling up at an lncredloie
rate and while heavy taxes are being
collected and the people are yielding
their savings in the form of loans
to the Government, the fears OF
post-War collapse in the national
economy are growing. The effort
now is to foreStall runaway lnfia-
ton. and it seems probable that no
matter when the armlstlce comes,
the wartime controls will be con-
tinued for long time thereafter
with the claim that in no other
wav can runaway imitation and sky
rocketing prices be prevented.
Political Way Followed.
Nothing is normal, of course, IN
war. Nations pledge their utmost
to win. But it is QUESTIONABLE
whether any other nation in the
world is fighting as expensive war
in output per man as is the United
States. Already the trend toward
pavment of more and more money
to soldiers and sailors and officers
Is apparent Instead OF bringing
down the wage scales of the workers,
the Congress shows signs of moving
up soldier pay gradually to meet
the level of civilian wages.
This is, of course, the political
wav-the line of least resistance,
And the political way stlll governs
In the National Capital Sometime
there will be day of reckoning,
when the spendthrift tendencies OF
l941 and 1912 will have to be paid
for. But it will not be the politi-
clans who will pay the bill-the
payers will be the rank and file OF
the citizenry who refuse to tell their
Representatives and Senators to re-
verse the tide of extravaganza by
spreading sacrifices broadly, by cur
failing profits and wage increases
and overtime penalties, and by elm
mating non-essential expenses In
the Government itself