The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1942-12-22

e-ce IN ten or a dozen years Of
business dchrium. winding up in
a5ou, a generation OF gradual re-
covery from the national hoot OK
the initial decade. That's been the
sequence hitherto and our last
demonstration Of IT was recent
enough to be remembered That
one az the advantages that 3
pointed TO in having wars and their
aftermaths reasonably close to-
gether In oldcn days they came
so fast that they were jumblei.
Then they got 10 be too infrcqucnt
or too small-sCale TO be educa-
tiona!. Since 1918 until now.
though has been just about an
ideal interval. the economists rec
ken
The dope is this
Wars a curse; that isn't dis
puted Nevertheless. it's a spell OF
prodigious productive activity.
Everybody has a job. either as an
actual scrapper or as producer
OF supplies for the sure-enough BEL
hgerents-or maybe as a bureau
crat.
When it's over there } a short
gap. while folk are redistrbuhng
themselves. II they're human they
VIII have skinned down to their
last n.cIals and will feel the pinch
for a bit They'll fancy that they
are in the midst OF the genuine
coming depression, bat it'll be a
brief one. in so far as that par
ticular instalment Of it's concerned.
Everything truly useful will have
been consumed. for no conceivable
usefulness on earth.
False prosperity
And the demand viii be terrific.
tn create employment. to sup
ply H.
TIN begin to look like prosperity
for { awhile. The half-starved-to-
death public will spend its small
change like fury.
The little peewee of immediate
postwar scarcity will lead into a
perfect splurge Of popular require
ments for everything imaginable.
Folk viii need II also. The trouble
is that they'll overdo themselves
finally running into debt and going
busted.
That'u be the boom and that's
how il Will fragile out. If past his
tory's any criterion. 9
But the boom will start sudden
~. Recovery will be blamed grad
uai.
At least. that's the scientific
economists calculation.
Their notion is that an individual
can't save up his resources for a
term Of years. until he has quite
an accumulation of EN-, and then
invest all in powder and shot, to
20 out and massacre some preda-
tory neighbor and be otherwise
than worse of for the experience.
They agree that it may be neces-
sary for him to exterminate such
a neighbor. but they insist that it
can't but be tough on the econom-
les Of the neighbor Of the FIRST part
the one who has TO do the mas
sacrtng
They say that this is true OF
countries as well as Of individuals.
Their thesis is that a country
which, unavoidably. has had to pile.
up a huge war debt. should figure
on a subsequent era of skimpiness
not on a vast campaign Of ma
tional spending on almost unlim-
tied Improvements. such as the
postwar e1pansionists advocate.
Keep Lid On
Keeping the lid on is their pre-
scription.
These boys are exceedingly care
full as to expressing themselves IN
quotation marks. They realize that.
II they DO, they'll be accused Of
taking an overly cautious attitude.
All the same, what they want
is to discourage a postwar boom.
They look for il and they're
afraid Of Il.
Their games to get back into
normalcy, as President Harding
called il, in normal fashion-by
degrees, as when the country was
young, wl.h modern notifications.
It's a tendency that's more con-
spicuous in congress than in the
bureaucracies. The bureaucracies
are largely OF administrative crea-
ton. and the administration is do