Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-10-16
FAIR
ENOUGH
BY Westbrook
Peeler

VNHE profession or economics
- has produced in the last few
years more quacks than phre-
nology, astrology and psy-
chiatry combined, with hordes
of bookkeepers and common
statisticians cribbing theories
and fantasies from one another
and stirring patches of factors
and figures into supplying
muddles.
Thus, for example, we have
learned. against our better
sense, that IT is possible TO tap
the till and swipe the current
receipts of the Social Security
fund, squander the money on
election year, make work and
relief projects in peacetime,
keeping things in balance by
dropping in IOUs and meeting
demands on the vanished funds
with future current receipts.
Thus. also we learn that the
way 10 avoid initiation is TO
stack up inflationary conditions
as kids prepare an election
night bonfire. pour on kerosene,
light the match, and then call
the firemen.
THE source of imitation ID
l. identified as the dangerous
money" The margin between
the living scale and the actual
wage of the war worker, whose
income is paid out Of taxes.
The provisions which created
this discrepancy and the dan
gerous money" were deliber-
ately adopted in time of peace
and depression as a means OF
spreading a relatively small
amount of private employment
among the largest possible
number of people.
An employer was required 10
pay premium wages to workers
for hours in excess OF 40 per
week. TO avoid this extra cost
he would arrange to employ
additional workers at normal
rates.
When the war program began
and the danger Of initiation was
foreseen. the Roosevelt admins
tration quickly moved to avert
initiation by controlling prices
through means which were, IN
part at least, plainly confiscs-
tory.
Wages, of course, are the
greatest factor in all prices,
but it was thought better 10 pay
initiation wages, and having
squandered money by the bill
lion, 10 try TO get some OF II
back by individual taxation.
LIVERY proposal 10 abolish
IL ume-and-one-half and dou-
ble-time was deftly shrugged off
and. although there was work
enough now 10 give every avail
able hand as much as he or she
could stand, this dangerous
money was deliberately set IN
motion and, as IL was spread
around, prices began TO spin out
of control.
Union leaders and bosses
share the guilt for setting this
trap for the workers under their
command, for IT was essential
To their politics TO delude them.
The taxation plan has faltered
AS the workers, one guess ahead
Of the treasury, discovered that
there wasn't Jail room enough
in the entire republic 10 accom-
modate delinquents by the mill
lion who had always thought OF
the income tax as Sock-the-
rich device
The next experiment was the
checkoff, or victory withholding
tax, and now the treasury is
proposing TO abolish that and
thereby exempt altogether from
income tax billions Of dollars OF
dangerous money"
TT is 100 late now TO change,
L for the government is COM
mitted both economically and
politically To the extravagant
wage scale. A reduction ~ this
late date would throw wages
aud prices painfully out Of fix
in too many areas and, more
over. would create dangerous
resentment among people who
are drawing out of the war in
dustries higher pay than they
ever got before and enjoying
an illusion of prosperity.
The time for honesty and
courage was when the infla-
ton began and the best that
can be done now is a series
of patchy measures which may
somehow stand off the worst
consequences.