Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-11

IOr VlCCOIy Will *$3::$$S,
be over in year a :'*s"
or so or perhaps David Lawrence.
In two or three years thereafter.
Nobody assumes q war Of q decade
and nobody assumes that anything
else matters except to provide the
materials and the weapons to win.
But as the debt mounts and pub
Lie expenditure reaches undreamed-
Of heights, the fear of postwar coll
lapse and catastrophe mounts also
and the citizen wonders whether
there will be at the helm Of govern
ment men with narrow and selfish
viewpoints or men with q Arm hand
and realistic sense Of how to meet
the danger.
The present administration, be-
ginning In 1888, endeavored to meet
economic depression by more and
more spending, 50 that when war
broke on us the country had not
yet come to grips with q decade of
yearly deficits totaling $23, 0O0,-
100000. The day of reckoning had
not arrived because Of the necessity
Of spending even larger sums to
meet the perils Of foreign made
aggression.
The economic problems, however,
have not been solved. They have
only been postponed and there is no
evidence that the individuals in
charge Of our Government know Of
any other way to meet economic
distress except to favor special
sroups and borrow more money. It
is to be hoped that the best eco
nomic minds of the Nation will be
modified long before the armistice
comes so that some formula to pre-
vent what conceivably could result
in social disorder and panic may be
prepared.
Price Ceilings Uncertain.
The history of the world shows
that when nations 60 too far in
lebt. they find some way to repu-
slate 1t. Sometimes they revalue
their currency, sometimes they ask
The lenders to accept a lesser sum
in exchange for existing bonds and
sometimes they allow the purchasing
power of the monetary unit-in this
case the dollar-to become less and
less, so that over q period of time
che working class bears the biggest
burden Of all.
Misguided persons who call them
selves leaders of the laboring classes
are usually responsible for the de-
oacles that come because they mis-
takenly oppose every measure that
seeks to increase output per man
or lengthen hours or in other ways
hnd q means Of increasing produc-
ton, when in truth these are some
OF the paramount factors in pre-
venting economic convulsion.
For sooner or later all the So
called price ceilings tend to break,
and up through those ceilings prices
soar. The reason they break through
Is that the same misguided labor
politicians, thinking to make them
selves secure with their rank and
Ale, continually insist on wage in
oreases or premium pay for over
time, and in the end there is only
one way under q private enterprise
system for the producer to insure
against loss or even perhaps make
a profit and that's by getting a fair
selling price for his goods.
Workers Bound to Suffer.
As prices rise, the purchasing
power Of the dollar goes down. Mil
lions of citizens in the fixed salary
brackets such as school teachers
and white collar workers suffer and
the farmers are unable, with the
depressed prices they get, to ex-
change their products for city,
made necessities Of life. What is
often called imitation is merely a
runaway price level and a devalued
monetary unit.
It may be, Of course, that
Americas inventive genius and her
marvellous capacity for quantity
production may help keep the price
level down by producing goods at
lower and lower prices even with
q high standard of living for
workers, but If union rules and
ordinances, for example. keep hous-
ing costs at prohibitive levels and
politicians become so fearful of the
labor vote that they allow an Or
gani1ed minority to penalize the
unorganized majority, little help
can be expected from the so-called
chronological Improvements that
should tend to supply the citizens
wants at low costs and low prices.
So long as government is a mat
ter Of special privilege as 1t is
today under the improperly labeled
liberal administration, the work
ers are bound in the end to suffer.
The true liberals are those who
believe not merely that the Gov
eminent owes every man an oppor-
tunity but that it should protect
his right to work and his right to
obtain goods made without re-
straints Of either q labor or man
agement monopoly. The big budget
figures Of today may cause no
furry, but some day todays budgets
win cause IN awakening Is mil
lions Of persons discover that there
Is no substitute. for hard work, that
the citizen can't expect to get some-
thing for nothing and that . Ma
tons bonds-its vital credit-are
only % good Is the common sense
Of the citizens In choosing prudent
and courageous leaders.
tReproduetion Rishts Neserved}