Evening star., 1943-12-08
Mr.. Byrnes Needs HeIp

has appealed directly to the people
of the country for support in the
fight against imitation. It is not
unreasonable to suppose that this
effort marked his last stand-that
the forces making for uncontrolled
Imitation will never be checked II
they are not checked now.
Mr.. Byrnes presented a realistic
picture Of the state of our domestic
economy. 1t is not picture to which
any one can point with great pride.
On the battle fronts the story has
been one Of sacrifice, suffering and
death. But on the home front those
groups whose political and economic
power is great have bettered their
relative positions during the war.
AS Mr.. Byrnes pointed out, there has
actually been less economic hard
ship, by and large, on the home front
during the war than there was before
the war. The lines of people in the
streets are not bread lines, but people
at the movies or in the restaurants.
Since Pearl Harbcr the American
people have paid off four billion
dollars of debt, they own an addi-
tional twenty billion dollars of Gov
ernment bonds, they have accumu-
lated ten billion dollars in pension
and insurance reserves, and, on top
OF this, they have eighteen billion
dollars more in cash than they had
on the day that the Japs struck at
Pearl Harbor. These are the facts,
yet there are those-most of them
the hired spokesmen for the groups
that have benefited most-who 20
throughout the country crying that
their people are downtrodden and
distressed, and that they must have
still more money.
Mr.. Byrnes was most directly con-
cerned with two developments in
Congress. First, he urged the legis-
lators not to pass the Truman reso-
luton, which, in effect, would compel
the administration to grant wage
increases to railroad workers in
violation OF the Little Steel formula.
If Congress enacts special legislation
in behalf of one group, he said, the
administration will have to grant
the same concessions to all groups.
That is undoubtedly true, and every
member of Congress should face the
fact that vote for the Truman
resolution is a vote for higher wages
all along the line. This is a sure way
to imitation.
Mr.. Byrnes' second appeal was
directed to the legislation forbidding
food subsidies. There are valid
objections to the so-called consumer
subsidies, especially when the people
as a whole have more purchasing
power than they ever had before, but
Mr.. ByrneS argued for the subsidy
program as the lesser of two evils.
In effect, he said: Without these
subsidies the cost of living will rise.
II that happens we will be unable to
resist new wage demands" Unfor-
tunately, he did not quite get to the
point of saying fatty that the wage
demands would be rejected II the
subsidy program is continued. But
he implied that he would do his best
to resist them if living costs are held
within present limits.
This presents a poor choice, but
the choice has to be made. And we
know that Mr.. Byrnes and his
stabilization director, Judge Vinson,
have shown great deal OF courage
in resisting the powerful pressure
groups that have been clamoring for
special advantage. Unless the people
want imitation, they have no real
choice but to stand and support
them now. For they are among the
very few who are still fighting to
hold the line.