Evening star., 1943-03-07
Profit-Seekers Won't
leisureIy War
By ODen L. Scott.

or Navy.
This search for the magic formula is
stimulated by the very pleasant amount
of imitation that has occurred to date.
As result of this imitation, farmers and
workers and businessmen are very satis-
factorily well of. Everybody has plenty
Of money and there is all anybody would
want to eat, drink and wear. Taxes are
bothersome but not ruinous.
The trouble Is that this millennium may
not last. Generals and admirals call at
tention to the fact that heavy fighting is
about to start in which as many as 1O0,-
600 Americans q month may become
casualties. They insist, rather rudely.
that the Army and Navy must have
many more men even II it means trouble
for farmers, trouble for businessmen,
trouble for many families. They refuse
to become excited by the prospect that
civilians may not have all Of the food,
clothing, liquor and entertainment that
they may want. Their objective is to
get this war won and won quickly.
AS result Of this situation, Congress
faces choice. It can insist upon
leisurely war in which those in the Army
and Navy would suffer, but those at
home could make lot of money and
have relatively good time. Or it can
60 along with the kind of all-out war
that the military leaders insist must be
fought.
Many members of Congress favor a
1eisurely war. They favor that kind of
a war because of pressures from home.
Those pressures come from farmers,
workers, businessmen and taxpayers In
general who are becoming excited about
the adjustments that a modern war
makes necessary. The concern that Con-
gress reflects is not concern over
whether or not the war is being won but
a concern about which group may be
getting richer than which other group.
1t also Is concern over the fact that the
Treasury thinks that incomes must be
tapped to pay for at least modest pro-
portion of the war cost in dollars.
Thus, some Of the pressures on Con-
eress are the ones that follow:
Farmers are complaing that they lack
all of the labor that they need at the
sentatives in Congress insist that this
country must plan on a smaller military
force in order that farmers may be as
sured Of labor supply. Strangely, the
clamor in Congress comes not from
representatives of urban centers, where
the people live who might 60 hungry II
not enough food Is raised. Instead, 1t
comes from the heart Of the farm belt
area where everybody is going to eat and
eat well. This causes some officials to
suggest that the real complaint is that
farmers may not be able to make all the
money they want to make II labor Is less
plentiful. a@ts
Then workers are clamoring for higher
and higher wages. Like the farmers OF
the country, workers are making more
money than they ever previously made
ana their relative position is more favor
able than ever. Yet their interest Is In
more and more money, not more and
more production Of the weapons that are
needed to fight a war.
Pressure from businessmen takes the
form Of argument against q military
force 50 large that 1t will drain civilian
industry Of its workers. There Is rather
to induce workers to move out Of nom
essential civilian industry into essential
war industries. II present war plans
are carried out. then q large sector Of
private business Is to be squeezed Sc
verely because Of the difficulty Of OBJ
tanning workers. This means an inter-
ference with profits.
Taxpayers are doing their bit to create
congressional favor for q leisurely war
by trying to flnd ways to escape at least
part OF the tax burden that must be-
come greater with continued war. Many
big taxpayers want their estates bull.
warked a bit by forgiveness Of one year
Of the high income taxes. They and
others are baking ct the kind Of taxes
that Treasury oficials consider neces-
sary II Q runaway imitation is to be
avoided.
! At the same time, many city con-
sumers have been on boarding spree
to get themselves set for period of
scarcity, even II that means complica-
tions for everybody else
All in all, the situation on the home
front Is not healthy one. Two ex-
plantations are offered for this situation.
One is that people have made up their
minds that the war really is won now
and that there really Is no need for the
restrictions that had seemed necessary
few months ago. The second is that
people figure the war is going to be
short and they had better get rich while
the getting is good. A leisuyely war
would give q little more time for those
at home to get set for the day when war
will end and there viii be the inevitable
adjustment.
The trouble is that the Army and
Navy cannot plan to win the war on
haH-hearted basis. The further trou-
BILE, SO far as pressure groups are con-
cerned, is that President Roosevelt pos
sesses immense power at present and is
backing the services in their determine
ton to 60 ahead with their plans for an
all-out war
The Bottle for Food