Evening star., 1943-06-27
@ Bomb Popuoce Ruhr sites FIGHTERS Heavy PIone
Critical Prose of War Effort
Is Now Approaching for u. S.

dies fer which no cure has been found
and which have steadily increased In
virulence Some thoughtful observers
suspect that the best chance Of victory
remaining to the Axis lies on the field
of the domestic economy of the United
States.
Today the country Is faced with crises
of food, medical care, transportation,
heating fuel, rubber and gasoline, labor.
price control, manpower, taxation, raw
materials and imitation. Congress Is
in revolt against the Executive. The
administrations characteristic expedient
was to set up another agency, the Once
of War Mobilization, under Director
Byrnes. His first step was to draft
Bernard NJ Baruch as an unpaid and
untitled adviser. Two questions are un-
answered as yet. How far will Baruchs
counsel be, sought? And to what extent,
If given. will his advice be followed?
Even in the area of the national spe-1
cialty, industrial production, an exen-.
plary record has been turned in by only
one agency, the Maritime Commission,
in charge of merchant shipbuilding.
Next in order rank aircraft and ord
nance, or weapons and munitions. Air.
craft output always behind schedule, is
the current military appropriations bib
calls for 99,740 planes in addition to
100000 or more already delivered 10
Undersecretary Patterson has disclosed I.
that production of materiel for the
ground forces, during May and the first,
10 days of June, dropped 51a per cent
behind military schedules and was.
actually 31a per cent lower than April
deliveries. This letdown, he declared,
is the most critical single development
in the whole Army supply program. '
The situation is summarized as fol-
lows by one of the country's top authori-,
ties on the subject. War industrial
output is now from eight months to
year behind what it could and should
have been-with obvious consequences
bearing on second front in Europe and
the cost and length of the struggle. In
a total war, after three years of frantic
endeavor, the United States today is
exerting less than 80 per- cent of its
potential strength. To say nothing of
Russia. Germany and Japan, this coun-
try lags far behind Great Britain and
Canada itself in all-out muster of re-
sources. III
Not even a pretense has been made,
according to the same expert, at getting
factual answers to many basic questions.
Nobody knows what the maximum effi-
cheney of the national plant could be If
full capacity of machines and man-hours
were utilized. Nobody knows what pro-
portion of the output of factories, farms
and mines can be made available to
civilians. The country's manpower has
never been mobilized, and nobody knows
when, where and how it could be en-
ployed with greatest effect.
Food Costs Soar.
The problem of food, in which Ad-
ministrator Chester C. Davis himself be-
holds possibilities of major tragedy"
was neglected and afterward manhan-
died. Between August, 1889, and May
of this year retail food costs rose $40
per cent, according to the Department
OF Labor. as against an increase of 26.9
in the general cost of living. Like gaso-
line, fuel oil and rubber, food was at
f1rst overlooked, then minimized and
procrastinated, and finally attacked with
frenzied improvizations in a scrambls
to catch up.
Nobody knows, the arraignment pro-
ceedS, within margin of tens of billions.
what the "infiationary gap" is today or
bids fair to prove in months to come,
This interval represents pressure
money" left to run wild to bid I'D prices
and lower the real value of wages and
income. The factor is generally calcu.
lated by substracting from national in
come sum obtained by adding together
normal savings, Federal, State and local
taxes, and the value of goods and sery-.
ices available to private buying. It will
scarcely be credited that estimates from
responsible agencies for the calendar
year l943. vary from Is to 40 billions.
The most optimistic view is that of
the Treasury, which has published these
forecasts: National income, las billions:
production of consumer goods and serv--
ices, 73 billions; Federal taxes, 81 bill
lions; State and local taxes, Z billions.
and savings. rs billions. The gap re-
naming is Is billions, which Secretary
Morgenthau believes can be closed, or
nearly closed, with new taxes of IL biz
lions
The Federal Reserve System is reported
TO estimate normal savings at 16 billions.
and to have reached an unofficial calcu-
lation of Is billions for the inf1ationary
gap. There is reason to deduce that
the Bureau of the Budget differs from
both the Treasury and Federal Reserve
IN holding that large proportion of
savings should be placed inside rather
than outside the gap. and that it's esti-
mate of the infiationary margin is 20
billions of dollars.
mat the Budget Bureau may be right
is indicated by an alarming statement
In Department of Commerce review,
published June 49, It declared that
civilian expenditures for goods and serv.
Ices during the first quarter of 1s43 were
at an annual rate of 80 billions. Corre-
spending figures in 1941 and 1912 were
10 and 81 billions, respectively. 1t ap-
peared that the American people, on a
Nationwide scale, were engaged In a
vast movement for converting past and
current savings into tangible possessions.
SO far, the principal check on this buy
Ing spree Is the progressive exhaustion
OF consumer inventories. '.t'