Imperial Valley press., 1943-04-12
A COURAGEOUS ORDER
IN The NICK OF TINE


Of relief.
President Roosevelt, in the face of i'm
minent and almost certain crumbllng OF
the country's defenses against initiation,
issued a drastic, last minute "hold-the-
line" order, freezing the economic status
quo Of wages, prices and values.
No more courageous act than this has
ever marked the Presidents terms IN Of
flee The dictum is virtual complete as
sumption of power by the president, and
yet it doubtless will meet approval from
all corners of the country.
Most people recognize that the objec-
tive is absolutely worthy. This alone
would not Justify this final step to COM
plete domination of our domestic econ
omy. Many of the administration OBJ
jectives have appeared desirable. But in
this case, the need of action and hasty
action was so evident that something had
to be done-and Mr. Roosevelt did it.
People will excuse it because the OBJ
iective is greatly to be desired.
We have come to dlStruSt the New
Deal because they have shown us that
painting an objective is one thing :. and
accomplishing that objective is some
thing else again.
Whereas there has become common
distrust Of mere objectives because OF
our unhappy experiences of the past dec
ade this case differs from the rest for
several reasons. Whereas other pro-
grams have been optional, this objective
is so essential as TO assume the proper
ton of desperate and absolute necessity
This objective simply must be attained,
Our front lines of defense have been
cracking. Congress tried and failed to
repair the damage. Bigger and more
serious attacks threaten from all sides.
Labor has been demanding more pay.
Note the demands of John L. Lewis and
his miners for $500 more pay per day.
Note the demands of aircraft workers
for similar increases. Were these grant
ed, demands of farm blocs and other
groups would necessarily follow and
down would go the anti-inflation battle
ments and up would go the spiral of
economic suicide.
For these reasons, the people will ac
cept the urgency of the move and con-
done the action of the President in using
his actual or theoretical power to the
fullest. Whether he has assumed too
much authority is secondary. He did
right in moving to save the country. Let
legal decisions follow later
AS result, this country moves virtual
" 100 per cent over to central economic
control. Also as result, there Is as
Sured a closer relationship between lHe
control of wages and prices, Of income
and purchasing power, and there is every
reason to hope that related factors here
tofore handled separately, now will be
supervised in their proper relation and
thus be assured of better chance OF sue
cess than in the past,
To the worker, the sweeping order
means that his earned dollar will con-
tinue to buy as much tomorrow as it
does today To the employer it means
that he no longer will be faced with too
unfair pressure from below for higher
wages, and pressure from above by cell
ing prices The farmer is pledged by
implication that there will be sufficient
profit and security in increasing produc--
ton to warrant the work time, effort and
risk. The investor is assured that his
interest dollar will not decline in value,
and the public at large is guaranteed that
a whirlwind of panic will not race
through the land, destroying all in its
path.
How we'll it will be achieved depends
upon two things. These are interpreta-
ton of many antiquities and efficiency
of administration. There must be no
power bloc interpretations and excep-
tions: there must be no favoritlsm nor
group catering; there must be no puerile