Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-03-12
Transition Period After War
Holds Free Enterprise Fate
Business and Industry Must Have Jobs Ready if
Government Employment and Controls
Are to Be Eased
Ev Charles q. Ross.


Government controls brought on by the
great depression and then by the war
will be draStically relaxed after the war,
to the end that a climate" favorable
to the operation of the free enterprise
system may be created. AS Eric Johns
ton, head of the United States Chamber
Of Commerce, has put the case, "the
emphasis must be changed from Gov
eminent as the creator to Government
as the regulator
No one expects a return to the con-
ditions of the free and easy 1920s. No
one expects that the restrictions i'm
posed on business by the war will be
suddenly removed. Business thought
and practices have adapted themselves
to a large measure of regulation. But.
say the spokesman of business, there
must be some unshackling of private
industry if it is to reach, in peacetime,
the production goal which must be
reached if large-scale unemployment
or its alternative, large-scale govern
ment employment-is to be avoided.
mo matter how boldly and intelli-
gently American businessmen may
plan," says a recent statement of the
Committee for Economic DEVELOPMENT.
a private organization, ''the desired goal
cannot be attained unless govern
mental policies are at least reasonably
favorable to the fostering of individual
initiative"
The same idea-that private industry
must be given its chance-runs
through the widely applauded Baruch
report on postwar adjustment policies.
See Public Works Need.
Along, however, with the professions
of confidence on the part of business
that in a healthy atmosphere" of
government cooperation it can carry
the major share of the attack on I'M
employment, there is recognition by
most business spokesman that in the
difficult transition period from a war
economy to a peace economy, some
resort to public works to take I'D an
employment slack will probably be
necessary.
On the general question of public
works there is profound disagreement
between two 'ideologies": That which
favors public spending as permanent
instrument of national policy, and that
which believes that in the interest of
the free-enterprise system, public
spending should be rigidly held down.
To state the quarrel in this way is
perhaps to oversimplify it, for there
a re 0y-yyiy1 10 til
within the two schools of thought
would carry theory into practice.
Roughly, though, the distinction is as
stated. One side emphasizes the role
of government in our economy, the
other side emphasizes the role of pri-
vate enterprise. One side holds that
because of the maturity" of our econ
omy, opportunities are lacking for pri-
vate investment on scale sufficient to
absorb the peoples savings; the Gov
eminent, it is said, must repair this
lack. In this theory, increases in the
public debt to pay for projects of social
and economic value are not only not
The other side warmly denies that our
economy has reached maturity or any,
thing like it, and declares that if the
public-debt philosophy of the spend
ers" were put into action, the free-en-
terprise system would be smashed
With unlimited debt expansion" says
DR.. Harold G. Moulton, president of the
BrookingS Institution, I'VE cannot pre-
vent initiation without the use of to-
tahtarian methods of control. No COM
promise or halfway measures can adjust
the difficulties. The choice is between
RECOMMENDATION and imitation"