Evening star., 1944-06-04
Postwar
Mass Distribution
Vital for Jobs
Continued From Page BID


idle, or used to bid up the prices
of existing assets, they are not re-
turned to production, and other
dollars must take their place ii
employment is to be maintained. 81
1t is impossible to do justice to
Nathan's argument in a paragraph.
Suffice 1t that his book Is an excel
lent statement of the opinions of
those who have been called, some
what loosely, the "spenders."
For contrary expression, the
writer of this series went to THE
New Philosophy Of Public Debt" by
DR.. Harold G.. Moulton, head of the
Brookings Institution, who contends
that the theory of a permanent
excess of money savings" is based on
a faliacy. It is true, he says, that
there was such an excess in the
20s, due primarily to the high con-
centration of the national income in
that period. But he contends that
since then there has been q
"veritable revolution" in the dis
tribution of the national income Gin
favor of the lower income groups)
in consequence of which both the
aggregate volume of money savings
and the percentage of the national
income directed into savings chan
nels have been materially reduced.
Favors Low Prices.
DR.. Nourse's book is cogent
argument for low-price policy as
the road to prosperity, and the
writer Of this series drew upon the
book to buttress the conclusion that
'if our economy is to produce pros
perity and not stagnation, the gains
which industry makes from i'm
proved ways of doing things must be
passed on to the consumer in the
form of lower prices"
IT industry consults its long-term
interests, DR.. Nourse says, it will set
its face against the temptation to
make killing in the postwar period
out of the abundant buying power
that will be released into a market
not yet back to normal peacetime
production. A short-sighted in
dustrial policy in this transition Pc
riod, he thinks, might well set the
stage for collapse as devastating
as that of the 30s.
Among the many authorities con-
suited by the writer-businessmen,
Government officials, professional
economiSts-there was agreement
that, while some wage adjustments
will have to be made after the war.
the aggregate volume of wages must
be kept high in order that an ade-
cuate purchasing power may be
maintained.
Public Works Needed.
There was large area of agree
ment, too, on the necessity of pub
lie works program to fill the ex-
pected employment gaps in the i'm
mediate postwar period. The Baruch
report, for instance, called for "early
engineering on public works to be
ready If needed to fill in the valley
OF employment Urging the same
thing, Henry j. Kaiser said the big
objective was to keep up the mo-
mentum of production. If we could
DO that, he said, we needn't worry
about the postwar debt and any
postwar expenditures we might have
TO make. 2Hf is5'
F. The agreement on public works
as a stopgap was gust that and no
more. The cleavage remains, as
deep as ever, between those who,
like Nathan, believe in public spend
ing as a permanent instrument of
national policy, to be used as a
compensatory" or Corrective" de-
vice, and those who believe that
public spending should be rigidly
held down. # .
So also, of course, will the whole
general question of the degree to
which the Government should inter-
vene in the affairs of business. AS
we have seen, we are not confronted
IN this country with choice be-
tween the complete regimentation
and the complete freedom of busi-
ness enterprise. There can be no
complete RECOMMENDATION of business
IN democracy, and as matter Of
practical fact there can be no COM
plete freedom of private enterprise
under any conditions.
Tax Incentives Studied.
The series explored the subject
OF tax incentives to bring risk capi-
tai into the market-capital which
may open up illimitable new from
tiers for industry-and reported a
striking measure of agreement on
the desirability of this form of ap-
proach to the employment problem.
The interests of small business. it
was pointed out, would be especially
well served by peacetime tax re-
vision easing the burden on new
investment. Two widely supported
suggestions are that the present
double tax on corporate dividends
be wiped out and that tax conces-
sions be allowed new enterprises for
period, say, of five years.
The discussion of little business
and risk capital led naturally to an
examination of the case for and
against monopolies and cartels-
carteis being that form of monopolv
that typically operates across ma
tlonal boundaries. The conclusion
was set out that only in a few areas
such as the telephone industry
can the public interest be better
served by monopoly than by com
petition. On the authority of the
Department of Justice, the series
recounted the wartime shortages of
vitality needed materials that re-
suited from cartel restrictions.
For the rest, the series told of the
interesting and successful experi-
ment of the HORNED Packing Co in
the regularization of employment:
described the grass roots" pattern
OF loo-finding worked out by the
Committee for Economic Develop-
ment in a model survey at Albert
Lea, Mimi; showed how the en-
ployment problem has been compli-
cateo-though not so much as might
be supposedly the wartime influx
OF women into the labor market:
quoted some typical expressions
from right-wingers who, in the
language of a cynical corresnond-