The Wilmington morning star., 1944-11-09
Postwar Planning

Now that the election is past and to some
extent at least the country is settling down
again to the business of supporting the war
on the home front and trying to anticipate the
needs of the future, the time is here to con-
centrate upon postwar planning IN big way.
Richard L. Stout, writing from Washington,
considers some of it's major problems. saying:
'"There are still going to be a lot OF I'M
answered questions We won't have much time
to find the answers, either. One of the biggest
is how we are going to find jobs for every
body after the war.
1.-THE election has temporarily blotted out
the fact that there isn't much time left to
lay plans, and that not many plans have ac-
tually been laid.
1.-The European war may last into 1945, but
it hardly seems possible that the Germans
can go on much longer. And with Japanese
seq power tottering, the Pacific war may not
last so long as some thought.
''That leaves the considerable problem of
finding civilian jobs for II million service
men, finding peacetime jobs for several mil
Ion war workers, and converting to a full
employment economy newly tooled-up Amer
ica capable, it is estimated, of turning out
more than -and-one-half times as many
goods as it ever bought in its best peacetime
year.
There are other rather stable problems,
too. The War Department will have 10000
100000 of surplus stocks to dispose of, about
one-third the annual total production of the
country. Who gets that. The Government
owns $15,000,0 900 of big new war plants
How will those be disposed Of in an economy
which has not evolved the political instrument
talities for the handling of mixed concerns
Government participation in industrial activity
which are commonplace in Scandinavian and
British Commonwealths? There are, too, the
going to wipe those out Immediately, as some
people hope, with backlog of private saw.
ings likely to reach 100000 0O0 900 competing
for scarce available goods? Then there's agri-
culture. What happens when the bottom drops
out of the food market, if we let that happen
d. dlLGI WOTlQ w ar One!
America is enjoying tremendous boom
economy based on war and there is accom-.
panying it some Of the easy optimism that
there was in the 1920s, before the big crash
Optimism and self-confidence are good things,
particularly if they go hand in hand with plan.
ming and forethought Most economists don't
agree that private enterprise, all by itself
can solve the foregoing problems. It is foreign
to American thinking to believe that the Gov
eminent can handle them either. There must
be the closest kind of partnership between
Government and industry in the tremendously
complicated days ahead if this boom is to
be stabilized. Hitherto it has always seemed
inevitable that boom in free economy
must sooner or later end in depression
Everybody hopes that increased consump-
ton will take care of the matter and keep
additional millions employed. Well if it does,
it will come by planning and not by accident.
At present the Government is taking about
half the national production, and most every
body is employed. To keep the same or even
somewhat smaller number employed after
the war will mean that we shall all have to
wear more eat more, use more and buy
more America will end the war physically
equipped, as the Twentieth Century Fund dra-
matically puts it, to give every family in
the country what we know in h e United
States as a middle-class standard of living ,
1.-The physical equipment will be there, The
United States will be able to make the goods
in peace as it did in war. But will we? Have
we perfected democratic instrumentalities to q
point where we, can distribute, and are willing
to consume, the goods we can make? PEOPLE
won't buy and consume maximum of goods
unless they feel secure. The penalty for not
using full productive power is unemployment
/ It is a cumulative penalty, too, particularly
in boom economy, for the unemployment
spreads, consumption declines, factories close
aid then you have breadlines.
| "Breadlines, in nation that has lust de.
modified II million ex-soldiers, can be pretty
dangerous.
eff anybody failed to see the need of plan
ming, quick survey of some of the factors
I have touched on should help refresh the
memory. What Congress has done so fa1
! seems to me to have been tragically little.