Evening star., 1944-03-05
Postwar Job Need to Test
Free Enterprise System
Future of Democracy to Be Decided by
Private Business Ability to Provide
Full Employment Quickly After War
Bv Charles G. Ross.

y
War solved the No. l problem Of the
great depression-unemploy But
war solved it only for time. 1t is dust
swept under rug With the coming of
peace, the task of fitting the workers
of the country into jobs will emerge as
the great, overshadowing problem in our
American life.
1t is not only Henry Wallace who is
saying that the capitalistic system will
face an acid test; that free enterprise
and joblessness cannot long exist side
by side in the same nation" Business
men are saying the same thing. Busi-
nessmen are aware that if private enter
prise is to live it must provide jobs.
That is another way of saying that If
the free-enterprise system, which has
learned to produce on a miraculous scale,
does not also master the art of distribu-
tion, that system will inevitably be sup
planted by some other AS the expert
ence in Europe has shown, democracy
cannot hope to survive protracted pc
riod OF mass unemployment.
We have seen how the unemployment
Of our depression era brought about
increased governmental controls. Can it
be doubted that if there is again large
scale want in the midst of plenty the
Government will move farther and
farther along this road?
Many Issue Warning.
Numerous voices of business have been
raised in warning. Alfred Sloan of Cen
eral Motors told recent meeting of the
National Association of Manufacturers
that if industry failed to meet the i'm
pending test the private enterprise
system would give way to some form of
socialism. Eric Johnston, the young and
dynamic head of the United States
Chamber of Commerce, has repeatedly
warned the industrial world that it must
ward off mass unemployment or face
the certainty Of the Governments TAX
ing over. The McGraw-Hill Publishing
Co., a spokesman of business, put the
matter bluntly In a full-page advertise
ment published throughout the country:
idle factories lead straight to totali-
tarianism because, when millions of
people are jobless and hungry, govern
ment becomes the employer"
A vivid summation of the problem has
been given by the Committee for Eco
nomic Development, postwar planning
agency set up by private industry under
the direction of Paul c. Hoffman, presi-
dent Of the Studebaker Corp:
"The committee holds as fundamental
the belief that the national welfare will
be advanced in direct proportion to the
number Of workers employed by private
business enterprise. -sss
Success in this endeavor will result
not only in elimination of mass unem-
ployment but also in higher standards
OF living than we have ever known.
Failure will leave us with the choice
Of only two alternatives: Mass un-
employment or mass Government en-
ployment. The committee believes that
the existence of the free enterprise
system, and of democracy itself, depends
largely upon our ability to avoid these
two dangers after the war"
Related to Fiscal Policy.
The problem is closely related to the
whole fiscal policy of the Nation. 1t is
tied in with the farm problem, for the
welfare of the farmer is inseparably
linked with the welfare of the industrial
population. 1t has a direct bearing on
our foreign trade relations, for the scope
and the character of these must depend
on the use We make of the domestic
market. 1t is connected Intimately with
the rate OF rehabilitation of our armed
forces. 1t impinges on the problem of
monopolles and cartels, for any discus
sion of these must weigh the relative
merits OF free competition and restricted
competition as producers of jobs. 1t
touches, in short-this problem of con-
ferring on the human being the dignity
OF remunerative work-every phase of
our economic life.
II there were no other reason for con-
sidering this urgent problem while the
war is on, there would be ample reason
IN the single fact that the problem con-
Germs not alone the domestic economy
OF the country but concerns our foreign
policy as well. This is point that is not
generally understood. What we do in
an economic way will have vital bear
ing on the peace of the world.
Warninw
Nowhere has this point been better
made than in a recent study of postwar
employment by John H. G. Pierson. chief
OF the postwar division of the Bureau
OF Labor Statistics. We cannot, he
points out, have a sound policy of two
way trade, we cannot hope to work out
the problem of an equitable division of
the worlds raw materials, if through
1allure to set our economic house in
order we are forced to treat our foreign
policy simply as technique for provid-
ing Jobs that we have been unable to
provide through our domestic measures.
Thus" says Pierson, "the final reason
why we must find ways and means for
permanently solving our employment
problem is that peace as well as en-
ployment is at stake. For If, after VIC
tory is won, we are so compelled by con-
fusion or weakness at home that we are
unable to stand squarely for co-opera-
ton with the nations and the peoples of
the world, the pressure of events will
eventually force us to the brink of
another and even more terrible war"
The voices that have called for
planning AGAINST inhlessneSs afta. 4ha