The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-07-27

| Here are some facts to make you
stop for tall thinking.
| Half of the population is busy pro-
ducing war gOOds-gOOds good only to
be shot at the enemy. Awfully good for
that, and necessary for that but enter
ing not at all into the life of our nation
| for sustenance.
| The half not making war goods is
making AS MUCH OR MORE than
our whole population produced in any
year before the war.
These two facts (subject to qualifi-
cation) were given to a Congressional
committee by William L.. Bait, vice
chairman of WPB and chairman of
the National Planning. Association.
| Mr.. Bait did not say how he found
the immense total of goods for civilian
consumption. Perhaps there are goods
| that we do not see in the ordinary life
of the day.
But that half our population is busy
producing war goods is enough of a
pointer to some of the things that we
shall have to look out for after the
war
| Now it is a fact that some things
going to war are not officially classified
as war production, food processing be-
ing an example,
Canning is up. Meat processing is up
about go per cent over 1910. Processed
meat is classified as civilian produc-
ton, yet possible 40 per cent of it
goes to purely war uses.
So, while half of our population is,
as Mr.. Bait says-and if he is right
producing more than the whole popu-
lation produced in any prewar year,
lit is not producing that huge total
solely for civilian USE
But discount that as far as may be
necessary and we still have an agri-
cultural and Industrial output that, per
man hour worked, knocks the spots off
prewar production records.
That should call for some thinking
and planning for postwar prosperity.
The fact that stands out is that our
productive capacity after the war will
run miles ahead of our prewar capac-
ity,l on the basis of man hours worked
SO what? SO, that's increased output
per capita. More things that must
either be bought and paid for or stack
ed unproductively on dealers shelves
Back in the Hoover days it was that
latter thing that happened.
Goods were stacked up on shelves
because there were no buyers with
money.
If we face-and we dO-an economy
than ever before, then there must be
a market or calamity.
If John Smith and family do not
earn enough money to buy proper
share of the total production of the
country, that's where trouble starts.
This column proposes no remedy,
argues at this time for nothing in par
ticular. But it does point to the need
for deep and objective study.
There are those blinded political
persOnages who would like to bring our
armies back to a low wage nation.
They are the ones who always talk
about going back to some kind of un-
described good old days"
That would mean ruin and panic and
perhaps dissolution. THAT is NOT the
way.
No prosperous economy ever was
based on a receding wage rate.
We know that buying power is the
key to movement of goods. In the post
war economy we shall need-and we
must haye-a buying power greater
than any prewar buying power.
Again, how to get that road is
matter for study and discussion.
But the knowledge that war has
helped us jump our rate of production
by leaps and bounds points out that
one inescapable fact POSTWAR
BUYING POWER MUST BE EQUAL
TO THE JOB OF MOVING THE
GOODS PRODUCED. You can argue
about that statement, but you cannot
argue it out of existence. That's what
we face. That's how it is going to be.
.CMW.