The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1944-06-22
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BEHIND
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IHE{ NAM!lSI'|!I:1
By PAUL MALLoN
Worry About Postwar Jobs
Everyone seems inclined to
worry about postwar jobs.
A guiding line of national
thought has been established in
that direction. The President is
talking and congress is acting as if
there may be widespread unem-
plOyment, unless great steps are
taken. Stock marketeers antici-
pate some kind of depression.
Some large investors have gotten
out of the market in anticipation.
The CIO is making politics out OF
the situation, educating" the pub
lie to believe there will be no
jobs for returning soldiers unless
their man gets into every office.
In some degree. all the front
page news of speeches and
|. statements reflect this outlook
-an outlook which is strained.
and fanciful when measured
against the provable. but not
widely recognised facts.
The truth is bank doppsit1
have been rising lately . the
rate Of $200.o00.000 q week
cash in the hands Of the peo-
pie is being stored At that amax-
ing rate. The total Of bank
deposits now is abov4 $1l0..
: 600. 600. 700. In addiG1n there
is $4,000. 100000 (Yes. billions)
of cash held Outside the banks.
The amount of cash thus stored
by the people already in this war
is above $13O,O0O,0O0, 900 - good
spendable long green money with
no strings on it, stack higher
than the people ever held before,
nearly 21s times as much as they
had in the big boom year of 1929.
An 'Unprecedented Rise
The dean of government econo.
mists, E. A. Goldenwiser of Fed
eral Reserve, said in a speech to
the Illinois bankers last week the
unprecedented rise in bank de-
posits' would reach between $685.
600, OOO, 900 and $50, O00, 900, 900 by
the end of this war. He estimated
war expenditures to date at $780,
600, 000,0 900.
Now, in addition, the people hold
war bonds already amounting to
more than $4,000, 000, 900, bonds
which can be cashed for postwar
spending.
Thus the amount of spendable
money and bonds in private hands
today amounts to more than $780,
600, 100000, practically the same
amount as the government has
spent on the war.
It may be unbelievable but it
is true-the private purse today
already has swollen to the un-
precedented fairness of the gov
eminent cost so far, and this trend
will continue. It will be $250, 1000
600, 1000 by the end of the year.
As everyone knows, further
more, the people are short Of
every item of living. Together
this vast hoard of the peoples
cash and the equally vast backlog
of the peoples needs constitute
an irresistible force for amazing
business. Indeed this force is so
great, the problem is the opposite
of unemployment and depression.
Keeping Prices Down
The job ahead is, to keep prices
down, scarce materials allocated
.equitably, and buying orderly so
as to avoid a runaway initiation.
In short, instead of a government
spending program, there must be
a peoples spending program, not
designed to get them to spend,
but to restrain them to orderly
spending.
Instead of their being any
thing in the Go political claim
that there will be no jobs for
the soldiers unless their man is
elected. the truth is there is
danger Of business bidding for
labor no matter who is elected
to any office.
I know one of the government
economists has told congress there
will be 100000 unemployed.
Another is saying the first 18 post
war months will see 100000 let
out of the armed forces and prob
ably II, 100000 more lose their jobs
in war plants by the cessation of
work.
But they are counting the trees
without even seeing the woods, or
the long green leaves thereon,
which practically reach up to the
sky. What they only see is prob
lem of a shift in employment, a
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