Detroit evening times., 1945-11-08
BEHIND
The News
BY Paul
Mallon

men lifted the veil about foot
on the whole inner picture.
Without m entioning the
labor management conference,
the Attlee visit. the New York
and Detroit elections or any
other matter specifically, this
now unattached elder advisor
Of the nation penetrated these
and all other current economic
arguments filling the papers
with AT least one fresh ray of
light.
His flashlight beamed on the
problem of production as the
root Of all economic evil.
Delay and curtailment OF Il
by strikes and otherwise boosts
initiation, he said Gas il does,
because slack production makes
more critical the shortage Of
goods. which in turn causes
higher prices, which must con-
tinue until production satisfies
demand).
TNIE current brakes upon pro-
Il duction also should make us
wary of giving away what
goods we have TO foreign ma
tions, especially those like Eng
land, Czecho-Slovakia, France
and Russia Che mentioned these
specifically in his meagerly re-
ported letter., because by CIV
ing away we reduce what pro-
duCtion we have available 10
fight initiation.
He got off his own beam on
two other points, il seems TO
me. He said tax reduction also
threatens initiation, wi Il h ou (
recognizing that a reduction in
the vast Truman spen ing
budgets projected publicly for
the next 20 months, is the first
logical way TO curtail the gov
ernment fiscal threat
A spending reduction in an in
flationary period like this is
certainly more important than
the meager tax reduction which
continues war levies at nearly
90 per cent Of war levels.
A LSO he lit once upon a rub
~ bish argument when he
worried about our farm and
mineral resources along with
Interior Secretary Ickes, who is
nearly always bad company for
a seeker of objective economic
truth.
With all these nations owing
us money, we should be able to
stock up on deficient minerals
Cif the administration would de-
vote itself to this) and most
people are Dragging about the
ability of Agriculture Secretary
Anderson 10 get the farm pro-
duction Strengthened out from
its war mess next year.
Mr.. Baruchs cleaning eye
could have gone further and the
veil could have gone higher.
Fundamentally, honestly and
basically, what are the tap-root
causes of the condition we are
in? There is but one.
The world is being pressured
into political economics, domes-
tiCally and internationally. Here
especially we are striving TO do
the right thing politically-but
not the right thing economically.
IN INTERNATIONAL affairs,
L some crusaders want us to
give things away for political
reasons. Mr.. Attlee is coming
over 10 urge us, according TO
his inspired press, to give away
the atomic bomb.
In my we'll advised opinion,
Mr.. Attlee is not much inter-
ested in the atomic bomb, but
primarily in getting the money.
DELAYED, from uS--anything up
to or over S., 00,000,000 to set
his financial house in order so
his Socialist party can buy in-
dustries for his own purely po-
litical purposes.
He has never made out an
economic case of government
need Of these industries (see
past columns) for any other
than his purpose to prove So
cialiSm.
He has presented us with no
prospectus of reconstruction for
Britain showing how she could
use our money 10 make more
business for us or her-to ex-
pand production.
He has not offered his people
any sincerely conceived produc-
tion plan along these lines. In
deed, he does not think along
these lines, but on socialist po-
litical lines
WHAT this poor sick world
w needs is 10 get away from
politics and back upon the beam
Of realism in economics. BY
throwing away the atom bomb
or money in bad loans for polit-
ical purposes. we can destroy
the world
(a) BY giving more people
the atomic means Of destroy
ing II, and (b) by whirling
ourselves mp through politics
into an initiation which will
destroy us as a major power,
make us bankrupts like them.
with corunIeta ruinatipu ~