The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-01-25

.t.t
 Congress last De-
 cember. their pur-
 pose was merely
 to stimulate dis
 Eds0n cussion of their
 ori ginal concept of preparing an annual budget for the entire national economy, pri- vate as well as public and then try ing to do something about it.
 Discussion developed immediate ly and in quantity, hot and cold. From all the criticisms material was obtained for redrafting the bill in the form in which it is now before Congress. In the re-drafting, Sen atorS Robert F. Wagner of New York, Ebert D. Thomas of Utah and Joseph c. O'Mahoney of Wy oming played important parts and the revised bill has been introduced with the backing of these three as well as Senator Murray. Backed by this important Senatorial quartet the bill easily becomes one of the major objectives of the new Con- gress and as such 1t is worth some careful study.
 ORIGINAL PURPOSE
 AMENDED
 The statement of purpose of the original bill was "to establish a na- tional policy and program for assur- ing continuing full employment The purpose of the revised bill is stated by adding to the above ''in a free competitive economy, through the concerted efforts of industry, az riculture, labor, state and local gov- ernments and the federal govern ment.' This important difference is made to calm the fears of bus inessmen who got the idea that Con- gress was about to embark on some radical social reform in which it would guarantee jobs to everyone, come happiness or hard times. Ill discussing the revised Full Employ ment Bill, Senator Murray quotes from and endorses Governor DeWey's San Francisco campaign speech of last September in which the Republican presidential candi- date stated that the governments first job is to create job opportun- ities when there are not enough private jobs to go around.
 Murrays new bill limits this last resort government aid creating en- ployment opportunities by removing all mention of guaranteeing jobs and further specifying that all gov ernment efforts to prevent unem- ployment before 1t happens must be confined to stimulating private in- vestment and contributing to the national wealth. This is intended to rule out all WPA and leaf-raking projects.
 Though the bill seeks full employ ment, no mention is made of guar anteeing 60 million or any other spe- cific number of jobs. In fact, on Senator O'Mahoney's suggestion the bill would limit the policy of the government to providing job oppor- tunities for only those Americans who have finished their schooling and who do not have daily house. hold responsibilities, In other words, no job opportunity for wo- men and kids who don't need it, e'AAN AAO AO4NllI6 Ol G1 hd( c1 IlLC great American home just for the sake of creating jobs for 60 million people when there aren't that many people needing jobs.
 STIPULATES CONGRESSIONAL REFORM
 Senator Murray makes clear that this bill is no job budget" bill as 1t was originally misunderstood to be in much of the press comment, and as Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio criticized it as being in his recent New York speech.
 The Murray Wagner Thomas O'Mahoney bill, as it must now be identified, would provide for a far reaching and fundamental reform Of Congress through it's proposal to create a joint committee of Is Sen ators and 15 Representatives to re- ceive from the President his annual estimates on the national economy. This joint committee would be re- quired to present to the Congress an annual bill which would in effect add up all sectors of the national economy, private as well as govern mental, and recommend a national policy for dealing with the coun- try's financial and employment we'll being. This would insure an annual or even more frequent debate in Congress on national economic policy and it is intended to lead to the adoption of fiscal policy which would seek to prevent imitation as well as depression, thus contribut- ing to the maintenance of a na- tional lever normal economy"