Detroit evening times., 1945-09-15
Paul
NIALLON
Behind
The News

NJ N
W Congress is groplng in twi-
lighted confusion through ap-
proaches to staggering problems
of postwar finance, Frankly, l
think il has been frightened a
little by the Truman program
to spend S91, ,000,O0O,000 in the
next q months through the
budget, and pressures 10 spend
more, because it is afraid of
more initiation and does not
know how the public feels.
Yet il is scared more about
chances of deflation. such as
caused a depression a few years
after the last war. and dare not
upset the program. 1t does not
know what to do.
Rejection of the Truman APP
proved CIO plan 10 make the
states pay unemployed S25s a
week for six months, like il or
not. did not have anything 10 do
with this economy matter.
A Senate finance committee
opposed the revised Kilgore bill
simply on the grounds of abb
surdity. A majority concluded
there was no way of forcing the
states 10 change their laws.
DUT the first bill up in the
- Senate has furnished a key
TO the economic control problem
from which all postwar issues
flow.
II was a bonanza bill TO fur
nish S300.000,000 of federal
funds for additional airports in
states and cities which will
match the federal contribution.
We are getting TO the time
when airplane companies may
have to buy their own landing
fields.
Commercial aviation is no
longer a weak, losing, baby in
dustry, but a mighty profitable
commercial giant.
Their competitors, the rail-
roads must buy right of ways
and put in rails.
Even steamships must buy or
rent docks. But not airplanes.
Up to now, they have been fed
mail subsidies and landing fields
amounting 10 hundreds Of mill
lions a year, and no one in Con-
gress suggested yet that il is
about time 10 start weaving.
Many more fields are possibly
needed for national defense. We
did not have sufficient landing
spots TO house enough planes TO
defend this country against in
Vasion throughout this last war.
With the atomic bomb in use,
however. defense may hinge on
different considerations in the
next war.
IN ANY event, one Senate
L move 10 cut the federal con-
tribution in half, failed by only a
2 to ! vote. Seeing the rising
opposition, Senator McCarran
accepted a compromise 10 spend
only three-quarterS of the pro-
posed fund, or S75, 900 600 a year
for three years.
Confronted thus with the al
ternatives of spending or econ
omy, the Senate took the middle
course. This is likely to be the
lane 10 be pursued more firmly
as the session progresses.
Personally l did not believe
the spenders would rise up the
way they have since the war.
Nearing a $500, 900, 900, 900
federal debt, with taxes federal
alone) already grasping one
third of the national income
and. with the Truman spending
program officially geared to run
five times as high as Roosevelt
ever went for the next %
months, / did not see how a
spender could have the audacity
or unreasonableness to advocate
more disbursement of federal
funds.
But they are firmer in their
demands than ever before
even want a 30-hour govern
ment work week at a cost es-
timated at S2,000,000,000 a year.
How can you expect acknowl-
edgment of the facts of eco
nomic life by a Spender, when
the author of their theory. Lord
Keynes, who put over so many
of his fancy ideas on Roosevelt
(but not on England) including
the superiority of deficit spend
ing by governments, is now over
here trying TO get hard Ameri-
can cash in violation of his own
theory.
At THE start, Congress Is
"A developing a confused hesi-
fancy. The tax authorities, for
example, (VinsOn. Doughton
and George) are privatel Y
agreed on a sharper tax cut
than Mr.. Truman mentioned-a
cut of perhaps $1,000, 600, 900
with little more than half
going TO individuals and the rest
TO corporations, permitting sbo-
lition of most of the excess
profits tax thew dealers do not
want thiS) and eliminating the
lowest income tax groups, while
helping all individuals little.
They want 10 hedge on Mr.
Truman. but not too much. OF
course. this cannot be charac-
terized as economy, or anything
like il
What ] have described as a
middle course is merely midway