Evening star., 1946-01-04

make themselves felt, are the most
| powerful pressure group In the
world. I mean the American peo-
/ ple-the great mass of our citizens
who have no special interests, whose
interests are only the interests of
the Nation as a whole. The only
difficulty is that the great public
body of American citizens who are
not organized find it difficult to
make themselves heard.
/ hope that the members of the
Congress will talk to their constit-
uents while they are at home on
vacation, and that Immediately upon
their return they will really do some-
thing substantial about strikes along
the lines I have suggested, instead
of merely talking about them.
have indicated my opposition,
and I repeat it now, to the anti
labor bills pending in the Congress
which seek to deprive labor of the
right to bargain collectively, or
which seek to deprive union of its
ultimate right to strike. That is
why I am so anxious to have on
our books an effective statute which
will have none of the evil effects of
some of the legislation now pend
ing.
OF equal Importance with the set.
tlement of management-labo dis
putes during this reconversion period
is the question of keeping prices on
an even keel. Here, too, there are
pressure groups at work in the Con-
gress and outside the Congress, con-
stantly pushing, lobbying, arguing
to take off price controls and let
prices go up without interference
We cannot keep purchasing power
high or business prosperous if prices
get out of hand. There is no use
talking about the expanded produc-
tion upon which steady jobs depend
unless we keep prices at levels which
the vast majority of the people can
afford to pay.
Points to 1920 Depression.
Today the pressures for imitation
are many times stronger than those
which caused the imitation aftel
World War I and which caused the
1920 depression.
The inflationary pressures now al
work can bring an imitation and &
crash that will be much more seriou,
than 1920. That is why it is so i'm.
portant to get high volume of pro.
duction, a large supply of marketable
goods right away. Production is the
greatest weapon against imitation.
Until enough goods can be made
to supply the demand, the power
of the Government must be usec
to keep prices down-or imitation
will soon be at hand.
People have a right to protection
for their savings. They should bt
assured that their earnings will givt
them a decent standard of living
Businessmen who want to plar
ahead have the right to know nov
that the prices of the things they
will have to buy in the future will
remain predictable. They must have
confidence now that the purchasing
power upon which their markets de-
pend will be protected.
Price, Rent Controls to Stay.
We are all anxious to eliminate
controls just as rapidly as we car
do so. The steps that we have al
ready taken show that. But price
and rent controls will have to bt
maintained for many months tt
come, if we hope to maintain 6
tsteady and stable economy. Tht
line must be held. I shall urge the
Congress after it reconvenes to re.
new the act as soon as possible anc
lin advance of its expiration date
June 30, 1916.
Price control is only one of the
war powers which require extension
Another is the second War Powers
Act, recently extended for six
months instead of year. as I re-
quested. Since we already know
that war-born shortages of certain
materials will surely plague us after
June 30 of this year. when the ex-
tended law will expire, the Law
should be extended again now. II
this is done, all businessmen will
know that short materials will con-
tinue to be fairly controlled and
distributed. Unless we do this now
controls will begin to break down
in short time.
There are other things which
should be done by the Congress II
it would fulfill its responsibility to
the Nation. Many of these measures
already have been recommended
by me, and have been written into
proposed legislation by individual
1 congressman. But the Congress
has done little-very little-about
them.
Asks Employment Legislation.
One essential part of our program
designed not only to tide us over
the reconversion period but also
to carry us to our goal of full pro-
duction and higher standard OF
living, is the adoption of full en-
ployment legislation. A satisfac.
tory full employment bill was passed
by the Senate. Another bill was
passed by the House of Representa-
tives which is not at all acceptable
and which does not accomplish any
of the purposes sought. These two
bills are now in conference between
the Senate and the House of Repre-.
j sentatives.