Evening star., 1946-02-16
Flirting With Initiation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Oh Ine new wage
price policy, President Truman called
upon the American people ito close
ranks in the face of a common
enemy"-to join forces in winning
through to final victory over infia-
tion." AS far as 1t goes, this is an
admirable statement, but it is also
a statement which CLOSES over the
fact that the fight against imitation
has become more difficult as a result
OF the policies adopted by the Tru-
man administration.
The central policy in this Irritation
with imitation is the administrations
avowed purpose to force a substan-
tial increase in basic wage rates.
This is justified by an asserted
necessity to Offset in part the de-
cline in "take-home" pay resulting
from the loss of overtime and other
factors. Whether this was necessary
in fact may be debatable, but there
can be no debate about the in
evitable economic consequences.
When President Truman commit
ted himself to substantial wage
increases, and threw the influence
OF the White House behind the
attainment of that objective, he was
nullifying his earlier stand in opposi-
ton to wage increases which would
necessitate higher prices. In other
words, when the administration de-
manded higher wage level it was
also, in effect, decreeing higher
price level, and the new wage-price
order Is nothing more than a be-
lated and somewhat reluctant ac-
ceptance by the administration of
the inevitable economic consequences
of it's own acts.
For those who receive the wage
increases, especially in the higher
levels, there will be no Immediately
harmful results. In most cases they
had already received wage increases
equal to or in excess of the advance
in living costs. And, for them, the
additional rise in living costs that
is now certain to result, will be more
than offset by the higher wages they
will receive. The victims of this
administration policy will be those
who are not in position to secure
wage increases. Included are the
groups for whom much concern has
been expressed in the past-the
dependents of servicemen living on
fixed allotments, those who must
look to pensions and similar forms
of income for their necessities, and
the unorganized groups who lack the
economic means Of obtaining higher
wages. All of these will find that
their living standards are going to
be further depressed, and this as
. result, not of forces beyond human
control, but of deliberate Govern
ment policy.
The extent of the harmful conse-
quences of this adventure with a
little imitation" is matter of guess
work. Obviously, the President is
concerned with the danger inherent
in what has been done, and it is his
evident desire to call halt at this
point. Once wages and prices have
found their new levels, he wants to
hold them there, and the probable
tiles would seem to be that this can
be done if there is sufficient f1rmness
on the part of those charged with
administering the new program.
But it is going to take more firmness
than has been in evidence in the
past.
The prime essential, as Mr.. Tru-
man points out, is to get into full
scale production at the earliest
possible moment, and he is not in
dulging in mere rhetoric when he
says that production is our saliva
ton" The inf1ationary forces which
already were present in this country,
and which have been stimulated by
the retreat from the stabilization
line, can be curbed only by a tre-
mendous output of goods of all
kinds. What remains to be seen
is whether the administration will
show as much determination in
dealing with obstacles to production,
regardless of their source, as it has
shown in pushing through its pro-
gram of higher wages and, Incl
dentallV. higher prices.