Evening star., 1946-07-01
Truman OPA Gamble
Blamed on MuddIinu
Commentator Declares President
Himself Unbalanced Economy
By David Lazvrence

Himself Unbalanced Economy
BY David Lawrence
President Truman took a long chance
when he vetoed the OPA bill In effect,
he placed bet that the confusion re-
sulting from his veto on the eve of the
statutory expiration of OPA would
arouse the country and force ma jority
in Congress to reverse itself.
This kind of gambling with the
public welfare is not the product OF
objective reasoning or dispassionate
craftsmanship. 1t is the tragic conse-
quence of muddled thinking which seeks
to shift the blame to others.
For actually it is President Truman
himself who has unbalanced the post
war economy and forced prices up
above ceilings and thus brought on a
wave of black market operations and
infationary trends.
Consequences Already Here.
Mr. Truman now cries out that failure
to pass another OPA bill will bring
dire consequences. But some of those
consequences are already here. The
grant of wage increases in ma jor in
dustries by White House Intervention
and political expediency was the first
cause of the congressional revolt against
price ceilings. 1t was an attempt by
the President and his Subordinates to
squeeze out the profits and make in
dustry and business bear all the in
creased costs. This finally provided an
opposition strength in Congress that
brought on the passage of the Taft
amendment which Mr.. Truman criti-
clzes so clearly in his message
1t is the President who has blocked
the progress of reconversion and if
there were a parliamentary system in
the United States such as prevails in
Canada. Mr.. Truman would be voted
out of Office today by a landslide. for
ne has failed to construe accurately the
feeling of the people and he has abused
the veto power in the interest of
political minorities from which he ap-
parently expects support at the polls.
Ihe Presidents veto message has in
1t many plausible statements but Mr..
Truman presented only one side of the
story. He omitted to tell the American
people what he and his officials had
done to create the high costs which
business and industry now want COW
cred by increased prices Mr.. Truman
alone is responsible for decisions in
labor disputes that have added billions
year to manufacturing and dis
tributing costs. Not a word Is to be
found in the Presidents message about
the grasping policies of the labor union
groups in the industrial communities.
Increased Costs Ignored.
Instead, rather nonchalantly and al
most indifferently, the President refers
TO the ending of major labor disputes
as If the increased costs resulting from
his own blundering policies were too
trivial to speak of in message dis
cusslrg the economic structure of the
Nation at critical time Naturally,
the labor-wing leaders applauded the
veto. For the President, transferring
the blame for the high costs to manage
ment, had left the unions an alibi to
help them escape censure
The OPA died last night and 1t should
not be revived. Theoretically, of course.
a case can be made out for rigid con-
trois OF both wages and prices, but since
Mr.. Truman has blind eve where wage
increases are concerned and since he
had insisted on stimulating the biggest
wave of wage imitation the Nation has
ever known. the only alternative is to
put the question of prices up to the
public and let nature take It's course
There is no other way now. It is too
late to try to re-establish controls where
one-sided action has upset the national
economy.
Rejected Leaders Advice,
Efforts will be made, of course, this
week TO continue rent control or some
other special phases of price control,
but the time has gone by when an
orderly handling Of prices can be ex-
pected. Mr.. Truman was advised bv
leaders of his own party that it was the
compromise OPA bill or nothing. and
the President chose stubbornlv to dis
regard that advice and take long
chances. He chose to throw the Nation
into confusion and uncertainty. He
mistakenly assumed the public would
blame Congress and not the White
House. He assumed prices would sky
rocket. They will not For buyers will
strike when prices get too high to bear.
The economy will have to balance it.
self and it will do so eventually. though
well-ordered system of both wage and
price controls could have been estab-
llshed and thus would have saved the
Nation the pain of reconversion that
now faces the public. But since leader
ship vanished from the White House
Congress had to assert itself
The abandonment of the OPA 1,
really more than repudia ton of inept
bureaucracy. 1t is reputation of MIR.
Truman by majority of both Houses
OF Congress. 1t may mean that the
politicians who have been advising the
President that this is the road to re-
election will discover that they have ac-
tua1ly blocked the road to denomination
The poor record which Mr.. Truman /,
making does not deserve a second
nomina ton
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