The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1946-02-15
LOOKING
! ANEAD
" GEORGE S. BENSON
\ PresideMt--HardiKg College
Seany. ArkaKsas
Plumber

y
knows it. An emotional plea for
national defense. is all it takes to
raise money from patriotic people.
Men and women will sacrifice, will
give until it hurts when their sons
are at war. A young man, far from
home, living CD under conditions
new to him and unknown to his par
ents, is the unfailing combination to
the family's treasure chest.
Whether parents be rich or poor,
they will buy their sons passage
home from a foreign war every day
until he comes, so long as they can
find the money, and nobody blames
them. They will do it, even if they
fear that the money they offer is
imprudently spent, or that part of
it is diverted into selfish channels.
But hostilities have ceased now.
Things are different.
Frugality Revives
People of the United States have
begun watching where their tax
money goes and wondering if it is
being wisely spent. 1t is small Won
der that Congress bristles at every
suggestion to continue commodity
price controls until the middle of
1916. Holding the price line costs
something, and does not seem half
as important to war-weary people
as it did before the last foreign
beachhead was taken.
Evidences keep coming to light
that taxpayers money has been
wasted by men in positions of trust.
A recent public statement by Sena-
tor Harry F. Byrd of Virginia said
more than 31s million civilians were
on federal payrolls last November
l, compared with less than one
million in August, 1889; or GIT, 760
when the shooting stopped at the
end OF World War I.
Needless Expense
There is an element in government
today, seeking not merely to con-
tinue the life of the OPA but to ex-
pand it's functions. Already our
governments price-fixing ''mechan-
les" have started making arbitrary
adjustments in margins to be
earned by. wholesalers and distrib-
uting agencies, an activity not even
thought about for the OPA at the
time it was created.
It would be unfair to allege that
this enormous bureaus entire war
time activity was useless. Price
controls have done some good, as
arbitrary shields against abnormal
dangers. They have also done harm.
A retail merchant, whom I have
known since I was boy, told me
recently that he made more net gain
selling under wartime price cell
ings than he had made during his
previous Is years in business,
Controlling Prices
Questioned for more detail, my
retailer friend acknowledged to me
that price controls placed on him
by government during the war were
much more lenient than price con-
trolls placed on him by competitors
all his business life. And am sure
it is no more true in his case than
it would be with such institutions as
Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
Competition is the correct brake
on prices.
Regardless of what name it may
wear: Price Control, Federal Aid
to Education or Socialized Medicine,
Capitalization of power is undemo-
cratic. It is paying power-hungry
ruler for doing something that
would happen naturally if he would
only step aside. It is someone
climbing to power by learning what
people want and devising a way to
keep them from getting it, while
making them think he is trying to
get it for them.