Evening star., 1946-10-11
Too Much Gimme

Too Much Gimme
With the Wage stabiAzation Board
and the ONCE of Price Administra-
ton so ridden by crisis as to seem
not far from collapse, there is more
than a fair chance that the Ameri-
can people may soon have what the
vast majority OF them apparently
want-an end to the economic con-
trolls imposed upon them as safe
guard against imitation.
As many experienced businessmen
and trained economists have per-
suasively argued, it may well be that
this prospect-the prospect of an
early return to our traditional free
enterprise SYSTEMS something to
be heartily welcomed by all of us.
Be that as it may. however, If the
WsB and the OPA are now close to
dying, they have been laid low not
so much by reasonable and thought
full debate as by public spirit that
resembles revolt.
Senator Pepper has likened this
spirit to the spirit that prevailed
among us in prohibition days-a
noncomplying mood, determine
tion not to abide by the law because
the law runs counter to our individ-
ual desires. But the temper that
has governed our actions for some
time past seems to stem from some
thing even deeper than that, and 1t
is a something that does not flatter
the American people. which means
most of us, If not all of us. It can
be summed up as the gimme" at
titude, or the "what's-in-it-for- -me?"
attitude, and 1t Is not pretty to con-
template.
During the war we were agreeable,
on the whole, to the idea Of accept
ing restraints and working together
for the common good in face of an
immense common peril. Since vic
tory, however, our mood has been
different. We have not been q CO.
operative Nation. We have been a
Nation divided into clashing groups,
each interested only in itself, each
seeking special privileges, each act
ing as If its own selfish ends were
all that mattered, each out to make
a killing" with every man for HIM
self and the devil take the hindmost,
and no one seeming to give second
thought to the welfare Of the coun-
try at large.
In general, industry is enjoying
its highest profits in history, labor
its best wage rates, agriculture its
greatest income, and all of us live
in land of relative superabun-
dance. Yet everybody wants more,
so we have businesses asking for too
much, and unions striking for too
much, and farmers and livestock
raisers holding out for too much.
and the Nation as q whole tending
to look for too much too soon in too
many fields. Events and pressures
build up accordingly; in a period OF
gimme" thinking and black mar
kets, with the individual stomach
and pocketbook seeming to over
shadow everything else, the emo
tion-charged reaction to the meat
shortage is not surprising, nor is 1t
surprising that there is now such a
widespread inclination to do away
with all wage and price controls.
Perhaps we may dismiss this as
being nothing more serious than
human nature understandably re-
belling against the tensions and re-
strictions of war and against the
blunders of bureaucrats. Perhaps,
too, 1t is instinctively sound-a case
of majority emotion being more cor
rect. in a blind sort of way, than
reasoned theory: More correct. for
instance, than the theory that a
too-abrupt liquidation of the WSB
and the OPA can lead to a wage
price spiral that will first send
everything sky-high and then crash
ing down-from imitation to defia-
tion, from boom to bust.
But even though the cautioning
theory may prove to be wrong, even
though speedy decontrol may be
found to do more good than harm,
the American people would be we'll
advised to give at least some thought
to the Governments warnings, and
they would be we'll advised also to
reflect on the spread of the what's
in it = for me?" philosophy among
them. It is philosophy that can
serve only to demean and weaken
our Nation.