Evening star., 1946-06-30
\ Courageous Decision


good speech clarified beyond any
doubt the otherwise confusing sit
uation presented by veto message
which caught Congress by surprise
and unprepared.
That confusion arose from the
natural doubt which assailed every
body over the wisdom of the Presi-
dents veto decision That it was a
bad bill everybody agreed. But, as
Senator Barkley had told him on
Friday evening, it was either the
bad bill or no price control. The
President, as he explained in his
speech last night, may have enter
tanned some lingering hope that
the vigorous and plain speaking
message he sent to Congress yester-
day morning would have the desired
effect and that Congress would
quickly enact a continuing resolu-
tion before the death of price
control at midnight tonight.
But the Presidents knowledge OF
the Senate, of the Senate rules and
OF the caliber of the men who were
fighting in the Senate to kill all
price control could not permit him
to entertain any serious hope of
such action. So he deliberately has
chosen to gamble, to gamble against
the spread of inflammatory imitation
beginning tomorrow. Against this
possibility he has risked the con-
f1dence he has that Congress-, de-
luged by protests from the people,
will turn about-face and enact,
Immediately, new price control
law that will meet the chief objec-
tions to the compromise measure
and will guarantee a safer method
of decontrol
Surely this is the course that
Congress should follow. For the
President, calling spade a spade
in fashion that he has not done
before on any subject, has passed
the responsibility squarely to Con-
greSS and has called on the people
of the country to witness what he
has done. He has done this courage
ously, he has done it without offense
and he has done it at time and in
circumstances that made such
course the hardest.
There is one appealing paragraph
in the Presidents speech last night
which should strike home. Il know
how weary you all are of these
restrictions and controls" he said.
Il spend good deal of my time
listening to complaints. I know how
eager every one of you is for the
day when you can run your own
affairs in your own way as you did
before the war. know, therefore,
how strong the temptation is to re-
move too quickly the safeguards
which we have build up for ourselves
and for our people"
It is that WEAKNESS of restrictions
and controls, that restiveness to be
done with the whole nuisance, that
is at the bottom of much of the pres
sure for the outright death of all
price control. But what are these,
as compared with the risk of catas-
trophe which a too sudden lifting of
controls presents? What are these
petty annoyances, these temporary
handicaps, these aggravating bottle
necks and shortages as compared
with the hazards of imitation that
are so obvious on every hand?
The President has done his part
well. He has left nothing unsaid
in his speech to Congress or to the
American people last night by way
of lodging the issue. He has put
that issue up to the American people
and they should respond with such
an overwhelming torrent of demands
on their representatives in Congress
as to leave no further doubt of what
Congress will do. The greatest hope
that we can build for return to re-
latively free enterprise in this coun-
try must be founded on a gradual,
not sudden, relaxation of price
controls and by process that will
assure some balance between pro-
duction and purchasing power
before the flood gates of really free
trade are opened.