Milford chronicle., 1947-12-19

CHRISTMAS, FROM THE beginning, has
been family festival. The beautiful story
from which springs the truth of Christianity
tells of a Father, Mother and a Son. AS
such, it is an event perpetually renewed
within the experience of us all, and it is the
foundation Of our lives. Knowing this, or
perhaps only feeling it in our blood, we cele-
brate Christmas at home, as if it were there
that we could most easily find the spirit and
meaning of the day For us, within the
shelter of our four walls, it is moment of
time both intimate and personal that holds
by virtue of legend and religious truth a
deeper color and a greater warmth than other
days. And, perhaps, by blind instinct, we
have transformed Christmas into celebra-
tion of the town where we knew happy illu-
sions-the house where we were safe.
Christmas is for many of us the time of going
h0me-the celebration of the family. There
is scarcely an American who would not pity Il
person who has to spend Christmas by him.
self: the widow who has lost her mate the
father far from home, the son or daughter
unable to come back to their childhood
scenes of happiness Then there are the
couples who try to make Christmas for two;
the young city SOphisticates who can't afford
the train fare home; the childless middle
aged couple who sadly pass the day-they are
to be pitied. If you want to live through
better go home. And, once we are home
again, what do we do? We recapture our
childhoOds by renewing contact with our
parents and our friends, by playing with
children, by watching the kddies in their
childish wonderment at a lighted tree. We
wrap and unwrap gifts, eat too much, drink
too much and sleep poorly in unfamiliar beds.
Yet, when it is finished, we are convinced
that it is worth the trouble This, indeed, is
Cl,Vic4 Ao Il, Sc o1i
day season, it is the wish and the hope of the
publishers of the Milford Chronicle that each
and every person in every home into which
this newspaper enters may enjoy Christmas
and the Yuletide season to the fullest-and
to express to all of you that age-old greeting
Merry Christmas"
$500
ONE UNFORTUNATE PHASE of the
price problem is that everyone seems to be
looking for a pat solution, which will solve
it in one fell swoop.
The fact is that the problem is simply the
sum total of innumerable other problems
and forces, some of the moi extreme COM
plexity. For example, high wages contribute
to high prices. Foreign aid contributes to
high prices. Government fiscal policy, which
is still strongly inhationary, contributes to
high prices. Our record national income (in-
creased printed money!, which no one wants
The worst illustion of all is that return
to price control of the OPA type would solve
the problem. The government could set a
low price for an article-but it couldn't
make anyone produce that article if the price
involved an operating loss Price control
would drive goods inexorably into the black
market, which would then become the real
market. Most dangerous of ALL price control
would be completely impossible unless it in
vQlved the strictest kinds of wage and other
controls-and subjected the nation to some
kind of an economic dictatorship.
During the next year, prices may go up
or they may come down. No one knows, and,
as the experience of the past year or two
shows, the fOrecasters are almost invariably
wrong. But, in a free economy, where open
competition exists all along the commodity
line, down to the cain or independent store
from which you buy your goods, the price
will be an honest price. 1t will be an accu-
rate reflection of present-day costs and con-
ditiOns. And that is all that anyone can ex-
pect.
A MAN NAMED Senator Truman made
speech in Kirksville Mo-, Aug. 13, 1912
about the postwar world.
He said with proper economy the u S
would have:
$500 light autos (they cost 81 300 to ST.,
4OO).
$4,000 helicopters (they cost $4,000 up
wards)
500 engines for small planes (they cosi
about $4O0).
Thus far he averages about 300O96 ir
error. He went on to forecast streamlineC
trains with shower baths; wonderful new
homes (no mention of trailer camps) and /
standard of living so high your children viii
pity the way their parents lived"
With such gross error in his prediction.
of the past, isn't it fair to assume that thi
same man, now President of the United
States, can be wrong in his estimates of tn,
need for foreign and domestic requirement.
today? We wonder.