Evening star., 1947-11-18
Truman Taking Chances
In Demand for Controls
The Political Mill
Would Be Sunk If G. o. P. Congress
Needed Request, Writer Contends

Would Be Sunk If G. o. P. Congress
Needed Request, Writer Contends
By Gould Lincoln
No Republican could have thought up a
worse pain in the neck for Democratic Presi.
dent Truman than the Presidents own recon-
mendation that Congress give him selectivs
control over prices and wages. And If the
Republicans really wish to sink him without
trace in the election next year they will grant
him the authority for which he asks. If the
President has dumped in his lamp the duty OK
saying what materials and foods shall be SUBJ
ject to price ceilings and what shall not, and
what labor unions shall be permitted to seek
increases in wages and what labor unions shall
have no increases-and he should use this
authority-the Democrats could help reduce
imitation by not spending any money cam
paigning.
To Mr.. Truman must 60, however, credit for
real courage. He Is the first Democratic chief
executive ever to suggest law permitting a
ceiling on wages. 1t was in vain that some
eminent Democrats -a among them Bernard
Baruch-and Republicans urged on the late
President Roosevelt the need of controlling
wages by law we'll as prices when the war
was on For President to come forward with
such a suggestion in peacetime Is certainly
foolhardy from political point Of view to put
it mildly. Mr.. Truman, according to cynical
Republicans, must be fully aware that this kind
Of price-wage control will be strenuousy OPP
posed. Further, they contend that Mr.. Truman
himself Is playing politics, hoping he will be
in position to say that he did his best to get
the Republican Congress to allow him to deal
effectively with the price situation and it
wouldn't.
Prices Point Higher.
AS the President said in his message to Con-
gress-inf1ation Is already here. The thing
needed is to check It, to prevent 1t from setting
a runaway pace for American economy.
High prices are here, and they show no sign
Of doing anything except 60 higher. The price
situation, therefore, threatens to become the
major issue in the coming presidential cam
paign. The Republicans know this just as well
as does President Truman. Mr.. Truman Is
proposing a drastic remedy, which Republicans
and some Democrats, like Senator Byrd Of
Virginia, insist is no remedy but merely long
step toward totalitarian government in the
United States. Further. they say they cannot
reconcile this latest proposal Of Mr.. Truman
with. his recent press conference statement
that price controls and the like were the
methods of "police state.'
Mr.. Truman stopped short of recommending
a return to a full oPA-the kind we had during
the war. But he picked system that would
be infinitely more difficult to administer-a
selective control. It may be that he included
a proposal to place ceilings on some wages to
check the vehement demands made by the
CIO for retlrn to the oPA of wartimes. But
If he did, he was again taking long chances.
Difficult to Find Cure.
1t is difficult to find a cure for high prices in
this country during period when it Is vitality
necessary to send vast quantities Of American
production abroad Reduced prices and re-
duced supplies for consumption in this country
do not go together. The President has recon-
mended consumer rationing" on products Of
which supplies are short and which basically
affect the cost Of living, as well as ceilings on
prices and wages. All that kind Of thing, how
ever, works to curtail production and to drive
foods and other materials into the black mar
ket Production in this country Is high today
much higher than 1t was during the period Of
the OPA-for many things, which bears out
the theory that price controls and rationing
reduce production. 1t really was no help to the
American people not to be able to buy shirts
when prices were controlled-or butter either.
The Presidents program with its ten points
for meeting the price and imitation situation
Is now on the record. 1t Is a bit nebulous, since
the President has not spelled out what goods
would be subject to price control, or what labor
unions to wage control. But there it Is. His
critics must come forward with a counter
program or rest under the charge of being mere
chStructionists, or give him what he asks