Evening star., 1948-01-08
Truman Message Held
Bid 10 Left -Winqers
For orCampaign Support
President Seen veerinq
From Middle Of Road
To Attract RudicoIs
By David Laurence


Congress is historic document
mostly because 1t signifies q COM
plete turn by Mr.. Truman to the
radical left"
Until now Mr.. Truman has been
regarded as possibly following a
middle of-the-road course. Now he
has embraced radicalism whole
heartedly. Whether this is q victory
for Henry Wallace and an effort to
keep many Democrats from follow
ing the third party or whether 1t
represents a determination previ-
ously arrived at to make the issue
of the 194S campaign fight In be-
hall OF the radical point of view Is
not Immediately explainable.
The first tenet of radicalism is to
demolish the profit-and-loss system
and wreck individual initiative so
that the Government may take over
the economic system. Mr.. Truman
embraces such q doctrine by insist
ing that, all citizens should get the
same amount Of tax reduction
namely, $40 apiece-irrespective Of
what they earn. To his way of
thinking a skilled mechanic earning
close to 500 week nowadays Is on
the same level as the unskilled la
borer who gets less than that sum
in wages.
The man who has spent lifetime
In his profession or in his trade
the doctor or the lawyer or dentist
or accountant or college professor or
storekeeper-all may earn different
amounts but they must be consid-
cred on the same level so far as tax
reduction is concerned. This is the
Truman doctrine assimilated from
the industrial union philosophy
hitherto championed primarily by
the CIO and other radical groups.
Theory Held Communistic.
It sounds all right in theory to
say that everybody should get cost
of-living credit of $40, but 1t is not
this theory that has built America.
The idea of penalizing thrift and
success and skill and talent is not
basically American. 1t is commu-
nistic.
Mr.. Truman also accepted another
piece Of the American Communist
Party programme increase corpo-
ration taxes as a means of penaliz-
ing the success of those companies.
In wartime high taxes on corpo-
rations were feasible because wages
and prices were stabilized and con-
trolled. Today, however, if corpora
ton taxes are increased so that
every company pays to the Govern
ment In taxes SO cents out of every
dollar earned, the chances of raising
any money in the investor markets
will vanish for many companies.
Americas stability today depends
on the ability of companies to get
working capital to finance their
large operations. In one breath, Mr..
Truman speaks of the need to spend
$50,000, 100000 on expansion of
American industry and in another
he says the corporations must be
taxed at much higher rates, forget
ting. OF course, that a cut in the
rate of earnings will demolish the
entire structure of credit for financ-
ing the expansion of productive
facilities. It will also tend to kill
competition and promote monopoly.
1t will stunt the opportunities Of
small companies to compete with
large ones. Only by retaining earn
ings can small businesses be built up
today. Risk capital is unavailable
to them.
Would Bring Depression.
Everybody who is at all familiar
with the processes Of industry knows
that it is necessary to improve
machinery and facilities If prices
are to be brought down through
increased productivity and efficiency.
Mr.. Truman. without stopping to
think through his own recommended
tions, has swallowed the CIO propa-
ganda about corporation profits. If
the Truman program were adopted,
1t would bring the worst depression
in all history. The only scheme
the radicals would offer to remedy
the situation then would be state
socialism, which is but one step re-
moved from communism.
The message is indeed historic.
1t means that New Dealism has
been revived and that radicalism is
going to be the Truman campaign
program. Against such a program,
the nonradical forces of America
will doubtless be mobilfZed The
task of nominating leader to fight
radicalism has been made easier for
the Republicans. Once the country
understands the real meaning of the
Truman proposals and their threat
to employment, it will elect almost
anybody the Republicans select. The
Presidents so-called tax program is
a blunder Of such magnitude that it
seems probable he will modify his
proposals materially between now
and next November.
(Renroduct{on Rirhts Reserved