Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-01-03
Meeting Of Congress
Seen Marking Epoch
OF Lavish Spending
Mandates Held to Mean
New Milestone in
American Revolution
BY David Laurence

BY David Laurence
This is not just another political
turnover in Consress-one political
party taking over today from the
other.
This day is historic, for it marks
the beginning of an epoch. 1t is
milestone in American evolution
For the new Congress which was
voted into power on November 2
has been given a mandate which
many pressure groups are claiming
is an instruction to break up Ameri-
can businesses Of large size, levy
penalties on profits, give labor
unions unhampered power to do as
they please and permit all manner
Of strikes and work stoppages. no
matter how the public interest may
be jeopardized.
1t is being interpreted also as a
mandate to spend vast sums OF
money In the name of social well
fare. irrespective of the fact that
a s250,00o 100000 debt hangs over
the national economy and already
imperils the future value of the
dollar in terms of gold.
The members of the new Con.
gleSs have been elected on plat
form that repudiates the economy
policies of the Eightieth Congress
and denounces its unwillingness to
vote more money or privileges for
special groups. So the converse of
that policy of thrift and conserv-
atism apparently has now been
given sanction. I
1t means that the party which
promises the most out of the public
treasury can count on support at
the polls. The efforts made by the
Republicans to hold the scales even
as between management and labor
are termed reactionary while the
new program of giving the labor
unions power to maintain closed
shop monopolies is characterized as
return Of New DealiSm" or lib
eralism"
Stain Seen Satisfied.
To be liberal with the taxpayers
money is the political philosophy
that dominates the scene-the the
DRY being that Americas resources
are ineXhaustible and that TAX
moneys are to be gathered in mere
ly by legislating a new set OF tax
rates.
Good old Joe Stalin,' as Presi-
dent Truman in q momenta1y bit
of good-natured comment once
called him, must be looking on with
unconcealed satisfaction. His hope
is that some day the system of
capitalism and private initiative
must break down. He has said so
in his writings over and over again.
He visualizes the first step inside
the democracieS as the breaking up
of the managerial and property
owning classes simultaneous with
the rise of the working class.
In America, where there is an
honest belief among so-called lib
erals that capitalism and the pri-
vate-enterprise system can be sub
jected to any amount of political
punishment and still thrive and
keep its economic strength, there
is an unwilling but determined eff
fort to intensity the very class con-
f1ict on which the Communists pin
their hopes so strongly.
Britain has already weakened
under the strain of the first step
toward disintegration, which is
socialism. No longer is the British
economic system able to hold up
its head in the world, and were it
not for the aims of benevolent
America, through direct loans ana
now the Marshall Plan, Mr.. Stain
would be witnessing a greater in
filtration of Communist and left
wing philosophy in England than
has appeared thus far.
Risk Capital Affected.
In America the managerial class
has for the last IS years taken a
real beating through punitive taxes
which not only impair incentive
but actually prevent the rise of an
equity market out of which the risk
capital to build new enterprises or
expand old ones must be derived.
When American businesses, by
reason of efficient production anc
the fortunate circumstance of an
unprecedented demand for goods
following the war. manage to .ac-
cumulate profits large enough to
furnish risk capital to finance out
of their own bank accounts the
needed expansion or replacement of
equipment, the radical left wing
promptly starts move to do away
with that sinew of strength by
urging a higher tax on profits.
The new Congress, being spop-
sored by radicals and aided and
abetted by the most powerful left
wing movement America has wit
messed in all its history, now will
take over the job of performing a
surgical operation on American
business enterprise. All this is
going on at time when the huge
public debt has failed to impress
the managers of governmental
funds that there is need for a
smaller instead of a larger annual
budget.
The end result inevitably must
he climax in which economic up
heaval will stir up more and more
demands for more socialism and
state control.