Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-01-16

is tndC Cne postwar luIlaIlOu uds
led to a permanently higher leve
of prices but these experts quick
ly add. though not necessarily az
high as the present level
The qualification hardly allows
enough room to dream about the
good old prewar days. The con-
sumers' price index is up 74.6 pei
cent over the August, 1889, leveI
and 1872 over June, 1916, last OF
the OPA days.
There has been a moderate drop
in the price of food in recent
months, the kind of drop the coun-
Gil is talking about, but it has been
largely offset in the overall cost
of living by rises in other prices.
Pinch to Be Eased
The new high-price plateau fore-
seen by the Nations top econo-
mists is not viewed by them as
meaning an endless pinch on the
pocketbook of the many citizens
now being squeezed. They feel
that the Presidents program in
cludes wage adjustments lin line
with productivity trends" adjust
mentS which add to what they see
as major objective of the Ameri-
can economy - Ito provide con-
stantly higher real wages and a
constantly improving standard OF
living as our resources will permit.
The council subscribes to no de-
featist policy, no feeling that the
Nation has reacheda peak which
now will level off. no conviction, as
the administrations enemies have
charged, that the country is headed
into a stultifying state socialism.
Instead, there is presented in the
Presidents economic report, pre-
pared by the Council of Economic
Advisers. a picture of an ever
expanding and dynamic economy, a
program for balanced economic
growth"
The council points out that be-
ginning in 1869 (the first year for
which figures are available) there
has been constant growth in the
gross national product, broken only
by the depression of the 1930s. Be-
tween the decade beginning in 1869
and the one ending in 1918, the
gross output of the ECONOMY
everything in goods and services the
Nation turns out-doubled about
every 20 years.
Production Goes Up
From 1919 to 1929 the increase
was a whopping SO per cent. The
next 10-year period, including the
great depression, barely showed a
net gain. The decade from 1899 to
today resumed the long-term rise,
however, and the Nations product
rose more than so per cent, thus
doubling the total output of the
Nation in the period 1919-1948.
Today, the statistics tend to show
that leveling off in population is
ahead. But, as a counter-force,
there has been increase in output
per man-hour on the average of
nearly 2 per cent per year over the
last so years or so-the measure of
mans use of the machine in these
United States.
Now the council, gazing at its
stacks of statistics as through a
crystal ball, takes look ahead and
this is what it sees:
"Over the next few years, pro-
ductivity increase for the whole
economy averaging somewhat more
than 212 per cent year should be
possible. This rate of productivity
increase is based on the assumption
that Government, labor and man.
agement cooperate fully in achiev-
Ing maximum productive efficiency.
To achieve it requires continued
large investment in labor saving
plant and equipment, expanded re-
search, and lessening of restrictive
practices on the part of both labor
and management"
Consumer to Fare Better
The council bases this forecast of
continued national growth on a de-
tailed study of production increases
likely in mining, manufacturing,
agriculture despite smaller labor
force and energy from coal, oil,
natural gas, waterpower).
If such a program of balanced
economic growth" is carried out, it
will mean the output of consumer
goods and services will increase not
only in absolute numbers, but in
proportion to total production. Back
in 1929, for example, rs per cent
of the gross output of the Nation
went to consumers. This dropped
to a much lower figure during the
war when so much went into arms
but now has rebounded to about
70 per cent. This should work its
way up to about IS per cent in the
next few years, the council esti-
mates, resulting in per capita in
crease of around per cent.
In family terms, this would mean
Americans would have more and bet
ter food, better homes, more med
ica and health care, better educa-
tional opportuntty-au OF them OBJ
jectives of various parts of the
Truman Fair Deal"
Finally, the council feels, there
would be an increase in leisure
time and with it, larger family ex-
penditures for travel and recreation
Control Problem
The council sees that there is
q problem in increasing consump-
ton to these long-term objectives
Of a higher living standard, a stand
ard more widely spread than at