Evening star., 1949-01-26
Mrs. RooseveIt's Ideas
On Need OF Incentives
To Investment Hailed
Express Bosie Philosophy
Thut Has Made America
Big Producing Nation
By David Laurence

II President Truman, either in his
State of the Union message or in
his inaugural address, had written
the lines quoted below he would have
stimulated an unprecedented wave
Of confidence. The business situa-
ton In America would have been
much brighter and there would be
the highest hopes now everywhere
that the United States was going to
be economically strong enough to
serve the world.
The words to be quoted were not
written by a reactionary or by any
one who wants to 60 back to horse
and-buggy" days or by some one
who isn't interested in social-welfare
legislation or the progress of the
people. Yet, they express-better
than any businessman has done to
date-the basic philosophy that has
made America the greatest produc-
ing nation on earth.
Here is the quota ton which ought
10 be read by everybody in the Gov-
ernment and everybody in Congress
and everybody else who is inter-
ested in the maintenance of the
American economic system:
1T is essential to a high level of
employment that it be profitable for
capital to be invested not just in safe
enterprise but in new and untried
enterprises.
"Must Be Incentive"
There must be incentive for this,
particularly in times of peace. In
times of war. when many men are
risking their lives at the battle
fronts, many others are willing to
risk their money to do whatever
is necessary for the well-being of
the country. However, in times of
peace there is not the same patriotic
motive with which to prod capital
into productive enterprise and,
therefore, incentives must be found.
Some of our biggest investors
such as trust companies, banks and
insurance companies-are limited by
law in their investments in order to
safeguard those whose money they
are using. Therefore, if we expect
to develop new enterprises, to en-
ploy more people and to have more
buying power, there must always be
available capital from the individual
investors. This Is getting harder
and harder to find today.
ut is of vital interest. of course,
10 the farmer and the wage Garner
that the things they have to buy
keep on increasing in cost because
even though wages go up and farm
prices go up they never seem quite
to cover the increased cost of living
brought about by imitation and the
passing on to the public of whatever
costs have been imposed on the
manufacturer.
therefore, it is going to be neces-
sary. 1t seems to me, to examine
everything not only with an eye to
what we would like to do, but with
the constant thought before us of
what the essentials are that must
be done.
preservation Of Credit"
The preservation of the credit of
our Goyernfnent Is of vital i'm
portance to us and to the world as a
whole, and while 1 believe there9are
many things in our program, as
outlined by the President, that are
essential and will help to bring us
prosperity, I think even the best of
them should be weighed with the
viewpoint of their essentiality in
attaining the objectives that we have
before. us. These objectives are re-
Mobilization In the world at large
and stability and strength in our
own economic system at home,
These ends should never be for
gotten and their importance should
be explained to the people as each
step is taken in this carefully ball
anced program. which alone will see
us through the difficulties of the
next few years"
The above lines were written bv
none other than Mrs. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt and published lust
few days ago. The ideas are so
well expressed that they certainly
ought to have the widest possible
circulation.
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