Evening star., 1950-09-11
The Missing Sacrifice

The people had right to expect from the
President more down-to-earth discussion of
coming events than he gave them on Saturday
evening.
There were of course, the obvious things to
say and he said them. We must increase our pro-
duction Of armament. That will mean CONVEX
sion of effort and material to such needs, Great
Ing some scarctieS in other fields. We must pay
for our defense out of higher taxes. We must
guard against imitation. Control powers have
been given the President and they will be in
voked as needed. It is wrong to proiteer and to
hoard. Good citizens must practice patriotic
Self-restraint. Bad citizens will be taken care
OF by the Government. Increased production
will mean more jobs at good rates Of pay for
women and older men, With our vast produc-
ton underway, we shall surpass "the goal set
last year of $500 billion economy by 1854"
There will be some reduction in our standard of
living
But there was not single sentence in the
whole speech to indicate any belief on the Presi-
dents part that the Government itself should re-
duce its own standard of living by reducing lavish
spending policies that have no relation to de-
Tense Businessmen are urged to cut down on
inventories to lower and hold down prices where
they can. Citizens are admonished not to spend
everything they earn, to forego demands for
pay eAcepG tIOSe ulCGateu Dy I4SlllS living
costs and inequities. Housewives are urged to
shop carefully and learn to do without But the
Government evidently will continue to spend
hundreds of millions of dollars buying food from
the farmers in order to keep prices up, storing
away food that it cannot even give away. AS
far as one can learn from the Presidents speech
the Government has no plans to reduce Its own
peacetime program of spending at peacetime
rate on things that have nothing to do with
preparations for war
The President spoke in disparagement of the
deficit financing policy followed during World
War H. in which we borrowed money instead Of
raising all of it by taxes. But the President did
not mention the more important fact that this
same policy of deficit financing began long be-
fore the war and that it continued after the
war-even during what his Secretary Of the
Treasury said was the most prosperous year OF
our history-and that in the past 19 years we
have balanced the annual budget only twice. He
Is right of course in urging that taxes be raised
to the limit. But he is not right If he thinks
that we can superimpoSe the vast spending pro-
gram for arms and defense on normal Govern
ment spending without incurring new and larger
deficits. Government must also retrench.
The President is right in calling on our citi-
Gems to tighten their belts. But they are not
going to respond if they find that in Washington
Government spending for handouts and subsidies
continues at business -as-usual, politics-as-
usual level. If we have, as Senator Byrd says,
increased our non-war, non-defense spending
by IS per cent since 1s4S, a proportionate reduc-
ton in the same sort of spending Is In order
now. But the President gives not the slightest
indication that he believes or advocates any
such thing.
It probably would be mistake for the Presi-
dent to mount his White House roStrum and be-
gin wailing to the American people like
frightened jeremiah over the tough times that
lie ahead. 1t would not be mistake on his part
to tell the people that If we are to win through
the dark days ahead, sacrifices OF every sort VIII
be demanded, including the sacrifice of peace
time ambitions to purchase, by Government
spending, what the politicians call the more
abundant life.