Evening star., 1950-07-17
Question Of Controls
Uppermost in Minds
Of Top U. 5. Leaders
Businessmen, Politicians
Scon Problem as Trumur
Reodies Fund Requests
By David Laurence

By Daoid Laurence
The die will be cast this weel
for an interim program Of mill
tary expansion. But it could bt
the precursor of a bigger program
If large-Scale war ensues.
The new program entails an ex-
penditure Of somewhere between
81 billion and $6 billion of new
appropriations. The amount oi
money actually spent may be
larger because approximately s.
billion Of contracts for war equip
ment that have not been let car
be expeditiously put into the form
Of immediate orders.
The Korean war itself may moi
cost 81 billion to clean up. but the
other sums spent now are to be
an insurance against challenge:
anywhere else In the world. 1t i:
erroneous. therefore, to assume
that what President Truman asks
Of Congress this week is solely fol
the Korean war. It Is due rather
to n recognition of the contingen.
cies to which the Korean war may
lead.
VIII this mean controls on the
national economy?
This question has been giving
concern to businessmen every
where, but even more concern to
the politically minded who know
from experience that controls are
likely to hurt the party in power.
The reason is that voters think
things can be controlled effectively
and smoothly without inconven-
fences. They think that all the
Government needs to do is to issue
an order and boarding will stop
and prices will stabilize. It takes
considerable ordering and consid-
cradle personnel and a long time
to deal with that kind of an eco
nomic disturbance.
Voluntary Controls Best.
The most effective way to deal
with the problem, for a few
months at least, is to impose vol
untary controls and only in those
industries where there is real
need. Most of the money about to
be spent. for example, is not for
new construction at all. It is
mostly for personnel and also for
the reconditioning of weapons and
equipment that have been in
''mothballs." With the exception
Of some shortages of manpower
in the shipyards which will soon
be working around the clock. to
recondition ships and some paral-
lei necessities for labor in the air
plane factories where old planes
win be refurbished, there will not
be many tight areas. This sort OF
thing can be handled by voluntary
controls.
Even If Government controls
eventually are to prove necessary
for materials much time can be
saved by putting the job of con-
troll up to individual industries to
organize on the basis Of quotas or
ALLEGATIONS determined by the Mu-
nitions Board Of the National Sc
curity Resources Board. It is much
easier for the Government to take
over when necessary a self f-regu-
lating industry mechanism than to
start to impose a new one from
scratch.
Danger Of Dislocation.
It could severly dislocate the
whole economy if controls were
imposed suddenly, especially when
there is no telling how far away
the actual start of a major war
might be. An intermediate type of
control program has to be devised.
It might resemble more the kind
OF mechanisms which were in ef-
feet when controls were being re-
laxed in 1946 and 1947 than those
which were in operation in war
time. Broadly speaking. the task
is more delicate than when an ac-
tual war is in progress. For the
objective now is to maintain as
much Of the peacetime economy
as possible with normal function
ing Of markets for goods, and yet
to provide whatever is needed fol
military purposes.
With the experience of the last
war 50 fresh in the recollections
Of legislators. 1t would not be sur
prising to see the laws somewhat
more specific this time than they
were before so as to remove some
OF the abuses of over-delegation to
boards and commissions.
But II the war emergency
doesn't spread this year, then the
addition of IS to So billion Of
Government spending can readily
be absorbed by the National econ
omy provided that the Admins
tration cuts out some non-essen-
tial spending Of its own and puts
the brakes on some of the infla-
tionary steps it sanctioned a year
or SO ago when recession talk and
deflation was in the air.
Conferences between leaders of
industry and labor together with
important congressional commit
tees and executive agencies would
seem to be in order If balanced
program Of voluntary controls is
to be set up with the minimum
OF delay. This week may see the
beginning Of such conferences.
(Reproduction Rights Reserved)
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