Milford chronicle., 1950-11-03
HOW FAR WILL WE GO TOWARD
SOCIALISM?

Is the current world crisis being used in
an attempt to effect far-reaching and per-
manent changes in the American economy
and the American government? A good many
people have reluctantly come to the conclu-
sion that the answer to that question is
Eyes" The Saturday Evening Post reflected
that point of view when it said editOrially,
eff there is considerable suspicion around
that Korea is intended to be the grave of
the American free economy, the fault is
surely the administrations. An administra-
ton which has moved heaven and earth to
bring about the adoption of all sorts of semi
SOcialistic measures can hardly complain
if some people smell a rat The temptation
to use the Korean war as a pretext for per-
manent changes in our economy is real
enough, and there are plenty of planners in
the government departments who are eager
to yield to il"
Since that was written the Korean war
situation has changed enormously, but the
temptation the Post described still exists
AS a specific example, take economic con-
-ratOning, price-fXing, ALLEGATIONS,
The President has been given standby pow
ers in this direction which, in some respects,
are even more sweeping than those of the
OPA era. Whether the powers shall be in
Voked in whole or in part is wholly within
Executive discretion. So far, he has acti-
waited but few of them, such as the highly
controversial restrictions on residential con-
stTuctiOn and installment purchasing. Yet
the feeling grows that, under pressure of his
advisors, he may soon bring all or most of
them into being despite the fact that there is
no proof of need-and that, indeed, the proof
lies principally on the other side.
Going on, the fear is not so much for
the possibility of temporary controls, which,
as with OPA, would die with the emergency.
1t is, instead, that these controls would grad
ually be accepted by the people as a natural
state of affairs and become a permanent part
of the economy. And should this happen, It
is clear, a completely controlled and largely
SOcialiZed economy would become inevitable
David Lawrence put the situation in these
words: owe are at the crossroads of decision.
Shall the American economy gear itself for
war by a system of voluntary cooperation
or by system of government coercion? The
one road leads to naturalization and govern
ment ownership, as in Great Britain. The
other road leads away from ito the kind
of cooperation between government and in
dustry which preserves the principle of in
diVidual freedom, individual ingenuity and
Individual incentive"
Mr.. Lawrence then proposed twO-pOint
solution to the problem. First, he said,
there should be a public conference between
top officials of government and top execu-
tives of industry, at which the latter would
be Informed of our military needs and in
structed as to priorities. Second, conferences
should be held among management and labor
groups for the purpose of discussing and ex-
planning the dangers of imitation and reach
ing decisions on how to combat them.
Here is the voluntary approach, as OPP
posed to that of coercion and dictation. Mr..
Lawrence's last paragraph can be profit
ably studied by all concerned management,
labor, government and the consumer: "Self-
preserve the nation itself can-when the
dangers are thoroughly understood work
economic miracles"