Evening star., 1950-08-11
The Voice of Experience

Wage controls and price controls, the ration
ing of food and goods, the ALLEGATION of materials
by taking them for one purpose and refusing
them for another-an of these powers in the
hands of Government are contradictions Of the
free enterprise system.
But the powerful voice of the House yesterday
in voting for them by the unusual margin of
3SS-12 is the voice of experience. For war has
taught that without such controls in time OF
great emergency, when we are fighting war or
preparing for one that may have to be fought
it would be impossible to preserve system of
free enterprise, and without them we would tie
our hands.
All of the things voted by the House yes
terday became necessary, at one time or announcer,
in the recent days Of World War 11-days that
have left deep impression on the lives OF the
generations of men and women living today.
One of the votes was extraordinarily impressive
the vote of 1888 by which the House placed
in the Presidents hands the power to fix
ceiling on wages, if and when it became necessary
to place a ceiling on prices. Such vote would
have been out of the question in the early days
of World War II. Ratiening and price controls
were applied at that time in the belief that they
went about as far as we could 60 and that to
place a ceiling on the wages of working men
would be to Shacke them with chains and reduce
them to something approaching involuntary
servitude.
But that was mistaken idea, and yesterdays
vote in the House is indicative of how widespread
the realization has become that it was a mistake.
For if we must resort to the serious business Of
trying to stabilize prices and allot among our
people the available goods that they may buy,
such measures are self-defeating if wages are
permitted to spiral by themselves. The lesson
learned in World War was that controls must
apply everywhere, if they are to be effective in
seeking to retain on anything like an even keel
an economy thrown off balance by the demands
of war. If the emergency grows, II we expand
our war production to the scale demanded by
total war, additional controls over manpower
will also become necessary and citizens will be
restricted not merely in the things they may buy,
the prices they may pay, the wages they may
earn-but restricted in the work they may choose
to do and where they may choose to do it,
The House of Representatives is closer to the
people, it more quickly reflects the sentiments
of the people, than any other part of our Gov
ernment One of the truly remarkable develop
ments of the past few weeks has been the surge
of pressure, unanticipated in the beginning, from
the people whose experiences in the past war
taught them the necessity for such controls as
those that have been given to the President, to
be exercised in his discretion From these same
people, few years ago, the demand was to drop
the controls to end the annoyance OF ratlon1ng
and red tape to do away with the Washington
"bureaucratS' who continued to govern their
lives.
The recollection of these things should be
of some comfort to those who fear that the
delegation of such sweeping powers to the
President means an end to free enterprise and
who conjure up fearsome pictures of how
dictatorial President might use such powers. For
the people are fairly good judges as to the
necessity of restrictive laws And as soon as
the necessity becomes doubted or unclear, the
pressure to get rid of restrictions far exceeds the
pressure that put them into effect.