The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1951-01-04
Speed Urged On
w age Controls By
Economic Advisers

Washington (LPA) "The con-
troll of prices and wages now hav-
| ing been initiated, the program
should move forward to forestall
insofar as possible the further lift
| ing of price and wage levels and
the resulting distortion of price
and wage patterns"
So declares the Council of Econ
omic Advisers in its fifth annual
report to the President. "Both price
and wage policy should be inte-
grated with other policies in pro-
noting the defense program, and
this will require some flexibility
in controls, the report continues.
The council report covers 10
points, including uses and limits
of controls, taxation, price and
wage policy, and programming of
requirements and supply.
The report declares "our peril is
great and time is short" 1t notes
that "there is no strength in sacri-
fices and controls for their own
sake. Those sacrifices and controls
are best which synchronize best
with our basic targets for military
build-up, industrial production, and
protection of the public"
Discussing the programming of
requirements and supply, the re-
port notes that the government
should not program and determine
every minute detail, but should de-
termine broadly the size and
weight of such main competing re-
quirements, industrial requirements
and those of the consumer public.
"The setting of specific goals,
says the report, ''for some lines of
production and utilization will have
galvanic and unifying effect
throughout the economy and among
the people by making it clear in
concrete terms just what we as a
nation are striving to do and why"
The report notes we cannot ex-
pand total production anywhere
near the extent we did between
1939-44 because we had more slack
resources then, but it should be
possible to increase the total of
private and public output by about
25 percent over the next five years.
Discussing uses and limits of
controls, the Council points out
that "The expansion of production
does not and cannot remove the
general inflationary problem" and
it is necessary to reduce consum-
er and business demand below
levels they would otherwise reach.
AS to taxation, the real problem,
SAYS the Council "is from where
taxes should be collected" and
taxation "should be designed to re-
strain the undesirable use of re-
sources without crippling impera-
tive use"
Accordingly, the report says
"price and wage controls can help
to prevent those who pay higher
taxes from shifting the burden to
the consumer and thus multiplying
in part the anti-inflationary effect
of the increased taxes. The report
cautions that without adequate
taxation, "the other efforts to con-
troll initiation rest upon quicksand." J"
Wage and tax policies, the report
says, SHOULD aim toward prevent
ing increase in the total amount of
wages available for spending, since
there is no evidence now of an
overall insufficiency of total wages
measured against the proportion OF
total output which wage earners
should buy" The report adds that
"the trend of wages should not
force prices to rise; and second,
that the trend of wages available
for spending after taxation and
other restraints should be kept in
line with trends in the availability
of consumer goods"