Evening star., 1951-08-25
Mr.. Truman on InfIotion

In calling upon Congress to repeal three of
the major amendments to its recently enacted
anti-infiation legislation, President Truman has
warned that unless the action is taken-and
promptly-the purchasing value of the dollar
may be eaten away to such an extent that our
whole defense program will be jeopardized. He
has warned, further that the situation standing
as it is, can lead to wage-price spiral affecting
our domestic economy in a way that could be
disastrous to millions and millions of families
living on fixed and limited incomes"
According to the President, no one should
be misled by the leveling of of prices during the
past several months. In his judgment the
greatest inflationary danger stil lies ahead,
chiefly for the following reason: Our spending
for national security is now at an annual rate of
about $40 billion. year from now 1t will be
at an annual rate of more than $50 billion
AS this process continues, present inventories
of consumer goods will dwindle, and defense
demands will keep them from being fully re-
pleniShed Incomes will be increased by defense
work. There will be more money and less goods
Unless our controls are strong, prices will rise
sharply
Within and outside Congress, there are ex-
perts who disagree with Mr. Truman and his
economic advisers and who suspect that his dire
predictions add up largely to politicking. This
view assumes that he is just speaking for the rec
ord and that If events prove him right he will use
that record. for all it is WORTH against the Repub-
LEANS On the other hand, If events prove him
wrong, everybody will be more or less happy, and
the opposition will be able to gain little ad-
vantage from the fact that his CasSandra- like
prophecies turned out to be grossly exaggerated.
However, whether or not this is fair assessment
of the motivation behind his warnings on infia-
tion the fact remains that the cost of living In
America has risen to record-breaking high,
that the Nations military budget is even now
being upset by swollen prices, and that the situ-
alton in general-at least on the surface-tends
to lend more than little support to his argu-
ment for stronger controls
What the President has asked for--and he
has indicated that he will ask for additional
changes later on-is that Congress do away with
the amendments that Cd permit individual
sellers to pass on to consumers all cost increases
since the outbreak of the Korean war, (2) re-
quire that price ceilings for wholesalers and re-
tailerS reflect the same percentage of profit as
in the pre-Korean period, and 60 ban livestock
slaughtering quotas In Mr. Truman's words,
these three provisions "spell a real and unneces-
sary increase in the cost of living" and their
repeal, at the earliest moment, is essential to
the stability OF the dollar and the Nations safety
In response, Republican Senators Ferguson,
Nlxon ana WelKer, aitnougn anything but con-
vinced by his argument, have promptly sponsored
legislation to let Mr. Truman have what he
wants. Apparently their idea is that If he gets
these changes, and If imitation grows anyhow,
he will not be able to pin the blame on the
G. O. p, but instead win find his own administra-
ton on the defensive. Be that as 1t may his
proposal, even if it promises to offer only slight
help against rising prices, ought to be acted on
favorably. Certainly, this is field in which
the Nation should have as much reasonable pro-
lection as possible.