Milford chronicle., 1956-02-10
LINCOLN KEPT ON TRYING

X
years his political career, which prepared
him for his ultimate triumphS was at best
only a minor success. He served IN the llll-
nois legislature and one undlstlngulshed
term in Congress. He was defeated twice
for the Senate and in the first Republican
convention, that of 1856, failed, by a wide
margin to gain the nomination for vice
president. When he was elected President
four years later, he polled only minority
of the popular vote, and won only because
the opposition was divided among three other
candidates.
Then came the war. In 1864 the Ger
man-American leader, Carl Schurz made a
daring prophecy, which he admitted might
sound peculiar:
''In so years, perhaps much sooner, Lin
coins name will be inscribed close to Wash
ington's on this republics roll of honor.
Seldom has prophecy been more justi-
fed. A year later Lincoln lay In death, and
as his funeral train rolled slowly across the
nation, the people turned out in masses. Their
grief testified to LincOn's greatness and his
enduring place in their hearts.
He hasSheld that place ever since.
DEPRESSIONS ARE NOT NECESSARY
There is mot a chance" of another de-
preston of the 1929 model-hut, at the
same time, 'recessiOns are probably newt
able"
That is the gist of an interview publish
ed in u. S. News & World Report with
Murray Shields, a leading economist who
has held various top positions IN and out
of the government and now heads firm
which serves as economic cOnsultants to a
number Of leading business corporations.
In Mr.. Shields view, our banking and
financial structure generally is far strong
er than it used to be. At the same time he
sees certain dangers in the picture. De-
presSions he says, are man-rnade and could
be prevented. But three things need to be
done: One, make money pretty tight when
an inflationary boom threatens; two, keep
taxes at levels which will create budgetary
surpluses when times are booming along
and, three, develop "a shelf of public works"
to use if business declines. And he has some
thing interesting to say about how the hui
man being, individually and collectively,
tends to run to extremes: He overSpends,
overborroWs and OverinvestS when times
are easy, and then underspends, underbOr
rows and underinvests when times are hard.
Mr.. Shields makes another point of a
striking nature. To his mind, mo depres-
sion we have ever mad has even been like
any of its predecessors. Each one is differ
ent. That's why we get our guard doWn." !"
He goes into considerable technical detail as
to the various safeguards, governmental and
otherwise, that have been established in an
effort to prevent major depressions. These
he regards as good and necessary for the
most part. But he adds: "The basic cause
of my apprehension is that acceptance of
the idea that we are never going to have
another depression may lead Us to permit
the basic strengths now present In our imam
cial situation to be impaired In other
words this is the time when our economic
structure should be improved in every way
possible. To quote Mr.. Shields once more
"I'd like to see every business and financial
institution in the world use, this period of
boom to put some financial meat on its bones,
to build protective reserves of financial
strength for use in case economic trends
take turn for the worse"
These are long-term considerations
There is a highly unusual current problem
which some of the commentators and busi-
ness spokesmen have been discussing. We
are producing goods and services at a record
rate-close to 100000, 100000 year
Shortages are developing even though fac
tories are running at utmost capacity Fol-
example, some orders for such basic mate
rialS as steel, copper and aluminium cannot
be filled. In addition, there. are manpOwel
shortages in some of the technical fields.
This means that, before there can be an
other major upSurge in industrial activity
vast programs of plant expansion must be
completed And that means, in turn, thai
enterprises and individuals must invest bill
lions of dollars to accomplish the job.
AS for the situation in general, it is prob
able that the ideas of many were reflected
by the Portland Oregonian when it said edi
torially: "Who believes any more that ther,
are no more frontiers and that the Ameri
can economy has reached a mature anC
stagnant era? The evidence is all arounC
us, in the developments of the last decade
to diSprove, this view which once so man!
economists held"
$500
SCHOOLS FOR FUN
As the nation prepares to launch tn
largest school building program in its his
tory, the experience of Chicago should b
CO,ooo CobOole 4bo,.o ID M