Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-02-13
Recession and November

1t seems only yesterday that one
of our country's chief worries had to do
with the danger of runaway imitation
in a booming economy. But today,
although the cost of living has yet to
reflect the fact, our prime national con-
Germ is centered on denationary BUSH
ness recession (some prefer to call it
a "depression") that has thrown more
than As million Americans out of work
Our highest unemployment figure In
eight years.
This is an undeniably serious fact. Z
Certainly, If the downswing continues,
If there is snowballing of production
cutbacks in the automotive and other
key industries, If investors in general
succumb to bearish psychology and
engage in sort of sitdown strike Of
capital, then the United States, together
with the free world at large, is likely to
run into some very hard times. Such
possibility already looms large in po-
litical minds. UNDERSTANDABLE enough,
for example, the Democrats, with an eye
on next November's congressional cleo
tionS, are viewing the situation with
great alarm, and few of them are
Sparing no effort to suggest that PreSi-
dent Eisenhower and his Republican
administration have been leading us
down a primrose path to what might
become crash as bad as that of 1929.
The Republicans, of course, are not
unaware of the political implications
involved in all this. And so they argue,
with impressive support from experts
who have been teStifying recently before
the Joint Congressional Economic Com
mittee, that our 1858 economy is not
comparable to the one that existed 80
years ago; that it is immeasurably more
resilient; that it is still employing about
81 million civilian workers; that it has
built-in safeguards against repetition
of 1929; and that there is ample reason
to hope and expect that its current
troubles will be over before the year
ends, probably even before the November
elections The President shares this
view. AS he has put it, II believe that
we have had most OF. our bad news on
the unemployment front. /. i. Every indi-
cation is that March will see the start
of a pickup. ;. the beginning of the end
OF the downturn. ="
1t may be that events will fail to
justify such optimism, but the President
has cited numerous forces that tend
very strongly to promote a vigorous, ex-
banding economy. Not the least Of these
is the fact that our population continues
to grow at rate of 8 million year,
which means that we are annually
adding. to our domestic market the
equivalent Of new State with as many
people as live in Louisiana or Minnesota.
In a long-term sense, this calls for
steadily mounting production to meet
the needs Of 80 million additional
Americans every decade. AS for the
short-run picture, Mr.. Eisenhower has
made persuasive case for the view that
the present recession should be put to
rout, within matter of months, by
such measures as his post Office building
program, stepped-up housing construc-
ton, easier credit policies, increasing
highway OUTLAWS and the accelerated
placement of defense procurement
contracts.
Although it is always hazardous to
be dogmatic about what is likely to hap
pen in national economy as enormous,
as complex and as sensitive as ours,
there is good reason to believe that this
presidential confidence is based on some
thing much more solid and substantial
than mere wiShful thinking. In fact,
despite what the CaSSandras have been
saying, the chances seem better than
even that we will be enjoying a real
recovery by the time November rolls
around.