Section 2 5 Toward the 30c Dollar? Stewart Alsop Warns of Peril From Inflation if War Is Ended By Stewart Alsop WASHINGTON. |lights out of the defense produce 10, 1943. A LREADY, an odd dimness sur- tion program, "we shall have a rounds the three men-Mo- 30-cent dollar by the end of 1952." bilizer Charles Wilson, Sta- The consequences are of course PRAVDA CITES STALIN, bilizer, Eric Johnston and Price predictable-industrial unrest, loss Controllez Michael DiSalle-who of confidence in the dollar, DE DENYING IMPERIALISM should towering figures on the mendous increases in political ten- Washington scene. If the fighting sion, and above all a disastrous ends in Korea, moreover, it will gutting of the defense effort. It is Quotes Declaration That Aim Is be surprising indeed if these three when one examines what those to Free Neighbor Nations men do not simply fade away, and best qualified to judge believe is the whole national mobilization needed to get the national econ- program with them. omy under effective control that MOSCOW, Feb. 9 (U.P.) - The A plaintive rhetorical question the herculean nature of the prob- Communist party organ Pravda asked by one of the endless stream lem confronting Wilson, Johnston of business men who daily track and DiSalle becomes clear. today cited Premier Joseph Stalin's Wilson to his lair in the old State May 1 statement as proof that the What is needed, in effect, is a Department building, to complain whole series of measures which in Soviet Government had no terri- about "government interference," other circumstances would mean a corial designs on Europe or Asia or is worth repeating. For it tells a sort of artificially induced depres- any wish to interfere in the do- good deal about the blind com- sion. By definition, each one of placency which accounts for the nestic affairs of a liberated these measures contains political dimness which surrounds Wilson, dynamite. One requirement is a Europe. Johnston and DiSalle. For his tax increase of at least $10,000,- The article, by David Zazlavsky, pains, this business man had re- 000,000 this year, with further in- the newspaper's political observer, ceived from Wilson an impassioned creases to come, to take money out was in reply to speculation ap- lecture on the need for high taxes of the spending stream. and strong controls. "What gets pearing in a Washington news- Another requirement is a dou- into a man like Charlie Wilson," bling of the rate of personal sav- paper. The passage quoted from he asked afterward, "when he ings, to more than $20,000,000,000, Mr. Stalin's speech was as follows: comes to Washington?" to take a lot more money out of "We have not, we cannot have, The same question could be asked the spending eam. But people such a purpose in this war as the about Eric Johnston. who has been are not going to sa dollars which lambasting "the selfish interests" conquest of foreign territories or are constantly losing value. To in a manner unusual for a former foreign peoples in Europe or prevent the dollar from slipping, chief of the Chamber of Commerce. Asia, including Iran. really tough price and wage con- What gets into men like Wilson "Our primary aims are to free trols are needed. So are a tighten- and Johnston is rather obvious. our territory and our people from ing of the credit restrictions- They are able and highly intelli- the German fascist yoke. We have which are the special object of gent men, and they can recognize not, we cannot have, such a pur- hatred of every retail merchant in a hard fact when they see one. the land--an increase in bank re- pose as to impose our will and a and the hard fact they now see serve requirements to tighten bank Slavonic regime on the other en- is that, unless painful measures credit, and a sharp cutback in slaved people of Europe who ex- are taken soon to prevent it, the non-defense business spending. pect help from us. national economy is quite likely "Our purpose is to free these soon to blow up in all our faces. I T IS enough to compare this peoples to fight against Hitler partial list of necessary meas- tyranny, to give them a chance to T HE reasons for this conviction ures with what Congress has voted organize their own affairs accord- are rather simply explained. or is at all likely to vote, now ing to their wills-not interfer- Inflation is caused, of course, by while the fighting in Korea con- ence in internal affairs of other the gap between the amount of tinues. When mobilization offi- peoples." goods the country makes and the cials are asked what Congress will amount of money the country probably do if the fighting ends, spends for these goods. If there is they are likely to throw up their more money than goods, money hands in despair. progressively loses value. There is not much danger that Since the Korean War started, Congress would then heavily cut national production has gone up a defense appropriations-no poli- remarkable 8 per cent. But at the tician likes to risk responsibility same time spending has increased for defeat. The danger is, instead, about 15 per cent. This difference that Congress, obedient as usual accounts essentially for the loss to the lobbies and pressure groups, in value which the dollar has al- will simply destroy the totally in- ready suffered. But without effec- adequate existing measures de- tive controls, much worse is cer- signed to make it possible for the tainly coming. national economy to bear the re- One reliable official forecast is armament strain without disaster. that, without effective stabiliza- This is one reason why it is no ex- tion, spending may increase as aggeration at all to say that a much as 25 per cent in the next truce in Korea will be a greater year, against a production in- test of American stamina than the crease of another 8 per cent. This Korean War itself. means sudden, sickening infla- Copyright, 1951, New York Herald Tribune. Inc. tion. An official guess is that, if The Alsop column also appears Congress achieves its apparent in- in the Herald Tribune Monday, tention of cutting the liver and Wednesday and Friday.