THE NEWS - JOURNAL, RAEFORD. N. C
THURSDAY. MAY 13, 143
3
I
FOl'RTH TERM THINKING.
. Washington is like all other cities
ithat are interested in the talk of a
"fourth term" for President Roose
velt. The majorities of the. popula
Jtion seen to think that Mr. Roose
velt will a.ain be the candidate of
his party. An old Pennsylvania pro
,verb deciurod that "no one can be
hanged for thinking.'' The people
change their line of "thinking" on
very short notice, especially in war
time. They may think differently
in 1944 from the way they think in
this year of 1943. In fact Oscar
Wilds once mentioned the fact that
thinking" is unhealthy, "and people
die of it just as they die of any other
disease."
O
PATRIOTIC INVESTORS
With the success of the second war
Iran campaign, it is clear that the
American people are not forgetting
the value of investing iit the future
or their country. Viewed as a
straight business proposition, it
w uld bo hard to find ; sounder in
wt:nint But we know that is not,
the real purpose behind American i
purchases of war bonds. It is plain !
American patriotism the desire to ;
gi e every assistance to our lighting '
men, tiie desire to see our nation vie ;
to' ious in a righteous war. ',
An on Standing example of how j
Ar-erio.ms :eel about war bond pur
c'i...cs . provided by the recent an
r. i.ntvmer.t by C. E. Wilson, presi- j
d.-s:t of General Motors, that em !
pi, yes of th Corporation throughout j
tl.o cou::ry have purchased, through'
p.v r'.iir deductions, war bonds with1
a maturity value of more than $100.- ,
O'iO.fHii). This is in addition to their:
cah purchases of bonds, of!
which the company has no record. ;
Ciiri-en'tri 363.563 G. M. workers
9" per . c".: of "the number employed
are p..: i tically and wisely invest
uig a portion of their earnings in Se
rie' "E" o.ir.ds. Thus far they have
purclnx-d C.058.838 certificates.
" Mr. V'r.v n pointed out that all of
tl.io I: "1 been done on a wholly vol
uc.taiv '..-.'-is. with the Corporation,
nCvcirwi to handle deductions, pur- j
chse '''.ct deliver the bonds only at
fie employe's request. This is a .
lire demonstration of the manner in j
wl.ich 3 b: job can be done when !
every inj works together in a com- j
urn cmsf, and with justifiable pride'
all G. .M. plants are displaying this 1
n'Oisj); .- from the Secretary .ol the j
Treasury. " !
"Coiuratulations to the employes j
of General Motors wh.o..,;fl; addition
to producing the tools for victory,
Lave purchased more than S100.000.-j
000 wo' th of War Bonds during the t
'Save and Serve for Victory' cam- I
paign. May the second anniversary
of this program show even greater
accomplishment in War Bond pur
chases." Indeed, in the light of this record,
one is inclined to agree wi'h Mr.
Wilson when he says, "we have ev
! ery reason to believe that this tine
i showing will be maintained or even
! exceeded in the future."
O
I
Orphans Give Sacred Concert at
Hickory Grove Church.
Hickory Grove Church. Free Will
Baptist was the scene of Home Com
ing and all day services Sunday. A
large crowd came out to hear Rev.
Austin Becao of Rockingham preach
in the morning. Dirmer was then
served on the grounds to a large
crowd.
In the afternoon the concert class
from the Baptist Orphanage gave a
Sacred concert which was very
much enjoyed.
The people of Raeford and the
congregation responded generously
when collection was taken. An even
one hundred dollars was given. Rev.
W. H. Ivey is very grateful for the
hearty response.
O
FREIGHT BY FLIGHT
Preventing Inflation
The Right Plan And the Wrong
Way
National Master Clearly Analyzes
the Case
There are two distinct schools of
A year ago the handling of the j
"air cargo" was in the tnal stages. I
Air ships were increasing their loads '
of mail, express and freight, and the j
growth of the "freight by flight" was I
almost unbelievable. But now the j
figures are added and reported. The j
air lines increased their cargoes ;
108 per cent in 1942 over 1941.
The domestic air lines carried a
total of 40.101.657 pounds of express.
and flew 40,096.554.805 pound miles
of mail. The revenue passenger
miles flown in 1942 were 1.398,042,
146. The air lines, under contract with
the armed forces, are engaged in
transport services to the principal
battle fronts of the world men and
boys from your own locality.
O 1
CONCERT WELL ATTENDED
The sacred concert held at the
Presbyterian Church Sunday even
ing sponsored by the Chaminade
Masic Club was well attended. It
was a most inhpiring occasion.
Everybody joined in the singing and
the anthems rendered were very
beautiful.
O
Mr. and Mrs. Ben Frazier have
rooms at Mrs. C. W. Seates. Mr.
Frazier is mechanical adviser in U.
S. Corvs of Engineers stationed at
Fort Bragg.
AUTOMOBILE TRUCKS
ALL MAKES
v WRECKING SERVICE
DAY
Phone
2-101
AND
NIGHT
Phone
533-6
GOOD USED CARS
Or.'y a FEW left These have good tii- and are in good
mechanical condition
C .n.iLtlt us and our experienced mechanics.
3
HOKE AUTO CO-
f Phone 230-1 Chevrolet Agency-
thought with reference to the con
trol of inflation. One school favors
establishing price ceilings, enforced
by fines and penalties. The other
advocates making use of economic
forces by increasing production of
goods and controlling purchasing
I power. The former is based on an
economy of scare ity and requires a
huge army of enforcement agents.
The latter is based on an economy
of abundance and is largely self
enforcing. The former is bureau
cracy nt the height of its glory. The
latter is a decentralized approach
to a tough problem. The passage
'and veto of the Bankhead Bill is the
! result of a clash between these two
! groups.
The President first attempted to
j prevent inflat on by the price ceil
ing method. A number of reasons
contributed to the failure, but two
are outstanding. First, he tried to
control prices without controlling
labor, although everyone knew it .
couldn t work. Second, the price
ce lings strangled production, as
they have always done whenever
tried.
When the program failed, the
President called for more power.
Then Congress took a hand. It rea
lized that the President was trying
to do an imvossible thing, some
thing that had been tried many
times and had always failed. It
recognized that the basic cause of in
flation is the pressure of increased
income on decreasing supplies, and
that the price ceilng method yas
reducing the supplies and protect
ing a fast increasing income. In
other words, it was essentially infla
tionary.
Congress Favors Abundance
Congress determined that we
should adopt the abundance meth
od of attack, and wrote into the
Price Act of October 2nd certain
limitations designed to protect the
nation against food shortage. They
first attempted to assure farmers pro
duction costs by placing certain lim
its on ceiling. Since the existing
parity formula (which was used) is
completely cockeyed, it was recog
nized that the limits established were
far from effective on many commod
ities merely an expression of in
tent so a verv definite mandate was
written into the Act to prevent abuse
The Act provided that modification
shall be made in maximum prices
... in any case where it appears
that such modification is necessary
to increase the production of such
commodity for war purposes ; or
where . . . the maximum pr ces will
not reflect . . . increased costs.
Immediately upon passage of. this
Act the President issued an execu
tive order which ignored these two
mandates and stuck to the original
impossible price ceiling method. It
has failed again, and will continue
to fail, because it violates basic econ
omic law. The reason is simple.
The price ceiling method ignores
costs. There are hundreds of kinds
of uncontrollable costs, largely aris
ing from war dislocation. They
spring up in ten thousand localities
and when the costs bump into the
ceilings, production is strangled, and
the produce!" either reduces produc
tion or quits. In the aggregate we
create an enormous shortage. Price
ceilings never created a pound of
food. They reduce production, cre
ate shortages and "black markets,"
in which the weathly get what they
want at exorbitant prices, and the
poor do without.
Inflation never exisited where
there was an abundant supply of
goods. The remedy therefore is to
encourage abundant production. Af
ter prices are adjusted to meet costs
and encourage production, if a short
age still exists, the answer is to re
duce the demand to fit the supply.
This can be done in two ways.
Two Methods of Control.
The first way is by rationing) It
is possible to create a surplus by ra
tioning, and a surplus is the most ef
fective medium for controlling pri
ces. Witness the recent meat short
age with the "black markets." In
less than a week after rationing was
established, butchers had more meat
than they could sell. They began
cutting prices. Thev reduced their
orders to wholesalers and packers,
and rapidly the surplus is working
its way back to the producer. This
is plain economics and does not re
quire an army of accountants and
snoopers. Production will soon fit
itself to the demand.
The second way of reducing de
mand to vt the supply is to syphon
off excess income by forced savings
and income taxes. We have 35 bil
lion, dollars in excess income seeking
to buy consumer goods. A large
part of this should be used to pay
taxes to help meet the enormous war
bill, and much of the balance should
go into savings to be available for
use when the war is over. So far,
our only concern has been to pre
vent most people from paying any of
the increased costs of war dislocations
We must have the political courage
to face the issue.
It ia onlv fair to the President to
say that he recognizes the serious
ness of the food shortage. Where
Ok
IS -
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i
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Rtleutd b? V. S. War Department Rurriu of Tul !:
WINDOW CLEANING IN ALASKA Sergt. Dick Haiclhurst, of Peoria, Illinois, back ti.,iu t.-;. ..
ing Jap bases on the Aleutians, cleans the windows of his B-'.'5. The crew is proud of tin.- 'auii o
"Jughcad Yokum" painted on the bombers nose.
production costs bump into price ceil
ings, he proposes to postpone the
day of reckoning by paying subsi
dies to keep farmers in business. In
this column we have given many
reasons before why subsidies should
not be used, so we will convne our
present comments to three reasons,
only emphasizing the fact that the
other reasons are none the less val
id, although they are not repeated.
Reasons For Avoiding Subsidies
First Farmers have no assurance
that Congress would be short-sight
ed enough to provide hundreds of
millions in subsid es, and without
such assurance are not likely to plan
crops which bid fair to result in loss.
Second It would be impossible to
man a force b g enogh to examine
into the millions of cases and prove
losses.
Third Let us assume that prices
are held below cost and farmers are
granted subsidies to keep them in
production: As- the war progresses
and costs rise, subsidies must go up,
and we develop an increasingly un
peace comes and we have to balance
balanced price structure. When
the budget, subsidies would be one
of the first items to be cut out. Then
either the farmers would have to in
crease prices or go out of business.
If we refuse to pay production costs
when we have 35 billion dollars of
surplus income, what chances would
there be of raising prices when in
come and employment start down?
The answer is none. Agriculture
would face a collapse worse than
that which followed the last war.
We want none of it.
The vetoed Bankhead bill attempt
ed to force the Administration to fol
low the mandate of the Price Control
Act and abandon its hopeless price
ceiling program. The issue is wheth
er Congress has the power to do this.
It is unfortunate that the Bankhead
bill appears necessarv to secure com
pliance with the law. It is also un
fortunate that the issue should be
raised just when labor is demanding
substantial wage increase, for talk
of the danger of inflation beclouds
the fact that Congress is really insist
ing on a more effective method of
preventing inflation than is now con
templated.
A Four-Point Program
In our judgment, rigid price con
trols are causing serious food short
ages and speeding the day of infla
tion. They should be abandoned at
once. In their place we should have
a four-step program:
1. Encourage abundant production,
and where necessary use support
pr;ccs for that purpose.
2. Use rationing to keep the de
mand in balance with the supply.
Coordination of lease-lend and mili
tary purchases and storage with ci
vilian needs should be effected.
3. Syphon off a substantial part of
surplus income through forced sav
ings and income taxes.
4. Use price ceilings only in pe
riod of transition or to prevent pro
fiteering. Fraternally,
A. S. Goss,
Master National Grange.
O
METHODIST CIRCLES HILL MEET
The Circles of the Society of
Christian Service 'of the Methodist
Church will meet Monday, May ,17,
at four o'clock at the church. v :
2t
Motli
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o
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-O
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o
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