Page Two THE PILOT, Southern Pines and Aberdeen, North Carolittft Friday, April 19, 1935^ THE PILOT Published every Friday by THE PILOT, Intorporat*^, Aberdeen and Southern Pines, N. C. NELSON C. HYDE, ManaginK Editor JAMES BOVI> STRl’THERS BURT WALTER L1PP>IANN Contributing Editors SubKoriptlon Rates: One Year $2.00 Six Months $1.00 Three Months .50 Address all communications to The Pilot, Inc., Southern Pines, N. C. Entered at the Postcffice at South ern Pines, N. C.. as second-class mail matter. CONGRESS AND AVAR PROFITS BY WALTER LIPPMAN The underlying question pre sented by the agitation about war profits is whether the Unit ed States should now pass laws that at the declaration of war there shall be an automatic con scription of persons and prop erty and a complete military dictatorship. The traditional American policy has been to have the Congress which declares the war and the succeeding Con gresses which continue it decide what drafts on the life and pi’op- erty of the nation are required and are justified. It has been as sumed that while the war pow'- ers of the President were very great, they should remain sub ject to the control of Congress. That control consisted in the power of Congress to grant or to refuse man power and funds. This democratic control of the con duct of war would be swept away un der the program which Senator Nye and Representative McSwain are sponsoring. Both bills provide that once war is declared the President can commandeer at the price he fixes the total resources of the American people, and both imply, though they do not appear specifically to say so, that he may conscript an unlimited army. They also, though they do not specifically say so, vest him with powers over all business which could, without any practical difficulty what ever, be used to establish complete control of the printing press, the ra dio and other means of discussion. Maybe that is the kind of w’ar ma chine we ought to have. But we should not set it up unintentionally, as an accidental consequence of a desire to deal with profiteers, or un der the delusion that it is anything but what it is: a proposal to create an omnipotent war machine. My own view is that once the people take a good look at this thing they will re coil from it — as the House already has from conscription—saying that they are not going to suspend repre sentative government and have a war dictatorship all signed, sealed and ready for instant delivery in order to have the satisfaction of feeling that at some date in the unknown future, during a war of an unknown char acter, certain men wlii not make ex cessive profits. these bills became so blindly inter ested in preventing war profits that they did not realize that they were setting up conscription and dictator ship as the supposed remedies. In their passion to catch every lEist prof iteer they extended the executive war power to the absolute limit in the feai’ that anything less than an ab solute dictatorship might fail to catch a profiteer. The result is grotesque. For however great may be the in fluence of war profiteers in ferment ing and prolonging wars, no sane man can have any doubt that an ab solute military machine is a much greater danger to peace. The sup pression of war profiteers does not require, and would not be worth the cost if it did require, the destruction of democratic control over war and the establishment in America of an automatic military aasolutism. As a matter of fact, there is no rea son why Congiess could not Icgi.slate intelligently to deal with war profit eers. The tax provisions of the Nye bill, or some modification of them, could be separated from the rest of the bill and put on the statute books. They are probably too drastic and would probably defeat themselves in some measures for that reason, but in principle they are sound enough. Tax ation is the most effective way of reaching war profits. Moreover, the more the country taxes and the less it borrows, the less war inflation it will have. The enactment of such a w'ar tax bill would be a very different thing from giving the President complete power to commandeer everything and it would not seriously tie the hands of Congress after war was declared. If, for example, it seemed desirable, as it did in the last war, to increase the production of wheat by offering high prices and large profits for wheat, the law could be amended. For there is nothing so automatical ly absolute about a tax bill as there is about thw conscription of life and property. Civic Loyalty Pays Big Dividends Sponsored by CAMERON’S REALTY AND INSURANCE CO. Try Your Home Town First balance when the festivities end ed. The week can well be con sidered a splendid success. It at tracted many visitors, it held over our winter guests w’ho woul