| Show r a E o f E High e Wages Crop Loans Threaten Cost of Living Considered Price Control Measures Likely Peace Lovers Peace Lovers Lovers' Picket White House I f Hull Reveals Post War Plans Plan t. t By BAUKHAGE z National Farm and Home Hour Commentator Service 1343 H II Street Washington D. D C. C Dollars At last they are beginning to worry Washington Not the ones going out of the treasury treasury we we can take that In our stride But the ones rolling into pay envelopes and start start- starting startIng ing log to burst forth again is such ex ex- excitement excitement ex- ex excitement that everybody is afraid that the noise is going to scare prices up a tall tree Wages today are the highest in history And as one official re re- remarked remarked re- re remarked marked to me If U something isn't done well we'll have inflation and a slump that will be streamlined It will make the timers old-timers wish they had their old Model T depression back again Some people put the blame other places but this is the story that friends of the administration tion tell Leon Henderson price czar hoped to keep prices from running away by using moral suasion or legal ef ef- effort effort ef- ef effort fort to keep industrial prices from going beyond a certain level There were two reasons for that to get down costs in essential defense com com- commodities commodities commodities to control prices on basic materials like steel which always take other costs up when they rise Ise themselves Next to achieve a balance be be- between between tween agricultural prices and oth oth- others others others ers the government would support farm prices up to a certain point Lastly a certain amount of elas elas- elasticity elasticity elasticity in wages would be allowed in order to prevent strikes But what happened Wages Reach Peak Workers demanded and as I stated are getting the highest wages in history Workers wanted to get their slice of the money the government is spending on defense Then the friends of the he farmer came along They said the farmer I might as well cut a melon too while the cutting was good And so congress s voted an increase in crop loan rates rate which the President said might push certain products above parity so the result is more dollars for the consumer r to spend and less things for him to spend them on on especially since the defense indus Indus- industries IndusI Industries industries I tries have to beat their sewing ma ma- machines machines chines into tanks and the like When the demand is big enough and the supply is small enough it tl kes all the kings king's horses and all th tb kings king's men to keep prices down cant can't repeal repe l the law of supply ant an demand However the prospects pros pros- prospects pees pee s are that congress will be asked ask d at least to try to amend it In other words some drastic price con con- control control control measures will be taken A flat fIat ceiling will be established for certain certain certain tain goods and then unless a method is adopted for getting folks to lock lockup lockup lockup up those extra dollars with no place to 9 go nobody knows what will hap hap- pen N IV v Peace Pickets Muddy the Water Muddying the waters It waters it seems to me that I have heard beard that phrase more and arid more m re often recently There is a good example of it right in front of the White House every day day in hi fact 24 hours a day while the Amer Amer- American AmerIcan ican lean Peace Mobilization pickets stroll backward and forward day and rind night I watched them in the bright sun of noon And as I looked at each face face we we stared brazenly at each other other other-I I felt sure some were sincere believers that war of any kind was wrong wrong some some were fanatics joining a cause for the sake of joining Some were simply indulging in an exhibition complex and some were cleverly muddying the waters The leader of the line was a girl girlin girlIn girlIn in a military cut jacket she was carrying a United States flag She looked straight at me as she ap ap- approached approached ap- ap approached and a as she drew nearer I noted the strong st ong oriental cast of her features I Next to her was a man carrying a placard and a lantern the light of peace He had eyes that burned with the light of the fanatic Gray hair sunken checks cheeks the stoop of frustration You have heard the type rant on any emo emo- emotional emotional emotional subject He shuffled past Man Is 18 Self Next was a serious looking aver aver- average average average age man in glasses He was the only one who looked at me a little self He carried ban a der ner with the commonplace request to join the peace movement There were others but by this time I was feeling a little self conscious myself so I grinned at the police police- policemen poU policemen e- e emen men and they grinned grinn d back There were two of them guarding the pickets who had been attacked at least twice by soldiers Two more bluecoats stood at the White House gates for when there are demonstrations no one can en en- enter enter ter the grounds without proper iden iden- As I went in I heard one of them reporting at the call box everything going fine out here her But I wondered Hull Tells Plans For Post War Peace Just a simple bourgeois I A thing of shreds and patches Of fiscal bumps and scratches And monthly bills to pay With apologies to Gilbert and Sul Sul- Sullivan livan I modernize Pooh Nanki-Pooh from the Mikado hoping there will be no reprisals For sometimes I think I it is time the bourgeois who seem I to be so unpopular until the guns begin to shoot and the taxes are levied deserve a word or two And so on one Washington sum sum- summer summer summer mer day recently when I was wak wak- wakened wakened wakened ened by the birdsong in hi the neigh neigh- neighboring neighboring neighboring boring invisible elms I had a sur sur- surprise surprise surprise prise that pleased me As I opened the door and reached for the milk mills the morning papers and the rent bill my sleep dimmed eye caught a cheering headline HULL DEFINES OUR WAR POST-WAR PROGRAM WANTS RAW MATERIALS TRADE FOR ALL That was the first hopeful mes mes- message message message sage for the average guy that my weary eye had met in a long time You may recall that in this year of our discontent one of these col col- columns columns col- col columns began this way There Is a peace-machine peace in Washington all oiled and ready to start the moment the he last gun is silenced in Europe From it may come a plan which the democracies cies can offer to the world as an alternative to to the totalitarian way of life And at a t last the good gray and stubborn gentleman in the state de de- department department de- de department trotted it out to hold up to the he struggling world a promise in in- instead instead instead stead of a threat a hope Instead of ofa a sneer Two hours later a philosophical Communist friend was was sniffing at att atit atit it t as we walked past the treasury building Back to the old ol order he be te said contemptuously Half an hour later a genial con con- conservative conservative conservative was laughing at it It Give Give me good high tariffs thrills he said as asIf asIt It If f he were contemplating a slice of juicy roast ro st beef Perhaps as an style old old st le bour bour- bourgeois bourgeois bourgeois I should have agreed with that hat but I am a bourgeois new style I dont don't know anything about economics but I know what I like like like-I I like ike to think that Secretary of State Hull is right when he says that the seeds of war take root behind any artificial barriers which keep people from getting their share of the earths earth's bounty Five Points in hi Program Mr Hulls Hull's program is the one he has lived by since his early days in congress and the five points which he outlined to the world are his credo credo no no extreme nationalism which would enforce excessive trade restrictions non-discrimination non in international trade relations raw materials of the world available to all nations international agree agree- agreements agreements agreements ments to protect the consumer coun coun- countries countries countries tries and their people international finance run so that all countries can develop their essential enterprises If U these conditions were explained to the middle class people of the world today in Britain and Ger Ger- Germany Germany Germany many in France and Italy in terms of the kind of life me Mr Hull believes his plan would bring and if those people could be convinced that such sucha a plan would be carried out Ill I'll wager they would turn their guns and battle for these five points un under un- un under der any honest leader Unfortunately there were once upon a time 14 points which Wood- Wood Woodrow Woodrow Woodrow row Wilson offered as the basis of peace in 1918 And all those little points were broken off oil short by the gentlemen in Paris who thought they had a better scheme They made a peace which we learned to our sorrow was just a athing athing athing thing of shreds and patches |
