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Show PEACE WITHOUT PANIC -By- George S. Benson Business depression is not the price of peace. If peace could be bought with agreements to undergo severe financial reverses and give up many things we have now, the American people would accept the terms bravely, almost unanimously. Peace would be worth it but peace can not be bought that way. If war should end tomorrow, practically everybody in the United Unit-ed States would meet a sudden setback in money matters. However, the best economic minds in this country believe such a calamity car. be avoided, that hard times after this war are not necessary. Among them are Bernard M. Baruch, John M. Hancock and others whose profound knowledge of economics is nowhere disputed. The recently published Baruch report, of which Mr. Hancock is co-author and in which many distinguished students of business had a hand, is too big and important to cover in a one-column discussion. It sets up provisions absolutely necessary to post-war prosperity, essential to the life of Democracy and Private Enterprise. It proposes things this column has upheld as principles for two years. Prosperity For Farmer ... At present America has prosperity. Factories of this country have never been busier than now; jobs were never easier to get; workers were never better paid. Many people are living well, dressing dress-ing well, setting good tables. Workers always manage to live somehow some-how but now, when they live well, rural people prosper. Farmers get good prices for as much as they can grow because factories are busy. This scares many people : Two-thirds of what American factor-ries factor-ries are making these days, 66 2-3 measured by dollar voume (call it 5 billion dollars a year) consists of war goods stuff nobody needs in time of peace. But why worry if, as the report implies, peace can create an equal number of jobs or more Government Can Assist . . . To save our way of life, we Americans must be kept busy, but how? The report says by making it possibe for factory owners to keep their plants busy. The program has two main features: (1) To get government out of business and (2) to facilitate the reconversion recon-version of war plants to peace-time production. All manufacturers of war goods will be anxious to switch quickly into peace-time pursuits if possible. Government can help (a) by terminating war contracts promptly and paying plant owners frn most of their war work before finishing all the tedious details of final settlement, "(b) by moving government owned machinery from privately-owned plants, clearing decks for peacetime production, and (c) by cash loans. Moral support can come from Washington also, (a) By getting entirely out of business, government can encourage private competition competi-tion most effectively, (b) By systematic disposal of excess war materials, mater-ials, government can save many markets from ruin, (c) By fixing a ceiling on taxes, government can keep many businesses going that otherwise would die. Sound economy, hard work and good sense will save Democracy and guarantee prosperity. . |