Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-01-26 | Page 6 | Reviving Private Investment

Reviving Private Investment P... iriUkJ T CI VKIkl ! NEW YORK-Slnce the point . has beta made that any cut In federal expenditures must be accompanied ac-companied by a program for the , revival of Investment, the question arises- What v can he done to revive re-vive Investment T The answer to that la not ao difficult, though it may be difficult diffi-cult to put Into practice. First, we should have, not just a slash at government expenditures, expendi-tures, but a program of revival , of which reduction- In expenditures, expendi-tures, methods of providing them and methods of rehabilitating private Industry are aft merely parte. Remember that the number of persona who Initiate long term Investment I small Every man who bays a newly built house en a mortgage makes a long term Investment In-vestment While there are millions mil-lions who do this, the number who initiate house building la comparatively small.' The same thing is even more true In the ease of commercial and non-dwelling non-dwelling construction. Thi 1 carried on Initially In any city by a mere handful of men. The Vital Spots Other sources of long term Investment In-vestment are railroads, utilities, local governments, the federal government and private Industry In the field of manufacture. If we want to know why there is no long term investment, we .must look at these spots ajid ask what is governing the conduct of the small number ef people who must function in these Investment area. To deal with these various sections, sec-tions, two groups of measures are necessary. One group relate to ths separate sections themselves, is local to them. Is required to meet the peculiar problem in those stctlona. The other group la general and includes general policies poli-cies which affect all business. Thus It la a waste of breath to talk about any revival in the railroad rail-road industry as a long term investor in-vestor and beyer until the roads havs been drastically reorganised. But that, you will say, will take time. Alas, that cannot be helped! Because it takes time it should have been begun In 130, certainly in 103.1 That Is waa not la tha fault of those in power. But It must be begun at once. Every delay de-lay la a danger. A Building Job In the field of construction, there must be an overhauling ef financing, malarial supply, contractor con-tractor methods and labor' methods. It is idle to expect a housing boom until these things ars done. Artificial price support In th materials industries, collusion collu-sion among contractors, ths folly and stupidity of labor along with labor rackets must be dealt with realistically and courageously. I am not outlining a program but merely indicating the method of approach' and attack. In addition, addi-tion, a group of measure of general gen-eral import must be undertaken. These general measures must have lu mind the introduction of a greater degree of certainty into the mcney situation. Until this is done it is idle to talk about re- j covery. Copyright, 1934, for The Telegram J