Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-12-08 | Page 2 | U. S. Business Men Told Slumps Are Inevitable

U. S. Business Men Told Slumps Are Inevitable NEW YORK, Dec. 8 (AP) Periodical recession in business cannot be avoided, Sumner H. Slichter, professor of business economics econom-ics of the Harvard graduate business school, told the National As- sociation of Manufacturers today.' Hence, he said In a prepared address, ad-dress, business and government should, during periods of good business, busi-ness, make provisions for these periodical recessions. Lewis J. Taber. master of the national na-tional grange, was another speaker at the association's convention. He asked for "enlightened fellowship and teamwork" on the ' part of ail -elements of the population. I Policies Cited ! Slichter said four principal pol-' lines have been advocated for fight-' ing depressions: Relief to debtors; price level reductions through deflation; de-flation; price level increases by inflation: in-flation: maintenancs or increasing consumer purchasing power. Slichter spoke at length of "deficit "def-icit financing" as a means of increasing in-creasing consumer purchasing power. "Despite our recent unsatisfactory ! experience with deficit financing,1 the case in favor of it is very strong." he said. "Ours is a society in which business spending is bound to drop whenever the future looks less favorable. When business spending spend-ing deepai sswsuasee puraaaainsj -i power drops, and business becomes; still less profitable. Obviously, a' society so vulnerable to business recession re-cession as ours needs to protect itself. it-self. I Plan Advanced "In future depressions, deficits t and scientific study on the part of agriculture, industry, labor and consumer con-sumer said: "It is time to banish jealousy and strife and substitute enlightened fel- liks the term "profit system' or "capitalistic "cap-italistic system.' I prefer rather that we call itthr 'Anglo-Saxon' or the 'American way of life." W. W. Shoemaker, vice president of Armour Co., urged industry generally to combat forces which unbalance the price relationships between industry and agriculture, such as "wars; the restriction of free competition; the unnatural influence in-fluence with the flow of trade and transportation; excessive debts and taxation that burden consumers with higher prices, and credit conditions con-ditions which lead to Inflation or deflation." de-flation." Farmers Put First The parallel interests of industry and sgriculturerhesald, arefio-where arefio-where more apparent than in purchasing pur-chasing power. "It is essential to the welfare of manufacturing industry that the farmers receive fair prices for the raw materials they produce," he said. VlltUlU -( J11UI.I1 III Bait; r. .Will. I, II- nancing should be provided not through the general budget, but through the medium of unemployment unemploy-ment reserves, "My analyju Indicate! that basinets basi-nets every now and then U bound to turn down been use pro pec La for profits become unfavorable and that theae downturns cannot be entirely avoided. If business is in a strong technical position when a downturn occurs, the recession will not be prolonged pro-longed and perhaps it will not be .severe. Keeping business in a strong-technical strong-technical position involves the following: fol-lowing: "1. Keeping short-term indebtedness indebt-edness within moderate limits. "3. Protecting consumer purchasing pur-chasing power . . . through building build-ing up large unemployment reserves. re-serves. "4. Maintaining . . . industrial research on a large scale ..." Taber, pleading for cooperation