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Show c 6nss Moots America ir, It's Time for America To Get Back to Work H lYi'dll WCi'ks, .1 '-(111Umi .uul "uiu.O'iium.i-, "uiu.O'iium.i-, spims..r.'d film eiiiul-d S SKM "-'lUMUl U'U- ' inrll'.n.ll h,,M A,UlM"-ik. A,UlM"-ik. i Iun Kruuiiil in (v worLt nurkol place . i:u) 0H"l'I0J ,it-s to 1,01- countries in ilio - l,st ton or twenty vo.us. In a w.i llu ondiiii; of iho Vietnam war U t ho hmmii.s" of a now or.t for America. Wo nuist . ium turn tlio nation's atu'iition to other prob-j,,,.,.--problems that UU hao a far more istiiij; impact on our count i" and our future " unless wo find vva.v s to '. solve thorn. The decline of Amor i-; i-; c,i's once - do m i u a n t " sioel industry is onlv .: one examp'o. In PP0. , he I'nited States pro- duoed 47 per com of the world's stool. W o ranK- -' industrv. Duriih,' World War 11. America's workers built a ship a dav . Our farm-ers farm-ers produced enough ? food to food our own country and help almost the entire world reeoxer from a devastating war. 4 But something hap- poned durins: the P.UUis. As America's allies recovered re-covered economically, from war. they were busy rebuilding; their industrial in-dustrial plants--often with l".S. aid dollars. The I'nited States, generous gen-erous even when it hurts, opened its domestic markets to low-priced foreign goods. Despite the pleas of hard-struck industries. Washington winked at the unfair tariff restrictions placed on I'.S. goods and services overseas. After Aft-er all. iheargumeru ran. the United States can afford to be generous. Now, it is obvious, Vincrica can no longer afloil to play I ucle Su-Ma Su-Ma r to the world. The ti 'lends and former foes wo helped after World W .ii' II ha e become so-phistieaied so-phistieaied competitors in world trade. Instead of producing almost lulf tu. u,,rld's steel, the I'.S. share is now down to 1;) per cent and we have fallen behind the Sov iet Pnion as the world's o. I steel producer pro-ducer and .lapan is a clo-e third. The I'nited States once held 1J per cent of the world's gold reserves. Now our share is down to a mere eight per cent. While our allies have been piling up a massiv e dollar surplus which has led to two devaluations of the dollar in la months, the I'nited States has taxed its people more and more. Our national debt has passed the Slot! billion mark. Labor has indulged itself it-self in massive in-dusi in-dusi rv - w ide strikes and fostered wasteful work practices which have slowly priced many American Am-erican products out of the world market. Between Be-tween l!Hi." and h!70 productivity pro-ductivity in the I'nited State the amount of goods and services pro-ded pro-ded per man-hour--was the lowest of all the 1-1 major industrial nations. na-tions. Inflation has added to our economic difficulties diffi-culties and two years ago. America wound up w ith its first balance of payments deficit in this century . The balance of pay -ments problem, lagging productivity and inflation infla-tion are s.v mptoms of a much more serious ailment--a curious and debilitating de-bilitating belief that we can somehow sustain our high standard of living w i l hunt rev italiing America's Am-erica's productive capacity capa-city . w iihout serious efforts ef-forts to curb inflation and w iihout calling a halt to needless strikes which cripple whole in-dust in-dust ries. We can no longer afford af-ford those luxuries. We oan no longer afford to keep adding to the national na-tional debt. The devaluation devalu-ation of the dollar and our balance of pay ments problems are signals that America may soon bo called on to pay '.he economic c;.n sequences of its past extravagance. If we heed those signals, sig-nals, if Americans realize real-ize how vital it is for our industries to regain a competitive position in world trade, the decade dec-ade of the 11170s can be a period of prosperity and progress. The time is past when we can safely ignore the economic barometer. There is onlv one way for the I'nited States to maintain main-tain its world industrial leadership. We've got to become a little better acquainted with a four-letter four-letter word spelled "w -o- r-k." |