Show LOOKING AHEAD By George S. S Benson President Harding College Gambling On n Disaster A friend of mine is building a ne v ne new v home He frankly admits he is not financially able to pay for it on the basis of his present income Hes He's gambling on inflation If because because because be be- cause of inflation the dollar continues to lose purchasing power the house my friend is building may cost him only half as much or even only a tenth as much as it is valued on the basis of today's dollar In other words if inflation in inflation inflation in- in continues he figures his income in unit dollars will willbe willbe willbe be doubled within about five years without his real earning capacity or actual to day-to-day purchasing power having been improved With his additional supply of the cheaper dollar he then could easily pay the fixed installments on his home If my friend wins his gamble the people who hold the mortgage on his home will find his notes being paid off with dollars for the dollar they paid to his bu building contractors contractors' con con- tractors tractors' Thus they would lose in proportion to his gain But it is infinitely more serious than that If my friend wins his gamble on a substantial degree of inflation continuing for another five years the national economy may go on to ter Values would be virtually wiped out and a likely result would be economic collapse and probably panic and in the end he likely would lose his unpaid-for unpaid home in a severe depression Basis o of f Strength The strength of America as a nation among nations is based on the stability of our economy Our production for national defense as well as our peacetime progress is founded on that stability Production depends on the ability of our industries and farms to pay our workers a wage that can be transformed into the necessities of life If fiscal conditions should become excessively strained the pillars of f our prod productivity productivity c- c would begin to crumble Every sober-minded sober economist in the country is wor wor- ried The worry also extends to all those in our government I who believe in the American freedom system and want it to survive Its chances of survival are good if political expediency expediency expediency is tossed out the window and sound reasoning and a spirit of patriotic service is immediately brought into the consideration of our growing acute monetary problems The chances arent aren't good if this isn't done A Ei Warning A few evenings ago in St. St Louis I sat at a dinner and heard a blunt warning voiced by Dr Walter E. E head of the Department of Economics of New York University and andone andone andone one of the nations nation's foremost authorities on public finance I The dollar he said is His going to be worth about lOc in purchasing purchasing purchasing pur pur- chasing power unless the nation wakes up from its monetary dream Large income figures large totals of of insurance of profits of of wage payments all in ter terms ms of a depreciated dollar serve to feed our illusions Our mounting and fabulous figures on life insurance totaled billion in 1949 But we say say nothing about the fact that this total has less value than the billion in 1932 or the billion of 1939 We are in the temporary stage of widespread enjoyment of the intoxication of rising prices The illusions are similar to those of the opium ker Something To Do DoWhen When you consider the fact that since 1940 the dollar has lost nearly 50 per cent of its purchasing power the loss lossis is bigger in the house building field Dr warning carries added authority We must call a halt haIt to inflation now But how 1 Balance the federal budget 2 Reduce non-military non expenditures to a point where the addition of the necessary big preparedness program will still permit the taxpayers to we pay-as-we-go without g commerce 3 Establish a stable backing for the U. U S. S currency 4 Restore confidence in the stability of government securities so the debt can be widely distributed in the form of cf savings bonds thus reducing the supply of inflationary money 5 Resolve all of us to temporarily sacrifice a substantial substantial substantial sub sub- degree of our present living standard to meet the the national preparedness cost If the people of America get actively behind such a program my home-building home friend will lose his gamble on continued inflation but his and everybody else's chance of of owning a home and continuing to live in a free prosperous America will be immeasurably enhanced Ii I |