Show communists am await ie press on m in V S reds see nations economy gravitate gravitating i toward disaster by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator washington there are a good many ways to judge the moods of official washington sometimes you can assay them the moment you read the latest statement of the bureau of labor statistics sometimes you can interpret them in terms of the number of press and radio conferences that are NOT cancelled or the number of presidential or cabinet fishing trips that are scheduled sometimes you can read the story in the congressional record or the gallup poll but in recent times ond of the best barometers of washington emotions some of my deep dashers tell me is the facial andor oral expressions of the professional communists who inhabit the carefree district t of columbia to help you understand the above some somewhat Ahat understandable un understand able statement let me refresh your memory concerning the K r e m I 1 ins m most 0 S t cherished desire that dearest wish as you know is a great big all out replica of the depression of 0 1929 for the united states lets step tor for a moment lato into the sanctum sanctorum of the soviets baukhage hage no I 1 boy josef josce alias marshal stalin the following Is an excerpt from the official transcript of a conversation between harold stassen ot of minnesota and josef stalin of geor gia eia USSR not georgia USA stassen our oar problem now Is to see to it that we do not have a depression an economic crisis stalin do you yon expect a crisis stassen I 1 do not with wise policies we can avoid a crisis 0 0 stalin do american industries have a lot of orders Is that true and that american factories cant keep pace with them and that all factories are r running per cent Is that true stassen Et assen tes Y e s substantially but they are largely domestic orders stalin but that Is the most important magazine analysts and the american press carry open reports to the effect that an economic crisis will break out stassen the problem Is one ot of stabilizing wit without h having an economic crisis stalin but what about business men will they be prepared to be regulated arid and restrained stassen no some win will have objections stalin yes tes they do that Is a verbatim record with omissions which do not affect the context they reveal keen interest in our domestic economy and any prospective depression in that economy the conversation took place in the kremlin on april 9 ot of this year A friend of mine a financial expert met a communist acquaintance who was bubbling over with joy the reason for his gayety gaiety the ne tact fact that he foresaw a real depression for the united states later the financial man again met the communist informed him he was sorry to hurt his feelings but that there was going to be only a mild recession which would serve to check the boom no bust would follow that was the opinion of most of the experts government industry and labor at that time the whole country despite the fact that business was booming seemed to be aware of the dangers of inflation furthermore people were in the mood to check extravagances tor for example the newburyport and other price cutting experiments it appeared there would be a slight recession that it would relieve the labor tension and encourage more efficiency on the part of workers and management also it would adjust inventories bring down real estate prices so that people could buy homes reduce the cost of living and in general take the wind out of the sails of a boom that might be followed by a bust that was in april well along about the middle of july the communist ran into the financial expert again again the communist was smiling well he leered happily wheres your mild recession that hat was going to take the wind out of the sails of boom and bust lie ile sniffed the breeze blowing oft off the potomac a couple of times and added as it if he had bad caught the scent of attar of roses smells a lot like 1929 to me the communist went on obviously enjoying himself john lewis got the biggest wage settlement indis in his history you say wage increases were inflationary what are the other labor leaders going to do I 1 hear something about an increase in the price of steel as well as coal and what about the other side more loose change in peoples pockets congress talked about letting the boys have cash for their terminal leave bonds that do much to pull down prices and releasing credit controls on installment buying and the railroads saying they cant pay their coal bills without a freight rate increase congress tried twice to cut taxes too right where it would do high prices the most good where he asked again wheres this recession and all the serious thought about checking a boom with that the communist walked off chuckling in his beard my financial expert admitted he be answer him its this way he said to me afterward people feel about inflation the way they felt about sin everybody Is against it but they want to get theirs |