Show n V spess in U C go ee e I 1 economy ral abing atinoff toward disaster by 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 of 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 one on e of the best barometers of 0 washington emotions some of my deep dashers tell me la Is the facial andor oral expressions 0 of I 1 the professional communists who inhabit the carefree district t of col columbia embla to help you understand the above somewhat understandable un statement let me r fresh your mem p HS 1 1 ory cry concerning c s 1 0 the K r e m I 1 ins ina ra most 0 8 t cherished de desire s ire that dearest wish as you know is a great big all out replica of the de ol of 1029 for the united states lets step for a m moment into the sanctum sanc sanctorum 0 ru m 0 of f the soviets baukhage ale t no I 1 b boy oy josef to ef ich ili alias marshal stalin the following is an excerpt from the official transcript of a conversation between harold stassen of ml minnesota and josef stalin of georgia gi a USSR R not georgia USA stassen our problem now Is to see to it that we do riot not have a depression brer p an economic crisis stalin alln do you expect a crisis Is Is stassen I 1 do not with wise alse p policies policies we ne can avoid a crisis stalin do american industries have hae a lot of orders Is that true and that american factories cant keep pace mth knitli them and that all factories are running per cent Is that true stassen Y yes e a 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 fe c t that an economic cr crisis isis will break out stassen the problem Is one of stabilizing without having an economic crisis stalin but what about b oui bustness business men will they be prepared to be regulated and restrained stassen no some will have objections stalin yes 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 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 fact that he foresaw a real depression for the united states later the finan financial c fal man again met the communist muni st 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 expert s governa government ent industry and labor at that time the whole country despite the fact that business was booming seemed to be aware of the dangers of inal inflation iton 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 es estate late 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 rec recession essio n that was going to take the wl wind ind out of the sails of booman boom boora an and d bust ile he sniffed the breeze blodi blowing na oft 0 ff the potomac Io tomae a couple of times and added as it if he had caught the scent of attar of roses smells a lot like 1929 to me the communist went on obviously enjoying himself john lewis got ohp the biggest wage settlement 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 a bout 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 oft off chuckling in his heard beard my financial expert admitted he 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 vant to get theirs |