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Show Profits Promote Production The War Production Board, in its review of war production, says that "the unprecedented ' wartime expansion may ... be no more than a short-lived demonstration dem-onstration of the flexibility and power of American industry when put to a supreme test." This is obviously giving too much credit to "American industry." indus-try." The nation's output,, according ac-cording to the report, increased by at least forty per cent and while much of the $25,000,000,000 that went into plants and equipment equip-ment represented non-convertible expenditures, the facts reveal that nearly every industry, except ex-cept printing and publishing, wearing apparel and shoes, expanded. ex-panded. Interested citizens will wonder what made the expansion possible. possi-ble. The answer can be found in one word: "Profit." The WPB admits that profits "soared." It says that "after paying increased in-creased taxes, profits for the five years, 1940 to 1944, ballooned 120 per cent" and that "net working capital doubled." Those who support the private enterprise system should not blind themselves to the obvious facts that explain the amazing industrial production of the U-nited U-nited States during the war years. A potent influence was the U-nited U-nited States Treasury which poured out dollars in astronomical astronom-ical numbers, presenting the lure of attractive profits to industry, which, it must oe admitted, re- sponeded in splendid fashion. j This means that the problem j before us at the present time is to discover a method of produc- ing a similar flow of dollars to provide such profits and stimulate stimu-late the production of peacetime goods. It may prove to be a difficult task but it must be accomplished ac-complished if what we call the free enterprise system is to be permanent. |