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Show THE AMERICAN WAY I NATHAN GUESSES AGAIN tWJ m By Gtors Peck-JMIWM Hold your hat! Here 4 we go again! At this writing it looks as though this nation is about to undergo a plague of strikes, perhaps more devastating than the one that hit us last year. The arch villian of this economic eco-nomic drama seems to be Robert Nathan. You will recall that in October, 1945, when this gentleman gentle-man was economist of the OW MR, a report of that alphabetical alphabeti-cal bureau very conveniently "leaked out." This report purported pur-ported to show that corporate profits would reach an all-time high in 1946. Walter Reuther, of the United Automobile Workers, using this report as a pretext, and backed by Henry Wallace in his then official capacity as Secretary of Commerce, thereupon announced announ-ced that the General Motors Corporation would make unpre-i unpre-i cedented earnings in 1946 and I could well afford to pay its workers higher wages, without raising prices. So we had the General Motors strike. Output of cars was suspended, sus-pended, strikes spread through industry, lowered production and higher costs increased prices not only of automobiles but of a great many other commodities, bringing great loss to 140 million Americans, and the greatest loss of all to the General Motors workers themselves. Then after the General Motors workers had lost a strike in winning win-ning it, and not until then, did "honest" Henry Wallace tell the truth, and. repudiate the Nathan report. It was all a mistake, just a wild guess, said Henry. But for many months, while the nation's na-tion's economy was being wrecked, wreck-ed, he deliberately let the public believe the OWMR report was "on the level." Now, Robert Nathan has moved mov-ed from the OWMR. He has set up Robert Nathan Associates in Washington, D, C, an organization organiza-tion which for a fee will furnish advice on things economic. We prophesy there will be no great rush on the part of those needing need-ing business counsel to avail themselves of Mr. Nathan's inexpert in-expert advice. The CIO, however, is a bear for punishment. In view of Nathan's wild guess of a year ago, he should be the last person to whom the. CIO should go for information and advice. But, believe it or not, Robert Nathan Associates has prepared a report for the CIO, and it follows fol-lows the same pattern as the former misleading report it predicts corporate profits in 1947 will reach an all-time high. This report advises the CIO that industry in-dustry can raise wages, without raising prices. Mr. Nathan hedges somewhat by qualiyfing this claim, as he says, "it is reasonably reason-ably conjectured.' That should be a warning to the CIO that Nathan is guessing again. But Mr. Murray, CIO chief naively accepts the Nathan re port as gospel truth. Publicly he has stated that corporation profits pro-fits will be enormous in 1947, and he is ready to plunge the nation into another orgy of strikes, curtailed production, wage loss to workers, and economic eco-nomic loss to every American man, woman and child. These strikes will be called on the basis of future corporate earnings as predicted by the unreliable un-reliable predictor Robert Nathan. Nath-an. That in itself doesn't seem J to make common sense. But even were Nathan correct in his forecast this time, the Principle involved is unsound. Whoever heard of a corporation declaring a dividend on unearned unearn-ed profits? Such a company wduld dividend-pay itself right out of business. Well, strikes for higher wages based on future expected corporate earnings are equally as unsound and disastrous disas-trous as dividends declared on unearned profits. That is a simple sim-ple fundamental of economics that Messrs. Nathan, Murray, Reuther, et al would do well to ponder upon. |
