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Show News ax BehindM By BmjlMallon js?' Released by Western Newspaper Union. MISMANAGED ECONOMY BRINGS CONFUSION APLENTY WASHINGTON. The peculiarities of what can happen to plenty in a managed or mismanaged economy, such as the government has undertaken under-taken in the war (leading to shortages short-ages at the dinner table when a reasonable rea-sonable plenty exists on the farms) can best be illustrated by what is happening In hogs. Lately, hogs have been rushed to packing houses so fast that experts term the condition "panicky." Even light-weight pigs and young sows bave been pushed to market at an alarming rate. There are several reasons. I The shortage of feed, the difficulties difficul-ties and cost of farm labor prac-I prac-I tically forced the farmer to sell more I than he otherwise would. Under these conditions, he could.be expected expect-ed to do nothing else. Yet this plentiful supply is not all going on to the consumers either in the army or out of it Storage figures in the packing trade indicate indi-cate large quantities of meats are being held back under government Jirection under a policy similar to that which has also caused the holding hold-ing back of stocks of butter. Presumably, the government wants to accumulate supplies for the future when the natural reaction to the current panicky packing business busi-ness will result in shortages of supply. sup-ply. Only a portion of the plenty, therefore, there-fore, is reaching the public, and even this portion, as every consumer knows, seems to be largely of an Inferior grade and quality. The best cuts just do not seem to be available. avail-able. Some of the supply, no doubt, is going go-ing into the varicolored markets. There are many other phases of handling han-dling between farmer and consumer. consum-er. In all the various phases of this management, plenty is dissipated dissi-pated before it reaches your eye, or even the grocery store. OTHER PRODUCTS ALSO Precisely the same conditions are true of beef, and the same results are evident in dairy products, although al-though brought about by an almost opposite situation. There, a good common grade milk cow can bring over $200 in the present pres-ent market against $75 to $85 before the war, because of the restricted price of butter and milk, and the shortages and costs of both feed and labor. Pure-bred milk cows are bringing enormous prices, varying from $700 to $1,000. These cows are being bought up by dairymen looking to the future with an idea of breeding. Yet shortages prevail in all the varied products. It never seems to come out even. If any human set out to create a shortage in a time of plenty, he would have encountered far more difficulty in accomplishing it than the managed economy has been able to do while striving in the opposite direction. The setup was supposed to provide pro-vide us all with a fair share of what is left after army needs, but it has run contrary to human nature and natural laws and has wound up a rather mangled economy. Certainly no one will contend it has provided equal distribution. To me it proves, at least, that managed economies are impossible. CONVERSION OF INDUSTRY WILL BE DIFFICULT Peacetime business conversion will be as difficult as the conversion of Industrial plants to war. The problem prob-lem of every individual plant will differ in some respect. Best picture of the situation has been presented by Chrysler's president, K. T. Keller. He showed the George committee that Chrysler has converted 16,000 of its 20,000 tools to war work, and today to-day has 19,227 tools owned by the government. These government tools will have to be cleared from the plant before Chrysler can start to make automobiles again. Then what to do about the tools? They cannot all be converted to auto use, but he said Chrysler would buy some, and the government may wish to use others in arsenals. Obviously, Ob-viously, the government is going to become involved in the greatest second-hand industrial junk business of all time. Certainly, this situation calls for a clear, immediate declaration of policy pol-icy and the beginning of tremendous detailed work of handling individual plant problems. While WPB has experts with better bet-ter knowledge of conditions than anyone any-one else, much better than the army and navy, for instance, Mr. Baruch probably will recommend creation of an over-all body rather than designation desig-nation of any specific bureau. Only extremely generalized rules can be laid down, however, in view of the variety of conflicting situations situa-tions in plants. If the problem is messed up by bad management, it will dangerously accentuate unemployment unem-ployment difficulties, force contin ued rationing and delay our reiurii to normal |