ch citi ®@ President Truman’s economic report concealed evidence -of growing crisis Is the United States © = by GLADYS CARTER : —NEW YORK abies Truman’s economic report to Congress consisted chiefly of glowing references to “frée enter- prise” and of appeals to business for “voluntary price cuts,” “personal restraint,” and so on to insure that the Country remain prosperous. Appended to the report, how- ? ; Costs ever, are tables of statistics Which demonstrate glaringly how far down the road to de- Pression the United States has* already moved. The wide disparity between Truman’s presentation to Con- Sress and the facts revealed in the statistics prepared by his Own economic advisers led I. F. Stone, in an editorial in the New York newspaper PM, to com- ment: “Mr. Truman’s economic re- Port to Congress reminds one of Editorials written in countries like Turkey where it is still Possible for editors to tell the truth but only if they do so obliquely, sneaking in a reveal- ing phrase here, an illuminating figure there, to slip by the cen- Scr unawares.” Though the report “swathes the truth in flabby rolls of pa- ttiotic hoopla,” Stone says, it Shows on careful reading “(1) that we are heading steadily for 4 bust and (2) that recession has already begun.” The | statistics following facts: Real income in the U.S. has declined on a per capita basis al- Most 10 percent since 1944. Real point up the Mcome of farmers has. dropped More than 10 percent. i: Purchasing power in the U.S. S being maintained chiefly by Ca oWing or liquidating savings. acre owed more than $10 On in credit at the end of 4Y, whereas outstanding credit durin Hen, The previous peak, in 1929, 8S $714 billion. Tee low-cost war bonds are Tw & _ Cashed in than _ bought. euee rns of those drawing on /-"ings are doing so to meet on of bare essentials such as » Clothing and medical care. alice eee might well have ey n off substantially months rise eeeort for the unprecedented in n exports, which are reach- 8 $20,000,000,000 this year: y e fc contrast, corporate profits oie, taxes are running at an Beas . rate of $17 billion this * in the best war year, 1943, co. orate profits after taxes We Specifi, $10 billion, Last year they © $12 billion. Here are some ‘© Cases: & the war averaged $5 bil- - @ Auto industry profits have risen’ from the wartime peak of $243 million to an expected $396 million this year. @ Oil profits hit $281 million last year,. are running at $356 million this year. @ Iron and steel earned $283 million last year, are earning $496 million this year. These are all profits after taxes. One of the most significant re- velations to be found in the sta- tistical tables is that the profits are being derived more from in- flationary price increases than from increased output. President Truman’s apparent optimism, dimmed only by a few gentle words of warning to big business, was explained in his expressed conviction that the supply-and-demand factors of a free enterprise economy, plus the public- mindedness of America’s industrial giants, will sooner or later force “voluntary” price re- ductions and thus halt the grow- ing inflation. The latter point hardly re- quires discussion, The conduct, of American industry in the months since price control has been lifted, as cited in Truman’s own statistics, strates the extent of its . public- mindedness. Truman’s other premise, that free enterprise will solve the problem, leads even PM’s liberal editorial writer to declare: “This — is a fallacy which, if persisted — in, will destroy any hope of gov- ‘ernment action to achieve full employment under the employ- ment act. The fallacy is that we have a free market in which free enterprise operates.” To comment on Stone’s com- ment, it might be said that he, too, is indulging in wishful thinking by his phrase “if per- sisted in.’ Truman's report, with its glowing phraseology, comes too late to leave room for any hope that his administration or its colleagues in the Republican party are prepared to introduce the far-reaching controls neces- sary to avoid the almost inevit- able crisis. aia Dann ’ : They never live—in Hollywood by Philip Prichard ® A ghost haunts the Republicans by Gladys Carter _... © Greece underlines the Truman Doctrine by James S. Allen HRN SH MITA DUVVUALLEANHAAtianngy 3 mull Yd) £1) LANE) PSC iin {}B) Pi i Toil | PQ Eee Daversnneseennss INGE E _ Page 10 eattinesatl nnennna Page 11 Page 12 2-8 yuu adequately demon-. New York stock exchange, barometer of American big business. US will veto British plan for Ruhr © —WASHINGTON. HE US. state department is prepared to forbid the Brit- ish government from pursuing its plans to nationalize coal pro- duction in the Ruhr. the high- ly industrialized area of the British occupation zone of Ger- many. There was no mistaking the attitude of U.S. government officials here recently as they talked of the approaching Anglo- American conference on _ the Ruhr. Britain would have to meet American terms, they implied. The alternative was clear with- out it being expressly stated. If the British government refused, there would be no plums from the Marshall plan for hapless Britain. same officials who have loud- ly complained of the Soviet Union’s use of the veto in the © veto against a close ally and UN council, will not hesitate to exercise their own very potent veto against a close ally and comrade-in-arms. } e NISPOSITION of the Ruhr, once known as “the arsenal of the Wehrmach,” has long been the key question in any Ger- man settlement. Before World War Two, this small area (40 miles wide and 60 miles long) In other words, the — produced 70 percent. of Ger- many’s bituminous coal, two- thirds of its steel, and much of its oil, lubricants, explosives and rubber. The French at first wanted it separated from Germany, but now urge that it be adminis- tered by the United Nations. The Russians proposed that it be under the control of the four major powers until a uni- fied, democratic Germany is possible. The British have want- ed to retain its present status as a part of their zone. The US. state department supports the British position, especially since the economic unification of the British and American zones. TH the emergence of the Marshall plan, the American position on the Ruhr has be- come identical with that of Her- bert Hoover and John Foster Dulles. ‘The Ruhr’s coal will be used not to help develop the heavy industry of France, Italy, Po- land, or other countries devast- ated by the Nazi war-machine. On the contrary, it will be used primarily to restore a strong, industrialized western Germany. ore Since VE-Day, coal production in the Ruhr has lagged ‘behind its pre-war levels. ‘ Neither France, Germany. nor any other European country has, therefore, been able to secure sufficient coal for its needs... Coal production in the Soviet zone of Germany reached 74 percent of ‘the 1938 level last winter. RITISH authorities have discussed nationalization of the mines as a necessary step in improving the efficiency of the mines and bringing production back to prewar levels. But to the U.S. state and war departments, nationalization is socialism and socialism is com- munism. Coal. mines should’ be owned by business men, prefer- ably American business men with money to invest, U.S. gov- ernment officials say. The American position . was put rather bluntly to the British by Secretary of Commerce Har- riman on a quick trip to Lon- don. He said the U.S. wants Ruhr coal production increased immediately, and he said good old American capitalist methods were the only way it could bé done. :