CIO leader Offers Post-War Plan
GOLDEN, CLINTON S.
CIO leader Offers Post-War Plan By CLINTON S. GOLDEN Vice-Chairman of War Production Hoard, Assistant Hiegidertt I'niled Steel Wurkert, CIO SOONER hi later, labor, with the rest of the country,...
...that the wartime debt represents an uneconomic burden to the extent that it has been spent for non-productive purposes and a large part of the debt has, in fact, added to the economic wealth of the country...
...In » peacetime period the functions of taxation should promote the very opposite, namely, consumer spendinf...
...In peace- . time, we ran convert this plsnning machinery, by estimating the prodactive demand of private * industry upon <.ur resources and manpower, fixing minimum production levels in the basic industries, and then estimating the unused potential rapacity which needs to be tsken up by government spending...
...of government spending, to cover both investment outlays and social security guarantees of consumer purchasing power...
...Production planning has been necessary, together with these vast expenditures, to assure the production of articles in the volume and order of need...
...To do 80, lnl.nl needs to take a long look at the experience of the past decade, and find a basis for some specific proposals that will guide our ad vance to a peacetime world...
...Thus, Che Army tabulates the amount of raw materials and component parts it will need to meet Its airplane goals...
...ami (2) an intelligent combination of private enterprise and government action to guui antee the full use of our resources and manpowei Labor has no choice • xcept to ti^ht for the second policy...
...War needs and the direct exchange of goods and services took its place...
...In order to know whether we shall achieve full levels of employment and production in any year, it will be necessary to know the total levels of production of our basic industries...
...With this understanding of the function of government spending, it should be possible to establish,,-** peacetime policy under^whfchthe government would undertake necessary program...
...It can, through the anti-trust lawi and new patent legislation, break up monopoly strsnglehold8 on production and credit...
...Immediately ahead, He* a t ransition"period in which the first problems of conversion will be concerned with the partial resumption of civilian production...
...Gold lost its significance as a medium of international exchange...
...It has done these things in co-opera-tion with industry...
...This planning centers about the requirements machinery...
...It will seek to enlarge Ik* participation in government production agencie* « ha* tku$ far won, to lay the foundation for an «*" tension of democratic planning for full production H juiiei nment, industry, labor and agriculture...
...Etpand Productive Capacity pitK K policies cari be converted to peacetime needs by the fixing of price ceilings on consumer iteml and critical industrial commodities in order to prevent high prices from eating up purchasing power...
...Foreign trade naturally fell under the strictest government control...
...The WPB takes an inventory of productive capacity, and acts as an umpire to bring demand into balance with supply...
...It will call upon the war spending agencies to plan their changes, in military production programs in co-ordination with the plenl for civilian production so as to prevent plant shutdowns and unemployment...
...It will ask industry to meet with it and government to guarantee minimum production goals of civilian items that will fully absorb the manpower and resources released from military production...
...W*B tnstsf upon continued production-planning...
...Government spending should be accompanied by measures to make cheap credit available in large sums...
...that the real cost of a debt is the service charge or the interest payments, which can be reduced absolutely by lowering interest rates and relatively by increasing the national income level...
...that the debt created by government spending is only one-half of the picture—the productive assets and income created by the debt are the other half...
...Through this planning machinery, the government, in collaboration with producers, will deal with necessary expansions (e.g., transportation, power) and with necessary curtailment* (e.g., nhip building, airplane production...
...t During the war, the emphasis has been open: I- the production demands of the government, with., a deficit of a productive capacity which had td be met by curtailing civilian production...
...It has developed methods of breaking down a total of finished products into the raw materials and component parts that go into manufacture of the products...
...Labor can be expected to oppose any measures put forth in the name of free enterprise to restrict our expanded productive capacity, in order to preservt competitive advantages or pre-war privileges...
...How can we convert this wartime experience to the peacetime needs of a democratic society...
...our wartime economic poll cies have brought about full production and employment...
...Wartime employment in industry and agriculture is now st the figure of 52 million, with 10 million in the arfced services, which compares with a pre-war figure of about 47 million persons em-pio*ed and about 8 million^ unemployed...
...billion dollars...
...Labor has by nuw won a foothold in the war product,on agencies, but the test of its participation in government will come in the re conversion permit The choice of national policy lies between (I) an opportunistic plundering of our war-creut.d plants anil facilities and a return to prewar scarcity piactices...
...To convert the policy of wartime spending for peacetime purposes, wet need to realize a few basic notions: that government spending is a method of guaranteeing production and calling it into existence...
...Government Spending Necessary /^AN we convert any of these policies to peacetime ^ ends...
...Wartime spending has taken trie form of government contracts to private enterprise and direct government production, which have together reached an annual outlay of...
...Under this scheme, the government has directed the expansion of critical facilities (aluminum, aircraft plants, shipyards) and restricted the production of non-essential items...
...Gross national income (meaning the gross value of goods and services) in the Isst qusrter of 1943 wss going st the rate of 190 billion dol lsrs, from s pre-war level of 90 billions...
...In addition, the government has built plants and facilities costing over 20 billions, a large part of which it has leased to industry at low rates...
...We will need to do so if we expect to convert the resources and manpower now fully engaged in the prosecution of the war...
...Priority ratings are used to assure the order of delivery...
...War production has been directed chiefly by govei n 1 xnent spending, production fanning, taxes, price and wage controls, and controls of*r exjiorts and imports...
...The results in terms of production and employment levels have been highly successful...
...Foreign trade will continue to provide a large claim upon our production, but we shall need to place it more firmly than ever upon the exchange of goods and services, and long term credits at low interest ratel for economic development...
...It has developed methods for fixing production levels according to shape, weight ami dollar value of items produced...
...Under this machinery, the spending agencies, called the claimant agencies (including Army, Navy, Maritime Commission, I^end-I^ase), present their total demands for production by three-month periods...
...and capital investment...
...These are the basic policies whefh can be used to guide oinWprogress to*p|>ce...
...CIO leader Offers Post-War Plan By CLINTON S. GOLDEN Vice-Chairman of War Production Hoard, Assistant Hiegidertt I'niled Steel Wurkert, CIO SOONER hi later, labor, with the rest of the country, will have to fare the question: How ran we keep up oul wartime levels of production and employment...
...Production planning in wartime can be converted to peacetime methods...
...and finally, that government spending has included direct aelditions to consumer purchasing power in the form of subsistence and benefit payments to soldiers, sailors and their dependents...
...But under the pressure of meeting wartime production goals, the WPB has developed a considerable amount of information which shows, on a plant by plant basis, the productive capacity anft employment levels for nearly every important American industry...
...Price and wage controls were imposed to prevent the building up of a short supply of goods and manpower, as money poured out for military production and production of civilian items was eliminated...
...The wartime tax policy has been largely devoted to drawing off excess civilian purchasing power...
...Two things are clear: Our pre-war policies resulted in restricted production and mass unemployment...
...The things for which this money should be spent and the amounts will depend upon the available productive capacity of the country and the volume of production called forth by private enterprise...
...Production levels are assigned to individual producing units, in the form of contracts in the case of the finished articles and by quotas and delivery schedules in the case of raw materials end component parts...
...Before the war, this would have seemed to be an impossible job...
Vol. 27 • May 1944 • No. 2
