PROGRESSIVE

...Now, it is not only necessary to do the right thing, but to do it in the right way, and the only problem you have is— what is the right thing to do and what is the right way to do it...

...So what I say is: Courage and boldness are very fine things when you know you have got a plan that is really effective, and that is in battle or whether it's here...

...The four that appeal to us most are these: Tax Reduction—A tax cut of at least $5 billion, and perhaps $8 billion in view of the continuing decline, would help enormously to provide immediate purchasing power, especialiy if the reduction were so planned as to give the greatest tax relief to those in the lowest income brackets—those who would be most impelled to buy, rather than save...

...This lack of clarity may be partly because he has no position, except a wistful notion that conditions will somehow improve if left alone, and partly because it is often difficult to understand what he means when he says the things he does...

...PROGRESSIVE "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free*' The Price of Inaction T^he economic recession, known as a rolling readjustment to some who have not felt its punishing impact, is now moving into its tenth month...

...No scheme we have heard about holds out the hope for a quicker expansion of purchasing power than tax reduction...

...The result has been a sharp decline in production, mass layoffs in the automobile industry, and spreading unemployment in the many industries, like steel, that contribute to the making of cars...

...Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks, for example, jubilantly announced in early May that unemployment declined by 78,000 in April— from 5,198,000 to 5,120,000...

...Thus, in February, the President blithely predicted that "March will commence to see the start of a pickup in job opportunities...

...This is an economy that is made up of 173 million people, and it reflects their desires, they're ready to buy, they're to spend, it is a thing that is too complex and too big to be affected adversely or advantageously just by a few words or any particular—say, a little this and that, or even a panacea so alleged...

...Automobile Prices—One of the most decisive factors in the recession, of course, has been the startling decline of automobile sales...

...The President replied with a remarkable assault on the language which we quote verbatim from the official transcript: "Listen, there is no courage or any extra courage that I know of to find out the right thing to do...

...Senator Paul H. Douglas, Illinois Democrat, has proposed a sensible scheme for striking at this cause of recession—in what, in effect, involves a partnership between government and industry in the interests of the entire nation...

...Equipped to produce more than eight million cars a year, the automobile industry will be lucky indeed if it sells four and a half million in 1958 in the face of severe consumer resistance to high prices and current styling...

...Thus, the tax on a $2,000 car would drop $150—from $200 to $50—while the manufacturer would cut the price $120, for a total reduction of $270 on a $2,000 car...

...The Administration's "wait and see" attitude may have made sense at the outset, considering the understandable concern over inflation, but ten months of recession are much too long a period for wait and see...

...It is time to act— time to marshal "the full power of the government" which Dwight Eisenhower pledged in 1952...

...A much more progressive program was introduced by Democratic liberals in the House of Representatives providing for federal grants, rather than loans, to the states, extension of the payment periods for a longer time, and inclusion of unemployed workers not covered by the present program...

...We have waited and we have seen that the price of inaction is indefinite recession, perhaps deepening to depression...

...For instance, Mr...

...Here, it seems to us, is the heart of the matter...

...That should mark the beginning of the end of the downturn . . ." But March saw nothing of the kind...

...There are today more than 850,000 cars unsold in inventories...

...Anyone who works his way through this tangled syntax would agree, we think, that what the President intended to say was that we have a complicated economy, that the recession will yield to no panacea, that courage and boldness would be fine if we only knew what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go, but we don't know—or he doesn't know—so there really isn't much point in talking of courage and boldness...

...What can the government do...

...For as long as Americans see their government doing nothing basic to end the recession, they will continue to lack the confidence to buy, and as long as this mood prevails, there can be no real hope of getting the increased production needed to regenerate the economy...

...The small drop in unemployment was wholly a seasonal development resulting from the annual opening of farm jobs in the spring...

...They feel the need to husband their resources until they know the recession has been whipped...

...Here, then, are some of the things that might be done to break away from the perilous inaction that has magnified the economic erosion of recent months...

...Public Works—There is a great need in America today for useful— as opposed to leaf-raking—public works...

...The hope for a more liberal approach now rests with the Senate, but the prospect is strong that a similar coalition of conservatives will do the President's bidding and give us a far from adequate program of unemployment insurance liberalization...

...Senator Douglas would have the government slash the excise tax on/ automobiles by 75 per cent if the automobile makers reduce the price of cars by six per cent...

...A carefully prepared program for construction of schools, hospitals, housing developments, and recreational facilities would go far not only toward doing things that need doing anyway and opening jobs for the unemployed, but even more significantly, toward showing the country that the government does care, that it is prepared to move in and help when the private sector of the economy cannot provide full employment...

...Analysis of these figures, however, showed that conditions actually worsened in April...

...When the issue came to a test in the House, enough Democratic conservatives, mostly from the South, joined with Republicans to defeat the progressive measure and adopt the Eisenhower program in somewhat modified form...

...The states would repay the loans in four years...

...There are a number of steps it could take to help break the recession and cushion the shock for its victims...

...But, this economy of ours is not so simple that it obeys to the opinion of bias or the pronouncements of any particular individual, even to include the President...

...From the very beginning, and then through month after month of deepening decline, the Eisenhower Administration has pursued a course of "wait and see"—punctuated by occasional pleas to the public to buy...

...Moreover, the number of farm openings was much less than normal, and manufacturing employment declined by 270,000 in the period of which Weeks was talking, although the Secretary of Commerce made no mention of this in his cheery bulletin...

...This lack of direction has led the Administration to emphasize a central propaganda theme—that things are not so bad as they seem, and that in any event conditions will improve by some immutable law of capitalist self-regeneration...

...But people will not now buy on anywhere near the scale required for an effective shot-in-the-arm, partly because prices remain rigidly high, and more important perhaps because they are afraid—afraid they will lose their jobs or be put on a part-time basis if the recession continues or grows worse...

...It is clear the President has changed his position, but it is not clear what his views are today...

...we have recession itself, but far from being "instantly marshaled," the "full power of the government" lies virtually unused while more than 5,000,000 Americans remain unemployed and production slumps to the lowest level in the postwar period...

...On Oct...

...There is no use preaching confidence, there is no use expecting a man to buy an automobile he does not have to have, if he is worried about whether he may lose his job...

...This Eisenhower policy, or non-policy, of doing nothing at all to reverse the downward trend of the economy is at sharp variance with what the President promised when he first campaigned for the office six years ago...

...The Administration's hope that the bottom has been reached may be valid, although many experts disagree, but even if the recession flattens out indefinitely at its present level, what becomes of the 5,000,000 unemployed and the 2,000,000 others underemployed...

...That is the problem...

...Walter Lippmann expressed this with characteristic clarity recently when he wrote: "A policy of wait-and-see is dangerous...

...21, 1952, for example, he said in clear-cut terms: "If there is any sign on the horizon of a recession or an economic collapse, the full power of the government [will be] instantly marshaled . . ." Today we have much more than signs on the horizon...

...Eisenhower was asked at a press conference if he thought the government has been lacking in courage and boldness in facing up to the recession...

...The Eisenhower Administration's response is to beg people to buy...

...What happens to the hundreds of thousands who are exhausting their unemployment insurance or the several million who are not covered at all...

...What he needs to restore his confidence is the sight of the government preparing to do as much as is needed, perhaps more than is needed, to reflate the economy...

...President Eisenhower denounced the substitute as a "dole...

...Administration spokesmen have not been above placing a distorted interpretation on some statistics in an effort to combat the rising demand for affirmative government action...

...Unemployment Compensation— In this field the Administration has acted, but its proposals have been far too niggardly...

...March, on the contrary, saw an increase in unemployment and a further decline in production...

...The President called for an $800,000,000 program of federal loans to help the states extend payment periods...