CONVERTING TO PEACE
Kasper, Sydney H.
Converting To Peace DEMOBILIZATION OF WARTIME ECONOMIC CONTROLS, by John Maurice Clark. McGraw-Hill. $1.75. Reviewed by Sydney H. Kasper IT'S hard to argue with this book. Prof. John Maurice...
...His initial statement, "To disband all controls instantly at the end of hostilities would be an invitation to chaos," is the theme which he plays over and over again, whether he is writing of wages, rationing, taxes, or manpower...
...The first lists the mistakes of World War I and the possible errors which could be made after this war, the second shows the interlocking effects of all the wartime Government agencies, the third goes into the long-range problem of the changing relations between government and business, the development of government "from a policeman to a positive economic agency...
...John Maurice Clark has summed up in this latest research study of the Committee for Economic Development a host of cogent, incisive answers to the multitude of vexing problems we will have to face come VE-Day...
...To avoid violent inflation or deflation in the immediate postwar period he recommends: (1) changing manpower controls into a system of guidance and assistance for the placement of labor, (2) liberal reconversion-unemployment benefits based on willingness of the worker to accept reasonable job offers, (3) abandonment of allocation of materials (4) maintenance of price ceilings for major durable goods, (5) vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws, extending to international cartels and output-limiting labor practices, (6) a revenue system which strikes "a balance between easing burdens on consumption and on the incomes which furnish the incentive to investment," (7) maintenance of high wages without allowing increases which will call for higher price" ceilings, (8) speedy, efficient termination of war contracts and disposal of surplus war property, and (9) clarification of our Lend-Lease policy...
...The best chapters in the book are "How Not to Reconvert," "The Framework of Wartime Controls," and "Controls of Longer Perspective...
...As one who was once unemployed for 154 consecutive days, I can state from first-hand experience that no unemployment compensation benefits now in force or being contemplated can compensate for the loss of dignity, self-respect, and sense of belonging suffered by the jobless...
...My only major complaint is Clark's repeated worry about having unemployment compensation benefits so high that they might cause "idleness to be more attractive than unemployment...
Vol. 9 • April 1945 • No. 14
