The Wilmington Morning Star

At High Cost

The director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion issued a report to Congress as of January 1, 1945, which discusses the problems of mobilization and reconversion. It is introduced with the statement that: "This nation can be proud of what it has accomplished to date with the cooperation of industry, labor and agriculture - of all the people - under vigorous government leadership."

The accomplishment, of course, has been the whole great war effort, which has been nothing less than miraculous and which most reasonable people will agree could not have been realized without granting unusual temporary power to government.

However, the report reveals more than a record of unsurpassed accomplishment toward winning the war. It shows how "vigorous government leadership" has controlled inflation by regulating the profits, wages and prices of every man and every commodity. It further shows the necessity of applying the same type of vigorous government leadership to post-war dangers of deflation and later the recurring danger of inflation which is expected to arise. In other words, since vigorous government leadership has proven so successful, its perpetuation is recommended for an indeterminate number of years.

There is no question but that by granting arbitrary power to government and letting public officials assume vigorous leadership over the private citizen, much trouble in the way of sudden economic upsets can be avoided. This is not a new discovery. The people of Europe have been living under such a vigorous leadership for years. It works--at a price. The price is liberty. Always before, the people of the United States have refused, except in time of actual war such as now, to put the government in the driver's seat. They have refused to be led by government because they realized that before a government can lead it must first become a master.