FDR busy on messages to Congress
Will outline his plans for curbing inflation in
U.S. next week
Washington, April 25 (UP) –
A $14,000,000,000 increase in forecasted war spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1 today provided further incentive for President Roosevelt’s forthcoming program to halt inflation.
Mr. Roosevelt was busily at work on the messages to Congress and the nation he will deliver next week outlining his plans for controlling inflation – or as he prefers to put it, further increases in the cost of living.
His program reportedly embraces more taxation, wage and rent controls, overall price ceilings and possibly further credit curbs.
Smith prepares way
Budget Director Harold Smith prepared the way for the messages yesterday with the disclosure that war spending in the 1943 fiscal year will reach $70,000,000,000. That will be equal to $2,000 for each American family or $526 for each man, woman and child in the nation.
The increase in the $56,000,000,000 originally planned necessarily means further curtailment of civilian production and, if not countered, must result in greater buying power and further depletion of purchasable goods.
It is the excess of buying power over commodities on hand that cause the kind of inflation – or rising living costs – that the nation is now facing.
Smith’s astronomical figures were presented soon after Mr. Roosevelt told a press conference that his 1942-43 war production program is progressing extremely well although some termed it “fantastic” when it was initiated in January.
The program, calling for 185,000 warplanes, 120,000 tanks, 55,000 anti-aircraft guns and 18,000,000 deadweight tons of merchant shipping is behind schedule in one category only – shipping.
War Shipping Administrator Emory S. Land blames the delay on steel plate shortage and “loafing” by labor and management. Mr. Roosevelt thought the lag was due almost entirely to the steel shortage, but said Land’s statement was a good burr under the tail of labor and management.