Truman friend of small business
Convinced of menace of ‘monopolies’
By John W. Love, Scripps-Howard staff writer
WASHINGTON – If President Truman has developed his ideas in the economic field, they include the belief the government ought to do all it can to foster small business. In particular, government ought to make sure the war-built plants in the Midwest are kept in operation after reconversion.
Mr. Truman as a Senator was convinced of the menace of “big business.” Monopoly appears to be primarily a regional concept in his mind. Monopoly to him is also bigness and power, but so far as he has expressed his ideas of what should be done about it, they run to regional solutions. He has also favored such things as competitive bidding for railroad securities.
Good experience
Certainly, few men have had a better opportunity to obtain a vast insight in the detail of American production. His Senate Investigating Committee examined the record of steel, rubber, aircraft, light metals, oil, ships and building construction, and paraded a great quantity of facts.
If an intimate examination of industry can produce a man sympathetic with the problems of production, then this country never had a man of the same preparation in the presidency.
Or if Hugh Fulton, who directed the inquiry, is the one who acquired the broader knowledge in that realm, then Mr. Fulton’s association with Mr. Truman would amount to the same thing. But Mr. Truman was ever the investigator of war production, never its organizer or leader, and the country will not know for some time what climate he will seek for American enterprise.
Inflation fight true test
Probably the greatest test of his resolution in domestic problems will be found in the degree to which he guides the fight on inflation. Pressures for higher prices and wages are tremendous. A new man in office, no matter how capable, will find the struggle harder than did his predecessor The end of the war in Europe will intensify it.
How far will Mr. Truman be able to resist the inevitable clamor for removal of controls on materials and price as soon as Germany collapses? Will he make sure that goods again flow in full measure before he lifts the restraints?