Henderson to Workers

To money-making war workers themselves last week bulky Leon Henderson carried the hellfire preachments that he has bellowed over Washington conference tables the past six months.

His text: 1942 farm incomes will top those of 1939 by nearly 75%. Wage earners will get 70% more than in 1939. The past year's wage boosts represent a 30% money increase and an 11% increase in things a worker's money will actually buy. Living costs have not even begun to catch up and $84 billions in civilian hands are fighting to buy $75 billions' worth of civilian goods.

His sermon: such increases for any one group must not continue. Wage earners must forgo wage increases beyond those dictated by necessity. Ceilings must be put on many farm prices. (Price-controlled commodities have gone down, but this has been offset by a rise in uncontrolled goods.) Corporate profits must be cut. "Unless we step in and put a stop to further increases those ceilings will crack and our battle for stability will be lost. ... It means that the cost of living will begin to skyrocket, that demands will outrace incomes in a dizzy upward spiral that can only end--and will end--in economic chaos."

To farmers Claude Wickard was saying the same thing (see col. 2). Preacher Henderson and Wickard at last seemed to be taking texts out of the same book.

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