Plain Talk

In his role of watchdog of the war effort, Missouri's able Senator Harry Truman has growled warnings to many a harried war contractor who was not coming up to the expectations of Goodman Truman and his Investigating Committee. Last week his Committee gave some short, sharp barks that should delight these same contractors. Subject: reconversion.

The report was not intended to be a comprehensive study of reconversion but a blueprint to guide later committee hearings. In it the Committee made many a common-sense point. Some of them:

> War contracts should be canceled as soon as the materiel is no longer needed. Plants should not be kept on war work just to keep workers employed, if this delays conversion to peacetime manufacture.

> The Government should guarantee a substantial amount of any loans made to contractors involved in disputes on amounts due them after cancellation of contracts. Provision should also be made for Federal loans to war-expanded industries needing capital to carry on in peace, e.g., the aircraft industry. "By and large," the report flatly stated, "taxation and renegotiation and the efforts of procurement agencies to prevent excessive profits have prevented corporations from greatly increasing their working capital at the expense of the Government."

> Government-owned tools and equipment should be removed from private plants as quickly as possible to speed reconversion.

The Committee called for a realistic appraisal of the postwar value of Government-owned war plants, warning that because of high labor and material costs in wartime the plants are not worth, in the postwar market, what they cost to build.

Said the Committee: "If the Government asks too much for these facilities, they will not be acquired by private business, thus failing to provide jobs for returning soldiers and sailors." Likewise, the Committee warned labor that it must be prepared for a "realistic adjustment" to peacetime wages. In wartime, additional labor costs are absorbed by the Government, but in peacetime they must be taken out of profits or added to prices.

"Many industries will not have a sufficient profit margin. A demand for too much in such an industry would simply result in closing the plants. Labor, like business, must fulfill its obligations to society. The alternative is government regulation."

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