Voice of Patience

The solid, staid old banking house of J.P. Morgan & Co. --which has seen many a crisis come & go, and expects to see many another--took a look at the state of the nation. In his annual report to stockholders, President George Whitney wrote:

"The task of bringing this country back to prosperity in a peaceful world is enormous, but with clear purpose, understanding and skill, it can be done. We should not, after the most devastating war of all times, expect too much too fast, even in this country with its great material resources and relative prosperity. . . . We should be able to expect, however, an orderly America, opportunity for work, and a resumption of our economic and social progress. Above all, we should expect that America will be kept the land of freedom and opportunity.

"Full production and wide distribution of peacetime goods will bring most of the results that are sought--whether it is control of inflation and avoidance of deflation, good wages and good profits, greater security and better living, or sounder budgets and less debts.

"But the desired objectives . . . can not be reached if we are led to expect more and more for less and less effort; if labor organizations or industrial organizations are to take purely selfish positions that block the road to production and distribution; or if political leaders are unwilling to face a reduction in Government expenditures and are to assume that a policy of deficit financing can succeed any better in the future than it did in the decade 1930-40. The result of these can be nothing but the debasement of our currency and a lowering of the standard of living in the United States.

"Nor can the objectives that the Nation seeks be attained in isolation. If this country is to prosper, we must try to help raise in some measure the standard of living in other countries and thereby bring about a wider market for our goods as well as those of friendly nations.

"We must find foreign markets for excess production in many of our products; we must buy, as well as sell, goods and services abroad; we must be ready to make foreign loans and investments; we must aid in maintaining peace and world order. . . . Only in this way can we insure a maintenance of the standard of living in this country on a level comparable with what we have enjoyed in the past."

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