Which Way This Time

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the inspired Union of our 48 states we Americans have forged a great nation and a glorious history we have a great volume of experience whose open pages and thrilling scenes show us that war has always had two fronts the fighting front with its Fury of battle the destruction of property the loss of life [Music] and behind the lines the civilian front with its job of living and producing in the Napoleonic Wars there was no effective price control to get the necessities of life people had to pay so much money in the first year of these long and bitter Wars for the same amount of goods in the second year people were forced to pay more money and still more in the third this price rise continued until Napoleon finally surrendered at waterl then came a rapid fall in prices with resulting depression [Music] in the Civil War we had no effective controls and prices continued upward until the end of the [Music] war then came another Swift fall in prices Hard Times came [Music] again during World War I inadequate controls let prices rise rapidly until the [Music] hsce this inflationary rise stopped momentarily then climbed to the dizziest peak in history before the country fell into disastrous depression let's examine closely this first great industrialized war first came wartime inflation then a new thing happened we had postwar inflation deflation and depression followed [Music] wartime inflation occurred because stores that in peacetime had enough for those able to buy could not be supplied by many factories which had to convert to war production more people had to be employed to produce the weapons needed for Victory this meant that people had more money then there were Goods to buy prices were bid [Music] up inflation [Music] [Applause] resulted post-war inflation came because reconversion did not happen overnight civilian Goods were hard to obtain it took time to transfer men and machines to peacetime production those goods that were available were quickly bought by returning veterans who needed clothes and other things by War torn countries that needed Relief by people who showed little or no restraint in their buying scarce Goods became scarcer prices were bid up higher and higher inflation [Music] continued deflation started when fewer and fewer people could afford to buy Goods piled up in stores orders to factories were cut the plants began to lay off workers this reduced buying power slow moving Goods forced storekeepers to cut prices and cancel more orders factories had to lay off more workers this reduced buying power still [Music] further merchants in an effort to clear their shelves cut prices below cost but trade was near a standstill stores closed factories without orders also closed and still more workers were laid off Farmers lost their Farms on the auction block farm foreclosures mounted business failures [Music] increased unemployment became widespread such is the lesson of history in Wars without adequate price control when World War II blasted the start of a new chapter in our [Music] history prices began to rise but this time your government had the foresight to establish effective price and rent controls and with the Magnificent cooperation of the people of the United States the price rise was checked and controlled until final Victory World War II experience demonstrated that controls can hold the line World War I experience demonstrated that inadequate controls will bring inflation followed by deflation and resulting misery history puts this urgent question squarely up to us which way this time [Music] there can be but one answer the fight against inflation must go on price and rent controls will work only if we cooperate as we did during the war it's easy for anyone to think that paying more than the ceiling price just once won't do any harm but it won't be done just once it will be done hundreds and thousands of times if Black Market buying and selling ever became a habit then the price structure would blow up into inflation and drop us into deflation and instead of a few men out of jobs as a result of reconversion difficulties millions of workers and Veterans would be [Music] unemployed price control and rent control to be effective must have the cooperation of all the people in the reconversion period they can help bring Goods back on the shelves of the nation stores Goods at prices people can pay this will bring more customers into stores customers that will enable Merchants to place more orders for more [Music] Goods then factories can employ more people people to produce the flood of goods that will make controls no longer necessary the full production of goods at prices people can afford to pay can bring an even higher standard of living to all the people of the United States and contribute to the peace security and stability of the entire world [Music] h [Music]