Little Black Books

Are we going to have enough jobs after the war to employ 10,000,000 returning soldiers and sailors, 5,000,000 new civilian workers?

Wiry, bespectacled Charles R. Hook, president of American Rolling Mill Co., last week put this question bluntly to a Cincinnati conference of the Ohio American Legion. In trying to answer it himself, hardheaded Mr. Hook, onetime president of the National Association of Manufacturers, brought forth no alchemical formula for postwar prosperity. He still remembers too well his first job at $2 a week, the pinchfist thrift he learned when he had to note down in a little black book every penny he spent. Now Armco's president thinks it is time for other black books, for more old-fashioned thrift.

Said he: "There is no mystery about the way production [of cars, refrigerators, radios, furniture] can help America hurdle the coming crisis of peace. If industry can produce, then payrolls will pour into your community to buy the products."

But "industry must have a demand for that production. And demand, very simply, is purchasing power. Future demand, future purchasing power, is created by savings now.

"Individuals must save, buy war bonds, stay out of black markets, pay off debts, sacrifice now to be able to buy after the war. Corporations, too, must pay off their debts, must save, if they are to readjust their plants. The reserves necessary cannot be created when there is a tax of 81% on such reserves. Government should allow industry to create a genuine postwar cushion. Government, too, should economize drastically.

"Therefore, the formula for the conversion of postwar production plans from paper to payrolls is expressed in two words--Thrift now!"

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