San Francisco Meeting Pleases Nations

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27698, 30 June 1955, Page 13

San Francisco Meeting Pleases Nations

[Specially written for the N.Z.P.A. by I FRANK OLIVER) (Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 28. No-one ever knows what the Russians are really thinking, but everyone else seems reasonably well satisfied with San Francisco. Mr Molotov got off the usual Communist line, the small nations spoke bravely and well. Britain. France and America spoke clearly, as you would expect a strong united group to speak, and Harry Truman got a deserved ovation when he spoke strongly almost on the hour of the fifth anniversary of the time he took the lonely decision to halt Communist expansion in Korea. The nations rededicated themselves to the principles they espoused in 1945 and were refreshed thereby. Alongside the United Nations affair went the meetings '‘just below the summit.” which appear to have been quite satisfactory at least to the East and even Mr Molotov, when away from the speaker’s platform, exuded amiability. Mr Molotov’s speech before the United Nations and the shooting down of aeroplanes notwithstanding, there is more optimism about Geneva after San Francisco than there was before. The optimism is not high, hut it has risen a bit and more people are convinced that Russia’s present rulers now realise that the military machine Stalin built laboriously and expensively is obsolete, and their thinking is changing accordingly.' Oppositionists to the President’s journey to Geneva are finding it harder and harder to find good reasons for their opposition, and conseouently remain quiet. The President, in the meantime, has been taking care of political fences through New England, where the Democrats last year turned back the Republican tide of 1952.

We have now reached the stage in Presidential affairs where the pundits parse every Presidential sentence, weigh every Presidential phrase, and turn ultra-violet rays on every Presidential word in an effort to find out whether he will run again. The newspapers even record Republican disappointment when they notice the happy look in his eye when he buys another heifer for his Gettysbv’ch ~rm. In 1952 the Republican theme song was “I like Ike.” But now it is changed to “We gotta have Ike,” and the pressure on him to run again is being applied inexorably. This, of course, applies to politicians. The man In the street is not yet worked up to 1956. He is more concerned with his wages and take-home pay and whether he can make a first payment on a new car. The latest figures from the Bureau of Labour statistics make good reading to an American worker. Just a year ago a manufacturing worker without dependants averaged a take-home pav of 59 dollars a week, and now it is almost 63 dollars, or £24. after taxes. And in those 12 months the overall cost of living has declined slightly so the gain -is very real and is made possible by the productivity of the nation’s labour force. This spring the American economy Is reaching heights not before attained. Using *he period 1947 to 1949 as the 100 index mark, industrial production is now 140 The sneetactflar rise began in the middle of 19*12 and went on for a year, touching 138. Then it sagged considerably during the first year of the Republican Administration. Now it has been plckin* un for nine months and has almost hit the 140 mark.

Motor-cars lead the way. followed by paper and 'printing, chemicals and petroleum, building materials and pri-

mary metals. Still slightly below the 1953 peak are machinery, coal, Instruments, fabricated metals, and furniture. The interesting thing about the increase is that it is the consumer that is causing it, not Government defence spending. Indeed, Government spending for ; what is called here “military hardware” is running more than 30 per cent, behind levels of the second quarter of 1953. Consumer goods purchases are responsible for the upswing in production—the demand for things that are worn, eaten, and driven. In the meantime, guaranteed an’”’al wage plans continue to spread through the economy. The principle has been accepted in the shipping industry for seamen and in one section of the textile industry. It is still far too early to say how the plans will affect living costs, but they are being watched closely by every industrialist in the country. However, they are encouraged by figures that show the wage increases of the last three years bad almost no effect upon the cost of living. Using 100 as an index for the period 1947-49. the cost of living has gone from 110 in the middle of 1951 to 115 this spring, | during which time hourly earnings have gone from 115 to 140. All in all, “dynamic” seems a pallid word to describe the American economy.