Economists Welcome Drops In Commodity, Farm Prices

"Unless you want to pay $100,000 for lunch at the Oxford Grill, you ought to be happy that prices are finally coming down," Joseph A. Schumpeter, George F. Baker Professor of Economics, told the CRIMSON last night.

Commodity prices hit their lowest level in three years Tuesday, according to Associated Press dispatches.

"Transition from war to peace economy cannot all be done in a long period of glorious prosperity," Professor Schumpeter said. The downward swing of prices that has been going on for the last few days is "not only inevitable," he said, "it is just what the country needs."

Not Alarming

"It was pretty evident that eventually the supply of farm and other products would catch up with the world-wide postwar demand, John T. Dunlop, associate professor of Economics, declared. "The process is desirable, necessary, and not alarming at all," he said.

"The only danger," Dunlop stated, "is that the adjustment may become cumulative and disruptive, that a panic may cause a serious over-reduction."

The decline will probably continue for another six months before levelling off, Philip D. Bradley, Jr., assistant professor of Economics, predicted. "Whether it is healthy or not, however," he said, "depends on how the government reacts."

Bradley said that he believed that "the government will undoubtedly do everything it can to stop the decrease by using the same methods they have developed since 1935."

"I do not think, however," Bradley added, "that the administration ought to attempt to check the readjustment process by any conscious effort to increase government spending."

Professor Schumpeter commented, "The government, as always, will try to prevent the economic readjustments that are in the national interest."

"Most cures are disagreeable," he added, "and falling prices may bring unemployment and other undesirable things. But agricultural prices have been way out of line since early in the war, and when they fall they naturally bring down other prices."