PRESIDENT NIXON has summoned a "volunteer army" of wage earners, corporate executives, bankers and consumers to march against inflation—under a blurry banner emblazoned so far with only an official emblem, an organization chart and row upon row of question marks.
What the White House aims to create is a national consensus on wage-price policy that will be mostly self-policing. Standards for pay and price rises are to be set by representatives of labor, management and "the public," not directly by Government officials. The stick of federal compulsion will be available to back up their decisions, but it will fall most heavily on a relative handful of giant corporations and major unions. Drafters of the program have deliberately not provided enough enforcement officers to do anything more than spot-check the wages and prices at small machine shops, corner laundries and car washes. That essentially voluntary approach is a gamble that will succeed only if Americans display a spirit of economic self-sacrifice that, historically, they have shown only in times of all-out war.
The Hard Questions. Nixon tried to arouse that spirit on television. He left most details of his program for others to announce—probably wisely because it is not easy to stir patriotic fervor by unfurling an organization chart. Instead, he concentrated on exhortation. Said the President: "I call upon all of you tonight to look at this program not as Democrats or Republicans, workers or businessmen, farmers or consumers, but as Americans. We cannot afford a business-as-usual attitude anywhere, because fighting inflation is everybody's business."
Nixon left unanswered all the hard questions about what will happen after the wage-price freeze ends Nov. 13. Workers had no clearer an idea than before of how big a raise they can expect, or if they can expect any at all. Company executives were not told what prices they will be able to increase or by how much. Tenants were still wondering when, if and by what amount their landlords will be permitted to raise the rent.
The White House specified only an "interim" goal: cutting the rate of inflation roughly in half by the end of 1972, so that prices then will be rising an average of only 2% to 3% a year. In order to achieve that, some Administration aides imply, wages and benefits will have to be held to a 5% to 6% annual increase. How to get there from here will be decided largely by persons not yet chosen for boards, commissions and other bodies not yet created.
No Cheers for Notre Dame. The organization chart for Phase II of the President's New Economic Policy is imposingly detailed. Nixon set up three committees, two commissions, one council, one administration and one board (with a committee inside it). The key bodies are to act partly as think tanks calculating formulas for allowable wage and price boosts, partly as courts ruling on pleas from businessmen and union chiefs for exceptions from the general standards, partly as prosecuting attorneys' offices seeking injunctions and fines against violators of their decisions. White House aides gave some details in a long briefing paper and background sessions, but these details also raised questions. Major points:
ONE: A Pay Board and a Price Commission will be created as the heart of the Phase II apparatus.