HANSEN DISCUSSES MURRAY MEASURE

"Neither the British White Paper (issued by the British Government last spring) nor the Murray Full Employment Bill undertakes to guarantee, as is sometimes mistakenly supposed, a job to every individual," explains Alvin H. Hansen, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, in an article appearing in the first issue of the Harvard Progressive, to be distributed this week.

"What they do aim to achieve," says Professor Hanson, "is a condition in which job opportunities are available. What is aimed at is that the total demand for goods and services shall be adequate to provide employment for the entire labor force, seasonal and transitional unemployment considered.

"The Murray Bill emphasizes the importance of high levels of production, employment, business volume, and rising living standards. It is essentially a planning bill."

Professor Hansen discusses both the institutional elements of the Murray Bill and its economic purposes. "The Murray Bill," he says, "emphasizes ways and means of increasing the volume of private capital outlays. It recognizes that there are important services needed under modern conditions which only government can perform, which cannot be undertaken by private means.

"The Murray Bill, however, stresses again and again the role of private enterprise and puts the emphasis upon private consumption and private investment outlays."