Three Harvard professors, members of a Democratic economic advisory committee, warned Sunday that business and labor must cooperate with "firm, alert, and imaginative" government leadership to prevent the American economy from taking an inflationary "course which will lead inevitably to controls."

The warning, incorporated in a report by the Democratic Advisory Council, was drafted by a committee headed by J. K. Galbraith, professor of Economics. Seymour E. Harris '20, professor of Economics, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, professor of History, are also members of the committee.

The report, which criticized the Eisenhower Administration for its tight money policies and alleged consequent favoritism of large corporations over farmers and small businessmen, was itself critized yesterday by Sumner H. Slichter, Lamont University Professor.

"No Yardstick"

Slichter complained that the Democratic statement contained "no yardstick to indicate how far credit should be eased." While agreeing that the tight money policy had retarded increases in production during the last nine months, Slichter said that corporations had received too much blame for price increases.

Harris said last night that the committee had felt that credit relaxation would be a matter of "playing by ear." He felt, however, that such relaxation was imperative, as the economy is showing "signs of recession." Under the tight money policy, he said, the national product has not been increased at 3% a year, the rate necessary to prevent unemployment.