The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-03-11

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 Cation price fixing schemes-is what is left of the fa- nous "two-price system" which Sec retary Henry Wallace brought up for discussion last fall.
 No final plans have been settled upon yet, but within week or so it is expected that a program will be agreed upon. The idea that is re- ceiving the most thought now, and that is being discussed with key business groups, would work as fol- lows:
 GROCERY SHOPPING
 WITH TICKETS
 Tickets or certificates of one kind or another = good, probably, for about half what a relief family spends for food during an ordinary month-would be issued. Such tic- kets could be spent" at any grocery store, at face value, for such food stuffs as the Department of Agri- culture designates as surplus com modities.
 These commodities would vary
 from month to month, possibly
 even from week to week. The list would include such things as
 fruits, vegetables, dairy products
 possibly poultry products and cer-
 tain kinds of meats. The grocer
 could turn the tickets in at some
 government office-possibly at the post Office-and get cash for them.
 Tickets would supplement the
 allowances ordinarily received by
 relief families. A family getting
 $50 8 month in relief money. for
 instance, would still get the $50 month. Assuming that it had been
 spending $16 a month for food, it ! would simply get an extra $8 worth of these tickets. And the idea behind all of this is the idea that was in Secretary Wal lace's mind last fall when he started talking about his two-price system The idea: that the lowest income groups in America are unable to buy the foods that would give them a balanced diet, and that actual ol potential surpluses of those foods nevertheless exist on the American market
 TWO BIRDS,
 ONE STONE In some cases, these foods ripen simply to rot. Prices in many in- stances drop so low that the farmer finds it isn't worth his while to pick and ship his produce. In other cases, he refrains from growing foodstuffs which millions of Ameri- cans need, but can't buy. Secretary Wallace suggested that if the buying power of the relief group could be built up, two birds would be killed with one stone. The needy would get the sort of food they ought to have, and the farm- CTS market would be vastly expand ed.
 So the two-price system got talked abOut-and got squelched very quickly, when the secretary noted its unfavorable reception.
 Ever since then, however, de- partment committee has been studying the problem. It has con- ferred, step by step, with business organizations. More conferences are still to come-notably, one scheduled for March 12 and 13 at Washington, when the idea will be discussed thoroughly with retail and wholesale food trade leaders.
 The importnt thing about this plan is that the handling of sur pluses would be. taken care of by the country's regular commercial dis tributive. system, from the whole saler down to the corner grocery store. The government would not do any buying, it would not license any dealers, it would not fix any prices. It would simply funnel buy ing power into local communities. PROGRAM GOES
 ON TEST BASIS
 A start will be made on a purely experimental basis, probably in half dozen carefully chosen cities. Un- less and until the program proves a success. no change will be made in the present activities of the Surplus Commodities Corporation.
 But the potentialities of the idea are vast. Already, for instance, some department experts are try ing to figure if the idea could not some day be expanded to include such commodities as cotton.
 Ultimately, the program could be pretty costly. President Milo R. Per- kins of the Surplus Commodities Corporation estimates that some 20,000,000 people are now receiving some form of public assistance. If these tickets were made available to all of them, a fair estimate of the cost is about $45, 100000 a month.
 Copyright. 1889, NEA Service, Inc.)