Evening star., 1941-11-03
Member of the Associated Press
Blow to Democracy

The commodity price control bill,
as reported out by the House Bank
ing Committee, is triumph for gov
ernment by organized minorities. BY
the same token, it is sad reflection
on representative government, sup
posedly functioning for the welfare
of all the people, not just a few
people.
1t is a bad bill from a purely eco
nomic standpoint because 1t cannot
be expected to operate as an effective
check on the potentially disastrous
price rise which has already begun.
But it is even more fundamentally
bad because its sponsors have sur
rendered to the unconscionable de-
mands of minority pressure groups
In callous disregard of the evil effect
on the rest of the people.
The bill is defective, in the first
place, because it contains no pro-
vision for any control of wages.
Other nations have found it neces-
sary to place a ceiling over wages as
we'll as other costs, but the House
committee, in the face of strong
opposition from organized labor and
certain New Deal officials, takes the
absurd position that this country can
fix prices without regard to the i'm
portant element of labor costs. The
fallacy of this assumption. and its
obvious political motivation, speak
for themselves.
1t is in the matter of farm prices,
however, that the legislation presents
its most dishearening spectacle of
political eXpedlency. For years the
goal of the New Deals farm program
was a parity price of 100 for farm
products. This figure was based on
the five-year period from l909-19l4,
considered to be most favorable
for farm prices. Thus, since the
parity price for farm products rises
in event of other price advances, the
farmer was to be assured-at public
expense-of an income which could
not fall below that enjoyed by him
in a most favorable period.
But the relentless farm bloc, with
a voting strength in Congress which
Is far greater than the relative nu-
merica] strength of the farmers
themselves, was not content with
this. When the last agricultural bill
was under consideration, the farm
bloc, over the protests of those con-
cerned with Federal finances, pushed
through amendments which had the
effect-again at public expense-of
guaranteeing the farmers ITO per
cent of parity for their products.
And now, in the price control bill,
this same farm bloc has forced adOp-
ton of a provision which, according
to Government experts, may have the
effect of forcing the price of food
and other farm products 20 per cent
above the 10 per cent of parity level.
This is a shockingly selfish proposal
one that would almost defy belief
were it not for the fact that it is
1ndubitably in the bill
This sorry spectacle of democracy
In action means that the farmers
and that portion of organized labor
which may be strong enough to en-
force wage demands are to profit
from the national emergency if the
bill is passed. The hardships are to
fall on those who are strangers to
the machinery of pressure politics.
They are in the majority, but they
are helpless because they are politi-
eally unorganized
In its present form this bill is an
affront to the basic concepts of de-
mocracy. And it is extremely doubtful
that it can save the Nation from the
disastrous consequences of unchecked
imitation. Unless amended in an
effective and equitable manner, there
can be no possible justification for
its passage.