Evening star., 1941-11-02
Price Bill Fixes
HigherFoodTop,
Exempts Wages
House Committee
Approves Measure
By l8-to-5 Vote
BACKGROUND

offered in House. Proposals Were
made for ceilings on wages and
rents but met NTH little op-
proUal. BIG question wos Uhdt
parity 1Could be dlloUed farm
prices. Parity, as term is used By
Government. Is q price Uhich
giues q farm product the same
purchasing poUer, in terms OF
nom farm products. that IT had
during base period 1909-14. Thus
it rises and falls 1Cith increases
and decreases in prices OF non-
farm products.
By the Associated Press.
The House Banking Committee
approved commodity price
control bill last night after re-
fusing to include wages. 1t voted
ceilings on farm commodities
which Government experts said
might increase food costs 20 per
cent.
Chairman Steagsll said the COM
mittee vote on the bill was l0 to 5.
With the farm bloc in full control,
the committee accepted the formula
for farm price ceilings which would
permit food prices to rise as much
as 20 per cent above the ITO per
cent of parity level contained in
the administration original bill.
The members struck out of the
measure system of licensing which
sponsors had said was necessary to
enforce any price control program.
The committee met for more than
seven hours YESTERDAY before TAX
ing action on the bill.
satisfactory Control
Chairman Steagall. telling news
papermen of the decisions, said:
Il don't think the bill as pro-
posed or the one We adopted will
control initiation completely. but I
hope that it will provide a salts
factory control"
But Representative Kean Pepub-
lican. of New jersey called it "inept.
Intellectual" and Representative
Monroney. Democrat. Of Oklahoma
declared it would give Leon Hen
derson price administrator. the
right to regulate everything except
inflation'
Mr. Steagall proposed TO control
wages. offering an amendment
which would have permitted wage
increases only when they would not
contribute to imitation and when
they were necessary TO maintain
workers standard of living This
suggestion was turned down is to 7.
BY vote of y TO II. the COM
mittee stipulated that farm price
ceilings could not be set below the
highest of these three levels: 10 per
cent Of parity. the average price
from 1919 to 1929. the prevailing
level last October /
Average Higher Than Parity.
Government farm experts said
that if the l0-year average was the
highest-and they said il would be
in the case Of most commodities
the ceilings would be 20 per cent
higher than under the provision
in the original bill putting the CELL
ing at not less than ITO per cent
of parity.
Farm experts said the House
committees formula would. for
example forbid a ceiling on raw
sugar lower than 564 cents pound.
This compares with the present
ceiling of 35 cents imposed by Mr..
Henderson.
Parity prices for some of the
major farm commodities as an
nounced by the Agriculture Depart
ment last July Is and the average
1929 prices which would be the
lowest possible ceiling under the
bill follow:
Chickens, parity 15.2 cents and
1929 average 81 i cents pound.
turkeys. 1872 cents and 280 cents a
pound; eggs, 25.7 cents and 1872
cents dozen; hogs. So go and 9.77 a
hundred pounds, beef cattle. s6.93
and s7.l8 hundred pounds: wheat.
Sl.l76 and Sl.325 a bushel; corn,
85.4 cents and $50 cents bushel:
cotton. 16.49 cents and Plat cents
a pound.
Mr.. Steagall said that the licensing
provisions were stricken from the
bill because it was considered that
they were too much of a blanket"
and might work hardship in some
cases. He said that the criminal
provisions calling for a $4,000 fine
or two years in prison were con-
sidered adequate penalties.
Before the final vote. the COM
mittee rejected substitute bill by
Representative Gore, Democrat, of
Tennessee which proposed to grant
authority for ceilings on wages.
rents and commodities
Mr.. Gore also proposed that corpo-
tSee PRICES, Page AID