Evening star., 1941-08-31
Prices Expected
Steady Rise
Adequate U. S. Control
Reported improbable
Until Late Fall
Special Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, Aug. 30.-Postpone-
ment of consideration Of price-con-
troll legislation by Congress until the
middle of September means that no
control bill is likely to be enacted
before late fall, at the earliest,
according to the Standard & Poor's
Corp.
This means at least another few
months for prices to advance, with
no more check than the limited
present powers of the Office of Price
Administration and Civilian Supply.
The o. P. A. C. S. has not been
wholly Intellectual in its price con-
troll efforts; it has had fairly good
measure of success when it devoted
itself to settling ceilings on the
prices of primary raw materials pro-
duced by limited number of COM
panies which-for patriotic reasons
or others-were willing to CO.
operate. When it has attempted to
control other prices, however, 1t
has had little success.
IdhS 1tCNISCus
The ceilings set on cotton print
cloth prices, for example. had to be
revised almost as soon as they we're
announced.
The attempt to have California oil
companies rescind one price advance
was abandoned. The order to reduce
automobile prices-which had been
raised by less than the amount of
the increase in automobile produc-
ton costs-was defied. The orders
setting prices of various scrap metals
are evaded day by day through
various devices.
No attempt has been made to fix
ceiling prices of primary farm pro-
ducts, on most finished and semi
finished goods, or on more than a
handful of raw materials, except
metals.
AS a result of the limited and
spotty price control thus far, all
commodity price indexes have been
steadily advancing. Regardless OF
additional o. P. A. c. S.. orders to
be issued, the prospect is for con-
tinued sharply rising trend for the
near future, and if price control
legislation is no more comprehensive
than in the pending bill. its enact
ment will slow down, rather than
halt, the rise
Independent Curb Impossible.
Some attempt Is being made t<
control supplies, but for absolut,
price control, both supply and de-
mand must be rigidly controlled. II
the primary stages Of the indus
trial process. this can be done b,
priorities, but beyond that the onl!
effective means would be strict ra
tioning of the consumer or contro
over consumer buying power through
restrictions on wages and through
taxes and compulsory savings.
To state the problem is to indi
cate the impossibility of solving i
at this stage of the game. 1t woult
be political suicide for any Govern
ment official now to propose gen
eral issuance of ration cards
enough storm has been raised abou
the prospect of gasoline ration card!
on the East Coast. And the pres.
ent Congress is in no mood for wage
controls or for taxes steep enough
actually to reduce the buying power
of the vast mass of voters.
Political Difficulties Faced.
The political difficulties in the
way of those steps which would re.
suit in effective price control stem
Of course, from the political philos.
ply which has dominated this coun-
try in recent years.
Since 1888, the Washington the
ory has been that two of the out
standing inequities in the nationa
economy were that too small a share
of the national income had beer
going to labor and that the farmer
had been receiving too low price:
for his products, in relation to prices
for other products.
The pendulum has been swinging
the other way for eight years now
and it has apparently not yet
reached the top of its arc. Wage
rates and farm prices are both at
the highest levels in many years
The successive recommendations of
Federal labor mediators for wage
and other concessions to labor in
recent months, the absence of any
wage control provisions from the
pending price control bill, the setting
of price of ITO per cent of parity
for farm products in the bill Cthat is
more favorable relationship OF
farm to other prices than existed
in agriculture's golden age" three
decades ago. indicate that We have
not yet seen the end.
Both the farmers and the
laborers' effective demand for goods
is being steadily increased. The
rise in pay rolls and in farm income
has been accompanied by only q
minor rise in the farmers and
laborers' cost of living.