Evening star., 1941-07-30
Price Control Message Text
National Safety Demands Legislation
To Curb Initiation, President Suys
FOLLOWING is the tert OF Presi-
dent Roosepelt's message to Con-
oress on price control legislation:

FOLLOWING is the tert OF PreSi-
dent Roosepelts message to Con-
gress on price control legislation:
Infiationary price rises and in
,reases in the cost of living are today
threatening to undermine our de-
fense effort. I am. therefore, rec
ommending to the Congress the
adoption of measures to deal with
this threat.
We are now spending more than
$50 900 900 a day on defense. This
ate must and will increase. In June
of this year We spent about S808,-
0O0, 0,O00-more than five times the
s153, 900 900 we spent in June, 1910
Every dollar spent for defense
presses against an already limited
supply Of materials.
This pressure is sharply accen-
tuated by an ever-increasing civilian
demand For the first time in years
many of our workers are in the
market for the goods they have
always wanted This means more
buyers for more products which con-
tain steel and aluminium and other
materials needed for defense. Thus
rapidly expanding civilian demand
has been added to vast and in
Sistent demand by the Government
Those who have money to spend
are willing to bid for the goods The
Government must and will satisfy
its defense needs. In such situa
ton. price advances merely deter
mine who gets the scarce materials
without increasing the available
supply We face imitation, unless we
act decisively and without delay.
The consequences of imitation are
well known. We have seen them
before.
Producers, unable to determine
what their costs will be. hesitate to
enter into defense contracts or
otherwise to commit themselves to
ventures whose outcome they cannot
eoresee. The whole production
machinery falters.
Spectators. anticipating success
sive price advances. withhold COM
modities from essential military pro-
duction.
Costs to the Government increase
and with 1t the public debt.
Defense Burden Thrown
On Fixed Incomes.
Increases in the workers cost OF
living, on the one hand, and excess
sive profits for the manufacturer
on the other, lead to spiraling de-
mands for higher wages. This means
friction between employer and
employed.
Great profits are reaped by some
while others. with fixed and low
incomes. find their living standards
drastically reduced and their life
long savings shrunken. The un-
skilled worker. the white-collal
worker, the farmer, the small busi-
neSsman and the small investor all
find that their dollar buys ever less
and less.
The burden of defense is thrown
haphazardly and inequitably or
those with fixed income or whose
bargaining power is too weak to
secure increases in income COM
menSurate with the rise in the cost
of living.
And over all hovers the Specter OF
future deflation and depression, to
confuse and retard the defense eff
fort and inevitably to aggravate the
dangers and difficulties of return
to normal peacetime basis.
Economic sacrifices there will be
and we shall bear them cheerfully
But We are determined that the
sacrifice of one shall not be the
profit of another. Nothing will sap
the morale of this Nation more
quickly or ruinously than penalizing
its sweat and skill and thrift by the
individually undeserved and uncon-
trollable poverty of imitation.
Figures Frighteningly
Similar to Those of 1918.
Our objective, therefore, must be
to see that imitation, arising from the
abuse of power to increase prices
because the supply is limited and
the demand inf1exible, does not oc-
cur during the present emergency.
Today we stand. as We did in the
closing months of 1915, at the begin
ming of an upward sweep of the
whole price structure. Then, too, we
enjoyed relative stability in prices
for almost a year and a half after
the outbreak of war abroad In Oc-
tober, 1915, however, prices turned
sharply upward. BY April, 1917, the
wholesale price index had jumped
So per cent; by June, 1917, IA per
cent; and by June. 1920, it was
nearly 140 per cent over the October
1915, mark.
The facts today are frighteningly
similar.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
Index of % basic commodities, by
the end of June, had advanced SO
per cent beyond its August. 1899,
level. 1t has increased "a per cent
since January of this year.
Since August, 1889, the Bureau OF
Labor Statistics Index of 900 whole
sale prices has advanced TN per