The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1941-03-07
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GOVERNMENT FEARS RISING
PRICES
WASHINGTON. - Only insiders
know it, but the government is pre-
pairing drastic price controls If the
present upward trend continues.
They fear runaway price situa-
ton which would hit the pocketbooks
Of the great mass of consumers.
And the last thing the administra-
ton wants right now is hot cost
of-living potato on its hands.
So far there have been marked
price advances only in few COM
modities-lumber, scrap iron, and
other basic raw materials. But re-
Gently there have been te1-tale signs
Of general upward movement, and
some of those mysterious late-after-
noon White House conferences have
been over this problem. Three plans
Of attack are under consideration:
1. Use of the priorities control now
vested in the office of production
management, under the supervision
of ex-U. S. Steel man Edward r.
Stettinius Jr., to deprive price goug-
ers Of their supplies, thus forcing
them either to 60 out of business
or bring their prices into line.
2. Use of the ''draft industry" law
to compel price gouging concerns to
sell to the government at a fixed
figure; also to "freeze" prices in
industries where quotations persist
in getting out of line with what
are considered fair levels.
8. Imposition Of price ceiling on
all commodities and on every step
in the industrial process from raw
materials to retailer.
The last was the recommendation
of Bernard Baruch, based on his ex-
perience as head of the 1918 war
industries board. In private confer
ences with Roosevelt and defense
chiefs, Baruch emphasized that the
one big price lesson learned in
World War I was that halfway con-
troll measures were worse than none
at all.
'You must either stabilize every
price or stabilize no price," he de-
clared. eff you impose controls only
at one point, you leave the door wide
open for worse break-away some
where else. The only effective de-
tense is total defense and the only
effective price control is total con-
troll"
HOPKINS REPORTS
Here are some of the things Harry
Hopkins told the President.
First and most important, Hop
kins definitely stated his conviction
that the British would be able to
hold out against the Nazis. He thor
oughly agreed with Wendell Willkie
in spiking isolationist claims that
Britain would crack up, submit to a
negotiated peace, and leave the
U.S.A. to hold the bag after voting
about aid.
However, Hopkins got no request
from Winston Churchill that the U. S.
send five to ten destroyers month.
What Churchill did request was the
right to repair British destroyers and
other naval craft in American dry
docks. This has been one Of Brit
aims most difficult problems, since
all of her dry-docks are fairly easy
targets for air raids, so that vessels
needing repair frequently have been
bombed second time or even a
third time and have to be repaired
all over again.
Churchill also asked that the Unit
ed States sell or lease mosquito
boats" These are small, fast motor
boats carrying torpedoes and
equipped to lay depth charges,
which the United States has been
building at the rate of about one a
week for some time.
Churchill wanted them particular
1y to ward off Nazi invasion, when
it comes. Virtually impossible to
hit because of their high speed
they can do SO miles an hour the
mosquito boats would be especially
effective against Nazi troop-ships
and barges attempting to cross the
channel.
However, the mosquito boats
which the United States is building
are little light for the choppy wa
tiers of the English channel, and it
is significant That the President al
ready has ordered the redesigning Of
the stern of these boats in order to
improve their balance.
" CAPITAL CHAFF
Ex-senator King of Utah visited
the senate the other day, sat in his
old seat and itched with the impulse
to rise and address the chamber.
Blind ex-senator Gore Of Okla
homa came into the chamber on the
arm of a page and listened with up
lifted face and rapt expression to the
debate.