Evening star., 1941-10-07

Commander in Chief of the Army
and Navy. The President, therefore
is responsible for the successful exc
cution of the defense program which
the Congress has authorized. This
Is the reason why Congress recently
put the priorities authority in the
hands of the President, and this is
the reason why the price bill does
not create new independent board
or commission.
The bill is broad, but is carefully
surrounded with safeguards. AL
though the President may put a
price-stop on all commodity prices,
generally speaking it is contem-
plated that maximum prices will be
established only for the more i'm
portant prices which show tend
ency to get out of line. That's what
we mean when we say this is a
"selective' price bill Every price
regulation must be generally fair
and equitable" both to buyers and
sellers of the commodity. This is
the general standard which guides
all action taken to establish maxi
mum prices. Then the bill says
that so far as practicable. where a
ceiling is established for a specific
commodity, the President must take
the price prevailing on or about
July %, 194l, and adjust that price
in order to work out a fair ceiling.
Instead of building up a price by
some complicated formula, the idea
is to take price which buyers and
sellers have worked out for them
selves in a free market, and then
adjust that price for speculative
fuctuatlOn, and for increases or de-
creaSeS in both costs and profits.
All this is written into the statute,
Different for Farm Products.
For agricultural commodities. the
Dill as introduced provides a differ
rr' set of standards. No price can
be fixed on any farm product below
1l0 per cent of parity. or the price
on July %, 1941, whichever is the
higher
In order to make sure that every
one knows Just how a particular
ceiling price is established, the bill
expressly says that every price regu-
lation must be accompanied by a
statement of the consideration that
were involved in the making of the
price. Then if any one wishes TO
object, he may file a protest, ex-
planning his objections and setting
forth any supporting evidence he
may have. If he doesn't get salts
faction, he has an absolute right to
be heard by any Emergency Court
of Appeals This is a special three
Judge court appointed by the Chief
Justice of the United States Su-
preme Court from among Federal
judges already on the bench. In
this way, every person who feels
aggrieyed by price regulation can
get speedy decision by an expert
enced, expert court. This will also
enable us to get uniformity of de-
cision so that price regula ton will
apply equally and fairly through
out the country.
Review by the Supreme Court can
be had on petition for certiorari.
All this may seem pretty technical
and dull to you, but it means that
prices must be set according to
standards laid down by law, and
reviewed by courts established un-
der the Constitution of the United
States. If the law is disregarded.
or If the action taken is arbitrary
or capricious, the courts will say
SO. And to me this is important
for however great the emergency,
we were established, and we shall
remain, Government of laws and
not of men.
So much for what the bill does.
Now III like to tell you a little bit