Evening star., 1941-10-21
Wickard Supports
Price.ControI Bill
With Farm Ceiling
Level Should Be Not Less
Than 1000 Of Pority,
He Tells House Group
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Secretary of Agriculture Wickard
gave his support today to price-con-
troll legislation which would author
ize ceiling on farm products at not
less than ITO per cent of parity,
but declared that agricultural COM
modities were not too high yet.
Recalling trials of farmers grow
ing out of inhationary and def1a-
tionary periods of the first World
War, the Secretary said:
Il do not believe that the Ameri-
can economy can stand repetition
of anything like that"
Secretary Wickard's statement was
made before a House Banking Com
mittee considering an administra-
tion-supported price control bill.
Mr.. Wickard declared, however,
that price control alone would not
prevent imitation. AS for Agricul-
ture, he said, the surest preventive
was increased production. He said
the Agriculture Department had in
augurated program designed to
give this country its greatest pro-
duction of food and crops next year.
Fears Price Increases.
Like other farmers" the Secre-
tary said, Il have watched with
mingled pleasure and fear these
recent price increases for farm
products. I think the pleasure of
understandable enough after 20
years of unfairly low farm prices.
Even greater than the pleasure,
though, is the fear of what happens
when prices get too high. They
are certainly not there now. But
speaking as one farmer, hope they
never do get there"
While stating that recent in
creases in farm prices had been un-
usually rapid, Mr. Wickard said he
wanted to make it plain that they
are not yet out of line, for the rea-
son that these are increases from
levels which were abnormally low"
I'm 1889, before the war broke out,
prices of farm products were so low
that the farmers purchasing power
was only about three-fourths of
what it had been in 1904. Only
within the past month or two has
the purchasing power approached
the parity level" he said.
One of the merits of the pending
bill. the Secretary said, was its &C
ceptance of the parity principle"
Fair minded consumers will admit
that farm product prices have been
bargain prices during most of the
last 20 years
Denies Farmers Are Greedy.
Mr.. Wickard said that farmers
had been accused of "greediness, of
not being content with parity. Let
me say here and now that accusa-
tions of that sort are unjustifled and
unfair. The farm price ceiling pro-
vision of this bill is certainly no
basis for such conclusion.
Mr.. Wickard said the proviso for
the minimum ITO per cent ceiling
was necessary to take care of de-
sirable price fluctuations in the
markets. He said that If ceilings
were placed exactly at parity, the
daily fluctuations in the market
would necessarily all be between
parity and some lower figure, and
as a result, farmers could not pos
sibly average parity"
A Government economist told the
committee yesterday that Canada's
recent extension of its price and
wage controls does not justify the
universal control of prices, wages
and rents in this country.
Isador Lubin, commissioner of labor
statistics. testified that there were
many reasons for the Canadian
government action which do not
exist in the United States.
In the first place, he said, Canada
has achieved almost full employ
nfent of both its manpower and re-
sources, and in the second Canada
was devoting 46 cents of every dollar
it produced to its war effort,
whereas less than 20 per cent of
this country's national income is
going for defense.
Mr.. Lubin also pointed out that
Canada's control of wages. chiefly
through a system of bonuses based
on cost of living increases, was han
died through an agency entirely
from that which fixes
prices,