The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-09-15
FARM PRICE, WAGE CONTROL MEASURE In Senate Today With Clear Track; House Will
 Give It Opposition
BY JAMES R. SHEPLEY Tinted Press Staff CorreSpOndent)

United Press Staff CorreSp0ndenU
 Washington, Sept. 15-(UP)-The administrations farm price and wage control bill started through the Senate today on a clear track but faced obstacles in the House.
 It remains to be seen whether dificulties created by widely diver gent Senate and House versions would be sufficient to delay enact- ment beyond President Roosevelts Oct. deadline.
 The Senate banking committee began hearings on an aominiStra- tion approved bill introduced yes- terday by Sen. Prentiss Brown, D., Mich. It planned to cut them short after Price Administrator Leon Henderson, Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard and War Labor Beard Chairman William H. Davis have testified.
 Trs Senate bill seemed to be &C., ceptable to majority of the Sen- ate, including Republicans who will meet later this week to discuss It. Brown even indicated he would ac- cept 6 suggestion by Sen. Arthur H. Vanienberg, R., Mich, to have the hill require the President to act on wages and farm prices simultane- ously. Vandenberg also suggested that Congress might follow MT. Roosevelt's precedent of demanding congressional action by Oct. l, by requiring him to act by Oct. 15.
 Sen. John H. Bankhead, D., Ala, a farm blcc leader, objected very seriously" to changing the 11O per cent of parity ceiling on farm prices but admitted T am helpless - the President has the votes"
 Tn the House, the anti-inflation programs manager, Ch air m Il Henry B. Steagall, D., Ala, of the banking committee, introduced a bill designed to permit farm prices to rise about 10 per cent beyond parity levels as now calculated and to peg them there for the duration of the war and for three years there after.
 Opposes President
 That is contrary to the Presidents desire to put ceiling on farm prices at parity or at the highest levels the market has reached so far this year. Where necessary to eliminate "gross inequalities the Senate bill would permit President Roosevelt to reduce prices below the levels obtained this year.
 Stegalls legislation = dubbed in some congressional quarters as a bill to increase farm price" s"-did not have the prior approval of the banking committee. But with the weight of the chairman behind it, the House committee was expected to approve it.
 Some of the Senate leaders, how ever, expect the House membership to refuse to follow Steagall. They are counting on such supporters of stringent anti-inflation measures as Rep. Albert Gore, D., Tenn, to help change 1t to conform more to the Senate bill.
 The Steagall bill would empower the President to impose farm price ceilings at 100 per cent of parity or the highest price the commodity had reached during 1942 up to the date of enactment. But it would revise the formula for computing parity to include the cost of farm labor as a factor. That has been an objective of the farm bloc for several years. It would take into consideration the farmers own la hor, the labor of all members of his family engaged in farm work, and hired labor. all to be calculated at current rates for hired farm labor. That in turn would affect the cal- cEIlation of parity.
 Parity is, in brief, the price which q farmer must receive for product to obtain the same purchasing pow CT that he had in the base years A000-14.