Evening star., 1942-05-05
Strows in the Wind

StrCWS IN the WInd
The week that has passed since
the President sent his cost of living"
message to Congress has brought two
disturbing developments. One is the
blunt assertion by farm bloc leaders
that Congress will not stabilize farm
prices at the parity level, as requested
by the President. The other is the
decision of the C. l. o. steel workers
to insist upon a dollar-a-day wage
increase for the 10000 men in Little
Steel"
In the message to Congress, Mr..
Roosevelt set forth seven objectives.
All of them, he said, must be at
tanned if we are to escape disas-
trous rise in living costs. The third
and fourth of these objectives we're
the stabilization of wages and the
stabilization of farm prices. If these
two conditions are met we may
escape imitation, although that is by
no means certain. If they are not
met the collapse of the present pro-
gram seems inevitable. Hence the
Importance Of the weeks develop
ments, for they are straws indicating
the direction Of the wind
Under existing law farm prices
cannot be frozen under 110 per cent
of parity. In the case of many ar
ticles, the President said, this can
mean a dangerous increase in the
cost of living over present prices,
and for this reason he urged Con-
gress to pass legislation permitting
ceilings to be imposed at the parity
level, which is a very favorable one
for the farmers. But nothing has
been done, and Senator Bankhead, a
farm bloc leader, says that it cant
be done" because sentiment in the
Senate is against it. He added that
he doubted very much that "any one
up here will make any serious at
tempt" to alter the prevailing parity
figures. Thus, to this time, the Presi-
dent has run into blank wall on the
fourth of his seven points.
The matter of wage stabilization
rests largely in the hands of the War
Labor Board, since the President is
opposed to any fixing of wages by
law and Congress has decided against
I such action on it's own initiative.
What the future position of the
board will be remains to be seen, but
it is worthy Of note that it has not
shown any clear intent to refuse
wage demands. The President, in
the message to Congress, was some
what vague on the subject of wages,
/ but In his fireside talk Tuesday
night he told wage earners un-
equivocally that they would have to
forgo higher wages for particular
| jobs for the duration of the war.
There is no evidence, however, that
the c. I, O., or any other branch of
labor, is willing to be bound by that
| prOnouncement. On the contrary,
the Steel Workers Organizing Com
mittee, meeting in Pittsburgh Sun
day, instructed C. I. o. President
| Philip Murray and other union off,
GERS to carry forward their campaign
| for higher wages 'in such manner
as they, in their judgment, may
deem to be in the best interests of
the S. w. o. c." Nothing is said
about the best interests of the coun-
try as whole.
Speaking for himself, Mr.. Murray
said that both wings of labor are
"unalterably opposed" to any system
of wage freezing, although he has
tened to add, somewhat paradox
ically that "the President and I are
not at odds" Perhaps Mr.. Murray
is right in this, for, generally speak
ing, his language and the language
that the President uses in talking of
wage controls is subject to various
interpretations. But the acid test
will come with the labor boards
decision. The steel workers are
relatively highly paid, and if their
demand is granted in whole or in
part, another essential point in the
cost of living program goes out the
window. That would leave the coun-
try with a drastic system Of price
ceilings which bear down heavily on
! unorganized groups in the country
but which would not be worth the
paper they were issued on as means
of preventing imitation.