The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1942-01-29
" PETER gDSoN
Dolly Meaites Weshinston
Cosrnanondamt

Is this the new price bill born
Of four months congressional
strife and strain, q decd duck
before II even has q chance TO
Try its wings and show its stuff
fling?
CopitoI advocates of the
Bernord Boruch theory OF
freezing all prices insteod OF
selected prices, feor thot it is.
Their reasoning is that prices
have risen 50 much foster since
Pearl Horbor than they did in
the preceding 10 months that
the only way initiation can be
prevented now is through q
much more drostic freezing of
all prices than is called for by
the administrators proerom
Of freezing only selected
prices.
Before Pearl Horbor, whole
sole prices we're advancing at
the rate Of about ! "a per cent
q month. In the first month
otter Pearl Horbor the rise was
3 per cent and in one week it
was ! per cent. Increases on
the main items-food, fur
niture and clothes - overoee
obout IS per cent over the
post year. but all items ore
up. Wholesale prices on form
products have gone UP over
IS per cent and on foodstuffs
over IS per cent.
This rise in wholesale prices
has been foster than the rote
Of rise in the cost Of living
at the retail IeveI-which
speaks we'll for the effort
which the retail merchants
have made to hold prices down
but that can't keep up for
ever in the fo:e Of more ropid-
ly advancing prices Of whole
soIers. Sooner, and not later,
this can only mean that the
consumer is going 10 be hit
harder than ever. His reaction
can be expressed in only one
woy-o demand for wage in
ereoses. When that comes,
there you have the dizzy spiral
which Ieods only upward to in
flotion.
Of course it's nice to have
everyone getting q little more
jock-reeordIess Of whether
it comes in as woees or profits
on q sote. The grief in this
particular situation is that
higher poyeheeks and bigger
soIes slips don't produce any
more munitions-they make
just the same quantity Of bot
tleships, boyonets or buttons
cost more money which can
come only from higher taxes
ond bigger debts. There is
nothing new in that statement.
II is SO old now that it should
be public axiom number one.
But it apparently can't be re-
peoted too often to make it
stick.
1t oPpIies particularly to the
present situation because
prices now may be advancing
foster than they can be con-
trolIed under the provisions Of
the new price administration
law. 1t may take the Price Ad-
ministrotion too long to swing
into oction, it may mean that
an organization can't be whip
ped into shape fost enough to
handle these new spiroIs Of in
fIotion.
EASING INTO CONTROL
Up to the time the price bill
was posed, Price Administro-
tor Leon Henderson's oreoni-
cotton had issued only about
IS price schedules, nearly all
covering materials going into
war production. Two-thirds OF
the principal commodities OF
general trode ore still uneov-
cred.
Perhaps the Office Of Price
Administration hos felt that il
should 90 a little slow in pIos-
tering price ceilinos~on these
walls Of rising prices till offer
the new price bill was passed.
UnquestionobIy, Henderson:
ceiling on peanut oil, cotton
seed oil and other fots and oils
was what reused the ire Of the
farm belt senators who have
made the going SO tough foI
the new price bill in the lost
month.
There is q further odvont-
oee-o psychological odvont
ooe to the ideo Of freezing oil
prices as of some given dote