Evening star., 1942-09-07

| are controlled, showed a slight de-
cline; but during the same period
| lamb, which was uncontrolled up to
July, advanced more than 10 per
cent, and chickens have advanced
more than 16 per cent.
Oranges Up 25 Per Cent.
| To take another example: Lard
which is a controlled product, drop
per nearly 5 per cent, whereas but
| ter, which is uncontrolled, went up
more than per cent or twice the
! normal seasonal rate. Oranges have
| gone up more than Is per cent, al
| though the normal seasonal in
| crease is only about or per cent
Uncontrolled agricultural COM
modities include some of the most
important of the foods and include
the grain foods necessary for live
! stock When you consider that in
| this category are wheat, corn, oats
| barley, rye, dry beans, cotton, sweet
potatoes, apples, sheep, butterfat,
wholesale milk, chickens, eggs and
oranges, you can realize how i'm
| portant these products are to the
| pocketbook of the housewife.
The greatest danger is in dairy
| products, which are, as you know
most important items in the Amer
ican diet. Butter, cheese or evap-
GRATED milk are exempt under the
Price-Control Act. The prices fol-
these have been going up so fast
that they constitute a serious threat
to an adequate supply of fluid milk
Unless we are able to get control
of butter, cheese and other dairy
! products in the very near future
the price of milk in large cities is
| certain to go up.
Price Control Act Cited.
If wages should be stabilized and
! farm prices be permitted to rise al
any rate like the present rate
workers will have to bear the ma jor
! part of the increase. This we cam
not ask.
The Congress must realize that
unless the existing control over farm
prices is strengthened we must
abandon our efforts to stabilize
wages and salaries and the cost OF
living. If that occurs, workers and
farmers alike will not only suffer
a reduction in real income. but will
bring upon themselves and the Ma
ton the unparalleled disaster of un-
checked initiation.
The reason why price ceilings have
not already been imposed on all food
products is, as you know, that para
graph 3 of the Emergency Price
Control Act prohibits such ceilings
until farm prices as whole have
gone up beyond parity prices-far
beyond-as high as an average OF
Is per cent beyond.
! Although that restriction upon
establishing ceilings for farm prod
ucts usually is referred to as the lie
per cent Of parity limitation, it is
much worse than that. The statute
provides other limitations which are
more drastic. Ceilings cannot be
imposed, under the statute, on any
product at level below the market
price on october !. 194l, or Decem-
ber Is, l941, or the average price
for the period July /, 1919, to June
80, 1929, or below 110 per cent o1
current parity, whichever of those
four levels is highest.
AS a result, the lowest average
level for all farm commodities al
which ceilings may be imposed i!
not ITO per cent, but 116 per CEN
of parity-some of the commoditie.
going almost as high as $50 per cent
of parity.
Even more important is the psy-
Geological effect of such unfair
privilege. 1t provides fuel for fires
of resentment against farmers as q
favored class. After ALL parity is
by its very definition, fair relation
ship between the prices of the things
farmers sell and the things they buy
Calculations of parity must include
all costs of production, including the
cost OF labor. AS a result, parity
prices may shift every time wage
rates shift. Insisting that the CELL
lngs on no farm commodity shall
ever be lower than 110 per cent OF
parity is asking for more than a fair
price relationship with other prices
In fact, the limitations on agri.
cultural ceilings are now beins
cited by other groups as reason
for resisting economic controls tha
are needed in their own fields. TIL,
limitations will be a rallying poin
for such opposition as long as they
are in effect.
AS I urged in my message O.
April 27, 1912, "the original ane
excellent objective of obtaining
parity for the farmers of the United
States should be restored"
Our policy with respect to farm
, products should be guided by thre
principles: First, to hold the lin
against inf1ationary price increases
Second. to get the required produc
ton of necessary farm products
, Third, to maintain the principl
of parity for agriculture.
Farm Price Ceilings Needed.
Agriculture ceilings should be per
mitted at either parity or at tn
price levels which prevailed at som
recent date, whichever is higher Il
most cases the formula would pre-
serve the general structure o
wholesale and retail price control
and would also call out the volum
: of production needed. Also it woul,
preserve the parity principle.
In regard to increasing the tota
of our food production, one of th
: worries that farmer has toda,