Imperial Valley press., 1943-06-27
by
Peter
Edison

F&02EFNWS &<X1
The situation on attempts to con-
troll food prices at the present
moment can best be described as
government by yes and no." Few
decision are made definitely yes"
Few decisions are made definitely
no" Practically all decisions.
whether on wages, prices. or taxes.
have been made with the apparent
idea of trying to keep everybody
happy with yes and no" answer.
The trouble isn't lack of
principle on which to operate. The
principles on which the antrim
ilation campaign was 10 be FOUGHT
were stated definitely by the
President i'm his Seven-Point Pro-
gram of April 81, 1912. restated
bv the Congressional Sterilization
Act of October 2, 1912, re-stated
IN the Presidents Told-That-
Line order of April 8, 1913.
The trouble has come through
failure to execute those noble
aims by decisive action. Too
much compromise. Too much ives
and no." Three cases may Illus
trate what is meant:
l. There is a fundamental diff
ference of opinion between Office
of Frice Administration and War
Food Administration on food price
control. OPA says yes" we must
have price ceilings at all levels. The
VIA idea seems to be yes if price
ceilings are high enough to en-
courage production, but mo" ii
price ceilings are to be applied to
the growers. Practically every food
price ceiling which OPA has pro-
posed has been questioned by VIA
and has had to be referred to the
Office of Economic Sterilization
for decision.
COMPROMISED DECISIONS
Justice James E. Byrnes. who
held that office till he was pro-
NOTED to the Office of War Mobili-
zation. won his reputation in Con-
decisions in OES have been COM
promises. Judge Fred M. Vinson
who succeeded Byrnes in OES. was
also q great compromiser in Con-
greSs. How he will give decisions in
OES remains to be seen.
3. If ceilings are to be applied on
wholesale and retail food prices but
not on growers prices, the only
way in which such economic Jug
Cling can be achieved is through
payment of subsidies, yet on the
subsidy question there is more
yessing and noing than on any
other phase of the price attempted
control program.
Authority for subsidies is in the
Price Control Act, passed by Con-
gress, yes. The Attorney General
gave an opinion last August, on q
canned tomato juice question, that
government subsidies are legal. yes.
Subsidies have been a part of the
RFC program since 1910, yes.
Commodity Credit Corporation is
now paying subsidies to food can
ners, yes.
But Congress on subsidies says
mo" Recently il has written in
prohibitions against the use of
Lend-Lease and CCC funds for
subsidies and has before it a bill
to prohibit the payment of sub
sides on food products without
Congressional approval. And War
Food Administrator Chester c.
Davis has declared that general
dependence on a broad subsidy
program, to hold prices, would be
dangerous. Another no
3. Food Gamers today are losing
food, throwing it away because
they can't get labor. The reason
they can't get labor is that wages
in the canning industry have been
frozen at level so low they can't
compete with better paying indus
tries. In some regional War Labor
Board offices, approval has beep
given to pay higher wage rate,
yes.
To pay these added wages, the
| Gamers say there must De an up IN
ceiling prices on their products to
pay for the increased labor crops
Approval for such price increases
must come from OPA. Yet within
OPA there is a yes and no. battle
going on which prevents the making
of any decision on this issue.
|
One group in OPA says yes.
give them price increases to cover
their added costs, but no more. The
other group says mo-" price cell
ings must be held at present levels
and the inference is that the can
ners can go jump in one of their
kettles and stew in their own juice
War Food Administration sits on
the sidelines in this dispute, feeling
rather desperate about the situa-