The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-10

jelly, applebutter, applejack, the
shade of the old apple tree it's
still impossible to make more than
a paragraph out Of an apple whe-
Their you eat it raw, stewed, fried
baked or in pie la mode.
But not the guv'ment. The
guvment can't do anything in a
paragraph. You might think for in
stance, that setting a ceiling price
on such simple thing as an apple
could be done in a few words.
SIMPLE?
The Office Of Price Administra-
ton, which has been given full
credit for trying to simplify its or
ders and make 'em understandable
recently put out maximum price
regulation on apples, known Off
cially as Amendment 8 to MPR 426
Document No. 22756), Part 1899
Impressed Agricultural Commod-
tiles. Article III, Section Is, Appen-
dix G-Maximum Prices for Apples.
Exclusively Lady Apples and Crab
apples.)
Query-Whod have guessed that
crabappleS are male?
The fact that it Is Amendment 9
indicates that the order had been
amended eight times previously, and
men in hte fresh fruit and vegetable
business trying to dope these things
out say they don't all agree. This
department wouldn't know.
Amendment isn't SO bad, at first
glance. It's only three pages long
1t divides the country up into six
apple zones, and it sets five retail
and wholesale seasonal maximum
prices in dollars-per- pound for each
zone on various sized containers
from IS to so pounds each, when
sold in less than carload or truck
load lots.
At the end Of the tables, how
ever. there was some fine type on
carload lot sales, sales through
brokers and maximum prices for
growers F. o. B. the shipping point,
which threw the apple trade into a
strudel. kilograms and queries be-
gan to pour in on Washington, and
the fun really began.
APPLE ANSWERS
In a noble effort to set everybody
straight. OPA had to issue a series
of 38 questions and answers, cover
ing six pages of single-spaced type
written copy which serve as an in
depreciation to MPR 426, Amend
ment 8, Art. III, Sec. Is, App. G.
Some of the questions are handles.
Or rather, the questions aren't so
bad, but the answers are something
the like of which will never be
found in any grocer's arithmetic.
Condensed. here are a few samples.
2. Apples may no longer be sold
by the bushel, even if you want to
buy 'em that way. They must be
sold by the pound.
.. Growers are not permitted to
qualify as car-lot distributors, to
take a distributors markup.
IL. Growers may not make an
additional charge for boxes or other
containers.
81. Regional and district OPA
Offices are given authority to estab-
lish community prices, but Amend
ment is not to be used as a basis
for making price differentials for
grades and varieties. In other words,
grading is cut.
38. If decay exists in any pack
age OF apples, they must still be sold
ON the basis of their per pound cell
ing price, without regard to the
quality or condition of the fruit.
And so forth. All these goings on
seem funny, but they are presented
mere not IN ridieule, but to show
the difficulties of trying to price
such perishable commodities as
fresh fruits and vegetables. OPAs
zeal to bring down the cost of liy-
ing by holding down the prices of
these items is commendable, but 1t
ruins into complications such as
those mentioned above.