Evening star., 1943-06-15
Food Car Next?

The rising demand for designation
of a food czar," with full control
over production, pricing and possibly
rationing, has all the earmarks of
another eleventh-hour effort to deal
with problem that is rapidly as
suming unmanageable proportions.
Whether designation of another czar
would provide the best solution is
an open question, but matters have
reached point where almost any
plan promising to bring order into
the present chaotic muddle is almost
certain to receive very strong support
This latest f1are-up, in which some
members of Congress are threatening
to press for legislation setting up
food czar If the President refuses to
act, centers around the fruit and
vegetable canning industry. The
Gamers are in a position where they
cannot hope to function without
relief, and unless something is done
quickly the warning that there will
be no canned goods for civilians this
winter may prove to be substantially
accurate.
The Gamers are the victims of
unco-ordinated Government policies,
and while they are not the only group
of middlemen to be caught in a
merciless squeeze between rising costs
end fixed selling prices, their plight
holds the center of the stage at this
time. At the root of the trouble is an
acute labor shortage in the industry.
The Gamers, under their price CELL
ing, find it impossible to compete
with better paying industries for help.
AS result they lack the manpower
to pick and can the ripening fruit and
vegetable crops. Unless they get the
necessary help large portion of
these crops will rot, and this would
require civilian consumers to take
their belts up another notch. With
the administration having failed to
evolve any adequate system of man.
power control, however, the Gamers
can get help only by paying higher
wages. But if this is to be the solu-
tion, the increased cost of canning
must be offset through subsidies to
the industry or higher prices for its
product.
At this point another obstacle
enters the picture. The administra-
ton has been unwilling to allocate
manpower to the industry or to ac-
cept the theory that workers should
be required to serve where they are
most needed, and it is also unwilling
to sanction price increase which
would boost costs to consumers.
Hence, it favors the subsidy method.
But in Congress the sentiment
against subsidies is strong, many
members believing the lesser of two
evils would be to let prices rise to
a level commensurate with the ad-
vance in earnings. The trouble with
this view is, of course, that a good
many people have not had wage
increases, and a rise in food costs
"ouAo o4AAPAy SO4AIpCA V1IClll w eau lCSS.
1t is difficult to say where the line
should be drawn between these con-
flicting views. Certainly, the prac-
tice of paying Government subsidies
to permit wage increases can lead to
no end of trouble. But, as to the
unorganized and politically impotent
consumer, the same thing is true of
price increases. A food car endowed
with real powers might or might not
be able to find a satisfactory way
out, but, with conditions as they are,
any step which would substitute.
definite and fixed policy for the
existing welter of confusion holds
some promise of relief.