Evening star., 1943-06-06
Wilson'S Career Prepares Him
To Fight 1nflationary Trends
Legislative and Judicial Record Largely Concerned
With Taxation and Price Controls,
Governing Factors in Markets
BY Rayn ond p. Brandt.

The appointment Of Justice Fred M,
Vinson Of the District of Columbia Cir
cult Court of Appeals to succeed James
F. Byrnes as director of the Office of
Economic Sterilization means that Presi
dent Roosevelt and Byrnes believe that
the cost of living can be kept within
bounds principally by taxation and rigid
price control. Justice Vinson has posi-
tive records on these two curbs, the most
important at the Governments disposal
for stopping the now dangerous infla-
tionary spiral.
There were many reasons for Justice
Wilson'S appointment to his new Office
his influence in Congress, his knowledge
OF taxation, his legal ability, his fighting
courage and his industry but his views
on the 1912 Price Control Act may well
have been the most important one.
These views were forcefully expressed in
an opinion he handed down last month
as chief judge of the Emergency Court
OF Appeals for price-1xing a position to
which he was appointed year ago by
Chief Justice Stone.
This decision of the new three Judge
court attracted little public attention at
the time but it set precedent by hold
ing that a Brooklyn savings bank must
obey an OPA regulation prohibiting an
increase in rentals of safety deposit
boxes an increase that admittedly would
not have added appreciably to the cost
of living
Describing the Price Control Act as "a
breath-taking legislative departure from
our peacetime economic policy Vinson
fatty rejected the banks argument that
the law contemplated regulation only of
those commodities and services whose
price substantially affects the cost of
living.
Cited Collective Effect.
"A substantial price increase of any
commodity" he declared, will not, in
itself, add appreciably to the living cost
OF the general public. Its weight is mill-
gramic. But the combined effects of
these minute quanta, which singly
would not shake the scales, could be
catastrophe.
1T Is true that an increase in COM
plainant's prices, in and of itself, does
not substantially affect living costs.
Complainant's statement is correct, so
far as it goes, but it is deceptive In its
intended inference that, for that rea-
son, no purpose is served by the regu-
lation of safe deposit rental rates. Ac-
cession of this type of reasoning would
virtually destroy the effectiveness of the
act. Compliments argument is ap-
plicable to thousands of commodities
besides its own. Clearly, however, the
collective effect of so many price in
creases coud create the very chaotic
condition that the act was designed to
prevent. 1t is plain to us that there is
compelling reasons to restrain the COM
plalnant and others in its class from
making their individually inapproachabl BILE
contribution to what would result in a
very appreciable total"
A significant part of this decision, in
addition to its general Importance, is
that it applies to services as we'll as to
commodities" an inclusion which may
have considerable bearing should JUS
tice Vinson have to take a hand in the
settlement Of the coal strike. If he does
take hand in this strike, his co-author-
ship of the Vinson- -Guffey Coal Act will
have prepared him for the technical de-
tails.
Vinson has declined to foretell how
ne expects to manage his new Office, one
of the most difficult in the wartime Gov
ernment. When Byrnes helped draw UP
the executive order creating the new
Office of War Mobilization, he insisted
that the OES retain control over prices,
which meant Vinson must handle the
conflicting views on price control, not
only within the Government itself in
Guiding Congress, but also the outside
pressure blocs such as the farmers. or
ganized labor, professors, merchandizers
and consumers Wilson's judicial tenn
perament as we'll as his fighting qualities
will be put to a hard test in this work.
Gained Reputa ton in Taxes.
1t was in the field of taxation that
Vlnson gained his reputation, and one
of the most anxiously awaited develop
ments is whether he will advocate a sales
tax to drain off wartime excess purchas-
ing power. Although he favored current
taxation as early as 1887, there is no
available evidence on his views about
Nc lIkA(EIE