Evening star., 1944-01-27
0PA Can'tCurb Cost!
Without Congress-
Help, BowIes Says
Tells Senate Hearing
Subsidy Uncertainties
Are Partly to Blame
BY the Associated, Press,


Price Administrator Chester
Bowles told Senate Labor sub
committee today that further
increases in living costs are in
evitable unless he gets "the
vigorous support of Congress and
the general public"
Declaring that efforts to hold the
line against any further rise in the
prices of food have been hampered
BY the continuing uncertainty on
the use of subsidy payments" Mr.
Bowles said:
For every single pound Of pressure
which we have received toward more
effective price control in the in
terest of the great masses of our
people we have received 100 pounds
of pressure designed in one way
or another to raise present prices
to higher levels"
Calls Inquiry Unprecedented"
Mr.. Bowles, testifying before the
Pepper committee inquiring into the
economic status of white-collar
workers, termed the inquiry "un-
Iprecedented" because, he said, he
was accustomed "only to pressure
from one direction"
"In the past, when we have been
called before any group in Congress
or elsewhere, inevitably it has been
to explain why We have failed to
raise the price of this product or
that" he commented, adding that
he shared the committees concern
for "the growing economic threat
to the millions of people in the
white collar and fixed = income
group"
Raps Clothing Makers.
He said OPA's efforts to obtain
badly needed production of inexpen-
sive clothing had been hampered
by the unwillingness of some cor
porations to manufacture such
clothes, "in spite of the fact that
many Of their firms are now max
ing between four or five times the
average profit earned during the
prewar perioc."
Chairman Pepper earlier expressed
the hope that reports from Chair
man william H. Davis of the War
Labor Board and Mr.. Bowles will
lead to relaxation of Federal wage
controls as they affect the white
collar worker. Mr.. Davis also was
invited to testify before the COM
mittee.
1--WE are hopeful" said Senator
Pepper, that Mr.. Davis can point
the way toward relaxation of the
Government wage policy on wage in
creases insofar as it affects the sub
standard groups struggling along
without sufficient money to main-
tain health and efficiency"
The Floridian said testimony thus
far indicated that many fixed-in-
come workers need tax relief, high
er wages and more rigid price con-
trolls even to get by"
The committee was told yesterday
by J. Curtis Hoyt, who said he was a
req,lisition engineer for "a large
manufacturing company" at Upper
Darby, Pa, that unless some
method Is found to halt the rising
cost of living or provide a substan-
tial increase IN income, many So
called white-collar workers, besides
reneging on previous commitments,
are going to find themselves faced
with declining health"
Mr.. Hoyt was presented by Beryl
Gilman, assistant to the President
of the International Federation of
Architects, Engineers, Chemists and
Technicians, CIO.
Tells of Sacrifices.
Although his income has increased
every year to present 40-hour a
week rate of $2,817 annually and
he has added to this by working
overtime, by singing and by serv-
ing with Pennsylvania Militia. Mr..
Hoyt declared he now has to carry
his lunch to work.
He added that he has had to give
up subscriptions to technical So
cieties and magazines, and as q
consequence of failure to keep up
with new developments "I become
less valuable to the profession as
I grow older"
Mr.. Gilman said an archaic SAL
ary system" and rising costs of liv-
ing have made it nigh on to i'm
possible for experienced technical
employees to obtain the improve
ment in training which they re-
quire."
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