The union times., 1944-05-06
SUBMITS PROGRAM

Unless this is done, he said, Amer ican workers now investing a large part of their savings i'll War Bonds will not receive full value, dollar for dollar, when the war ends and the bonds are redeemed.
 MT. Green offered the following program for enactment.
 I-ExtensiOn of the Price
 Control Act without change for
 two years after the war.
 @COngressiOnal support of
 increased appropriation for eff
 fective enforcement of price and
 rent control.
 3-PrOvisiOn of subsidies essen
 tial to continued price stability
 of key cost of living cOmmOdi-
 ties.
 "A restoration of the reIa-
 tiOnships between price and
 wages which existed September
 l, l942, as absolutely essential
 to make the law work equitably
 and build the morale of Ameri-
 can workers to the highest de-
 gree OI 0IQclenCyS
 The AFL chief continued:
 "The issue before Congress involv- ing the future of price control is now drawn. Gigantic pressures are at work to secure the emasculation of price control and to permit wartime profit gains through price increases at the expense of consumers workers in industry and trade, white collar work CTS, farm workers and wives and de- pendents of soldiers at the front.
 'fThe drive against continued price control does not take the form of open opposition to the price control itself. Every worker, every housewife, every soldiers wife is so deeply convinced that price control is necessary to protect the budget on which rests their livelihood that no enemy of price control has dared come out and attack it openly.
 Instead, the drive is on tO make price control unavoidable and ineffective through piecemeal tech nlcal changes, complicated enough to escape the understanding of the ordinary man on the street. Inef- fective price control is worse than no price control at all. Price con- trOl which remains on the books but permits creeping price imcreas- es, or price control which is im- possible of enforcement and under standing by every housewife and every consumer, would be nothing short of gigantic fraud.
 1t has been urged that price con- trol would be broken up among a number of agencies in place of the single and coordinated controls now placed in the hands of OPA. This would breed chaos.
 There is a growing awareness on the part of wage earners throughout the. nation that un- impaired continuation of price control is a matter of foremost importance to every wage earner. Witnesses from communities in different parts of the eOuntrya from the midwest, south and north will testify here directly on behalf of labor in their own cities and towns. These are not isolated ex- amples and are not expressions of picked individuals
 MT. Green then delivered a smash ing attack upon the most fragrant war prohteers who have led the fight against continued and effective price control. He declared:
 Reasonable profit on investment is essential to the operation of business enterprise. COnfiscatOry administration of price control which denies a manufactures, wholesaler or retailer his reason able return would be strongly Op- posed by the American Federation of Labor. With this in mind. must say in all fairness that during recent months the most publicized and most violent claims of undue hardship resulting from price ceil- ings have come from quarters in which wartime prOfiteering was most fragrant. At the same time specific instances indicate that re- quests for just and proper relief have resulted in speedy and satis- factory adjustment of OPA prOce- dures and regulations.
 Labor cannot be silent about brazen wartime prohteering in all branches of industry and trade which is passed over in knowing silence in all public policy discussions of econ omic stabilization. Has not the Sen ate Investigating Committee headed by Senator Truman brought out the fact that while the bulk of war busi- ness has heen Oiver1 +o 1O0 corooro