The union times., 1944-07-01
On nTheScene
 In Washington
By Travis K. Hedrick

The cost of living headache is moving toward showdown that is likely to come soon at 1000 Penn sylvania Avenue, N. W. in this cap- ital of a nation at war. The address is that of the Squire of Hyde Park, the President, himself.
 Two factors stand out to make this speculation seem reasonably safe:
 1.-The new, compromised price control extension bill passed through the congressional mill is at the White House. MT. Roosevelt told reporters that he hadn't seen it, but would call in Justice James Byrnes, Stabiliza- tion Director Fred Vinson, and pos sibly some cabinet people when he does consider it. (By the time this is published, the issue may have been settled by E. D. R.)
 In this connection 1t should be noted that there is some heavy pressure against the bill as passed from not only the AFL and CIO, but from con- sumer and buying groups as we'll. They have informed the President that this is thoroughly bad piece of legislation. Some of them, particu- larly the labor leaders, are demand ing his veto.
 2-One of the controlling fac tors in the national wage freeze policy has been its reliance upon the Bureau of Labor Statistics cost of living index. Now that the Presi- dents Committee On the Cost of Living has received its technical ex- perts' report denying that the BIS index is, actually, a cost of living, something must be done.
 Not only that, but these experts found the BIS figures too low by some 3 to 5 points, which would advance the BIS estimate to 26.4 or 27.4%o instead of an advance of only 23.4%. This is still far from the mark of 43.5%o found by the AFL-CIO report to be the increase in living costs from January, l94l, to December, l943.
 Our daily newspapers spent most of their comment on the cost-of-living report recounting its criticism of the MeanysT Thomks figures and found little space for the indictment against the BIS. The BIS figures are sup posed to be official and are a measure by which the government judges wages.
 These technical experts found many shortcomings with the BIS index and its manner of gathering its figures. It reported that the BIS didn't register the increased rents in new housing projects where war workers are living to- day; they found BIS considered only half the population, in cities over 5O,OOO population and that it understates the price rises found by the low income groups.
 The worst blow, however, is the statement that the widespread be- lief that BIS grossly understates the cost of living is justified if the cost of living is taken to mean the amount of money a family spends for the commodities and services it buys"
 What else does the housewife think the cost of living means? Commodi- ties and services includes food, cloth ing, rent, transportation and the other things family needs to exist in health and reasonable comfort.
 Against the proof that living costs have risen far above the levels the BIS index attempts to show, there is an abundance of govern ment figures from the owl, the Department of Commerce and the National War Labor Board to prove that workers wage income was somewhat less in March than it was in February, 1944.