The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-21

Then along comes tho end of tho war, and these people lose their jobs, Immediately they start hoRFdlng their money and heldlng back on their plans, That's deflatlonary.
 Right next to this family there lives an insurance salesman. Ho and his wife want to build 0 house, too, But the insurance man thinks busi- ness is Voing to Do good, and what seares him is that prices arc going to be higher as soon as controls are off, He wants to build that new house now, and buy that new car now, before everything goes up. He's inflRtienary.
 Bewles points to these two eases, right on tho sane street, NS eS- Rmpies of tho crazy, eoekeyed econ. emy the country is going to have aS soon as tho war is over Boom it can go up, or bang 1t can hit tho sklds.
 Officially, Bewles won't guess which way it's going to 90, belieV- ing that the drift may change from month to month, But he realizes that 6 mistake by OPA on it's posts war pricing policies may throw the economy one way or the other, and that's what he's hoping can Do avoided,
 POSTWAR PRICING PROBLEMS
 Right now, opA is trying to plan how it can get out from under price controls ca fast aS possible and item by item, the same way 1t got in, In some cases prices may naturally drop below tho present ceilings, The trick then Is simply to take of the cell ings.
 At the same time, it will be nee- esaary to put new price ceilings on items which haven't been In produce ton and which you haven't been able to buy during the war years, In general OPA now is aiming to have these items come back on the mar kes At approximately the same prices in effect in the first quarter of i049, when production of cons sulRer durable goods was largely stopped,
 Going over the list Of items that will be brought back into production when the war Is over, OPA has found that less than dozen types of goods make up 8b per cent of oil the items which will need new price regulation. Included in thB list are automobiles and parts, refrigeratoFs, sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, radios, pianos, heating equipment watches and jewelry, oPA is asking the manufacturers oi these lines to come to Washington in the next few weeks to work out their postwar pricing problems.
 Holding strictly to the view that it is to the manufacturers adVantage to keep prices low and build up Vol- u,ne of sales, Bowles believes busi- nese will see the need Of price reg ulation in the transition period .,.
 As fewer than 30 companies Will manufacture nearly 30 per cent price control, OPA's problem will De simplified,
 SMALL BUSINESS CONTROLS
 For the remaining 26,0o0 or more small manufacturers who turn out the eggbeaters, garbage pals and little stuff that make up the other l5 per cent of the goods needing new prices, OPA now plans two courses of action. First, small bust. ness concerns with small volume ot product may be given complete ex' cmptien from price control. This will take q big administrative load off OPAS shoulders and at the same time give small business n break in the fight for the highly competitive postwar market Second small manufacturers may have their products put under pricing formu- la, administered by OpA district of- fices which will also be authorized to grant relief in hardship cases.
 There is no thought of profit con- trol, other than that all price con- troI covers costs plus profits. The theory is to get back to 1922 costs and is42 profits, with relief being granted in hardship cases to allow for increased production costs such as increased rates of pay to labor