Montana labor news., 1944-01-13
us. INDICTMENT CHARGES SEDITI0N
FALLS SMELTERMEN
DISCUSS 0PAR RULES

At the invitation of David Grant,
board member of the M ontana
State Industrial Union and CLIO men,
Der Of the Montana oPA Labor Advisory
Committee, speakers from the state Of
flee of Price Administration appeared
before the Great Falls Smeltermen's
Local No. Is as a special order of bust
ness at the December meeting of the
union.
Explanations of OPA programs were
given by E. F.. Carlson, mileage ration
ing representative and Loren Anderson
state price officer, after which questions
We're invited from the floor.
Speaking on the tire and rubber stu
alton, Mr.. Carlson declared: Exactly
as predicted by the Baruch committee
two years ago we are going into a period
of extreme and drastic shortages Of tires.
The problem of producing synthetic
rubber has been licked. The problem OF
Transforming that synthetic rubber into
truck and passenger car tires is not yet
licked and will not be licked for some
time. I am asking every one Of you to
cooperate with your representatives on
the OPA Plant Transportation Commit
tees and conserve your precious tires to
the utmost. Have them inspected and
checked r|eligiously. Have them re-
capped if they need that service. Pull
in your belt and help in this problem
until we lick the tire shortage problem.
We won't have it licked for some months
yet and the quotas of the plant trans
p%ortation committees are going to be
very slim for some time to come
The question was raised by David
Grant as to how price control seemed to
work so successfully in Butte. Tt was
his understanding that the Butte Price
Panel had received national recogniation
for its effective work in price control.
In the discussion which ensued it was
brought out that the close relationship
between labor and the Butte Price Panel
was the principal reason for what ap-
peared to be better price control in
Butte. The Butte Price Panel wa kept
well supplied with complaints by Butte
labor groups so that the resulting check
Of the store charged with price or ra-
tioning violations showed the merchants
that his customers were interested in
enforcing price ceilings. The merchant
then found it was good business to COM
ply with OPA regulations.
State Price officer Anderson added
the observation that Great Falls had a
price panel every bit as good as Butte's
and the same excellent results could be
shown in Great Falls as was being
shown in Butte if the Great Falls unions
showed that they want effective price
control. This he stated they could do
by asking for community ceiling prices
when they shopped, by calling the price
panel for information on price ceilings
and by submitting complaints to the
price panel with supporting sales slips
if they found willful violations during
their shopping. In addition they could
encourage their wives to devote a few
hours monthly to price checking in CO.
operation with the price panel.
At the conclusion of the meeting Pete
Fontana, executive board member of the
nion stated: I'VE all talk about the
government not doing this Or not doing
that but we are the government.
If we want price control we can get
it. The power is in u hands.
Great Falls is organized better than
any other town in the state Of Montana.
Price control is important not only to
the organized workers but to the entire
country. If we think it should be bet
ter, let's make it better
Following the session with OPA the
following ten-man committee was APP
pointed to cooperate with the OPA and
Great Falls price panel on price control:
Gordon Dial, Dave Grant, Mike Shana-
han, Pete F%ontana, John Sandvig, Louis
Tonkovich, Lynn walker, Mike Rebar,
John Ward and John Epperson.
This committee is to meet with the
Cascade county labor advisory group and
state OPA representatives in Great Falls
January goth.