Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-11-30

70 De assured that the cost OF living
or the cost Of operating farm OF
a business will not be permitted to
60 up into an imitation spiral. They
want price controls continued for the
present.
All three of the major national
farm organizations have strongly
supported the price control pro-
gram. Labor organizations, too,
have given unstinting support. The
farmers in the older age brackets do
not easily forget what happened
when what few controls existed were
dropped shortly after the armistice
in the last war. At first, prices
slumped rather sharply in some
commodities, but within a few
months, after reconversion and
workers returned to their jobs in
peacetime plants, the downward
trend was reversed and within sew
en- months the imitation boom was
in full swing. Prices rose skyward;
manufacturers, wholesalers" and re-
tailers were forced into q wild
scramble for inventories. Prices
scared higher and higher. Farm
prices slkyrocketed 100 per cent be-
tween 1914 and 1920.
II farmers, merchants, manufac-
turers can be certain that the costs
Of things they buy will not slxyrocket
and threaten a major crash later,
they can make long-term plans for
large-scale operations and produc-
ton and full employment. If work.
ers can be certain Of this full en-
ployment at adequate wages, then
they also, can feel secure Of the
value of their purchasing power :.
will feel free to spend for reconver-
sion goods and this free spending
will stimulate more employment.
Farm and City Linked.
On the other hand, if swiftly ris-
ing prices make production costs un-
practicable, business will not be able
or willing to plan ahead, full produc-
ton will falter and fear of unem-
ployment would make consumers
afraid to spend. We have often re-
marked about the analogous rela-
ton between the farmers income
and full employment in cities, for
it is a fact that when income Of work.
ers is high, farm income also il
high. When there is heavy unem-
ployment, farm prices toboggan.
Price Administrator Bowles has
given his word that OPA is going to
use every resource at its command
to continue an effective job with the
ultimate goal Of keeping a sound
price structure upon which can be
built sound prosperity. When dam
ger Of imitation Is past, then OPA
plans to step out Of the picture. (The
present act ends June 30, 1946.) To
do this he plans ~ wherever neces-
sary to continue price controls over
goods and services which have been
controlled in war time; (2) to set
prices on reconversion goods; (3)
to work out simple dollar-and-cents
ceiling prices for building materials
and as many consumer goods items
as possible; ~ to require manufac.
turers to tag consumer goods with
easy-to-read retail ceiling prices.
Continued control over tractors,
other farm implements and machin-
cry, fertilizer and seeds SO long
as they are in short supply Is on the
program. 1t may be necessary to
increase some prices as compared
to prewar, but the plan is to keep
all prices as near prewar level as
possible.
Bowles says that price control
alone cannot guarantee prosperity,
but he believes that 1t can help to
control imitation by keeping the buy
ing power Of each dollar and will
enable industry, agriculture and Ia
Dor, together with government, to
work together toward a sound post
war prosperity.