Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-07-12
Control And Profits

With the passing of OPA, prices OF
practically all commodities skyrocketed.
How high prices will still go, or for what
length of time high prices will endure, de-
nends upon the length of time it takes our
productive system to produce supply
that exceeds the demand.
When goods are scarce prices go up.
When the supply exceeds demand, prices
not only 90 down. but workers are laid OIL.
All goods are produced, not primarily
for use, but for profit, and since the prices
and profits are dependent upon scarcity,
II is to the interests of those who produce
the goods to attempt to regulate the
amount of commodities on the market.
Today, business is becoming more and
more monopolistic and for good reason.
The more monopolistic business becomes,
the better organized it is to regulate the
market by controlling production and
keeping it to the point where profits can
be increased.
Desuite the increased wages which
have been granted to labor, the worker
TODAY finds himself in situation where
he has more money but less of the goods
he produces. He discovers that the strikes
he won when he was given more wages
are lost because of his inability to pur-
chase more goods with the greenbacks
which he earns.
And in the face of the realities which
the workers face--higher wages and fewer
goods-all control has passed from the
hands of OPA to the hands of the monOpo-
Iistic forces which now are in complete
control of the nations economy.
While OPA still can do minimum job
of holding down prices within certain linn
its, it is obvious that the real answer to
the problem of the workers. the problem
of securing sufficient food, clothing and
decent housing, is not questionable gov
ernmental control over prices, but control
of production and distribution of basic
commodities.
Killing off 0PA, situation which we
would be forced to face sooner or later,
merely serves to accentuate the basic con-
tradictions in our economic system and
magnify the conflict between industry
seeking the highest possible profits on the
one hand, and the workers demanding
decent living and security on the other.
Suppose that a successful nationwide
buyers strike could be engineered, what
would its result be? Lowering of the
standard of living and mass layoffs in
many of the plants of the country.
And what good would 1t do to re-enact
an oPA bill if that agency continues Civ
ing back industries which grant wage i'm
creases the wages which they gave out
plus an added amount?
In the long run, we must 60 far deeper
than price control. We must have full EN-
ployment at wages which will enable the
workers to live decently by producing
enough of the things which humans need
in order to live a full life.
And therein lies the catch, for industry
growing more and more powerful and
better organized by means of increased
monopoly, will not only resist the con-
slant encroachment of labor, but will take
a more aggressive role by its absolute con-
troll over production to attempt to crush
labor and break its growing power.
We can and should still seek to have
the price control law re-enacted, but we
should not close our eyes to the basic
struggle between the profit system as il
Is now constituted, and the basic needs
and growing consciousness of the work
ers to their rights and power.
War and its aftermath accelerate
change, and the struggle between mOnop-
oily and labor is well on its way to i'm
creased intensity. OPA is but a milestone
and a sop to the workers. II is tinkering
with a system that needs a major over
hauling