The midland journal., 1946-04-05

OPA will Be Continued
I'm Watered-Down Form
WNU Washington Bureau,
1915 Eye ST., NJ. w.

| ARE OEA pOllClcS SenQlng business
firms into bankruptcy? Is it true
that production Is being curtailed by
price control? What about subsi-
dies? Shouldn't they be dropped?
Answers to these questions will de-
pend largely on your particular
point of view, upon whose "ox is be-
ing gored" and, indeed, largely upon
your honesty.
For there Is no question that, inn
mediately an OPA regulation Is is
sued, whether good or bad .
and there have been some bad ones
). the first question which arises
In the minds Of many people is +.
how can we get around that regula-
tion? And there generally Is way.
What happens amounts to a vir-
tual conspiracy to evade the orders
of OPA. This writer believes that If
the same folks would spend as much
time and energy in attempting to
make OPA work, in cooperating,
then this agency which has become
the one bulwark against rising liv-
ing costs would function far better
than it does, battered, repudiated
and kicked around as 1t is by spe-
cial interests and the congress.
In spite of all the criticism di-
rected against OPA, it is so popular
with the people generally that con-
gress does not dare repeal the law,
and will extend 1t beyond June 80.
How it will be extended is another
matter. The same coalition of
Democrats and Republicans which
cut the heart out of the housing bill
in the house and which has made
ineffective every liberal piece of
domestic legislation yet offered, is
bent on stripping OPA of every pow
er it can possibly take away from
it.
Business Failures Dwindle
Here are a few statistics which
may answer some of the criticism
directed against OPA. On the charge
concerning business bankruptcies, the
records show, according to Dun &
Bradstreet, there were 14,768 bank
ruptcies in 1889 and 1859 in 1910,
before OPA. The first full year of
OPA control was 1943, when there
were 1921 bankruptcies. In 1945
there were only 80. So it appears
to your Home Town Reporter that
those $40 firms which went bankrupt
in 1945 did so in spite of OPA, and
not because of OPA.
The National Manufacturers asso-
citation, the National Retail Dry
Goods association and others are
trying to persuade congress and the
public that OPA pricing policies are
responsible for existing shortages.
The fact is that the record shows
that for the five months after VI
Day, production was at a rate ex-
ceeding that of any prewar year,
even of 1941 when defense produc-
ton lifted output above real prewar
levels. In December of 1945 produc-
ton output was 81 per cent above
1889, which can hardly be consid-
cred as a production failure.
The committee for economic de-
velopment says employment is at
the highest peacetime level in our
history despite strikes and labor
management disputes. PayrOlls and
earnings are now emily slightly be-
low wartime peaks and are rising.
What about subsidies? Farm or
carnations are against them :.
always have been. They came as
a wartime emergency and are still
being used in the reconversion emer-
gency. Can they be dropped? OF
course, they could be dropped. If
they were, this is what would hap
pen. Food prices would shoot up 8
per cent at retail overnight, and
there is no reason to believe they
would stop there. On our 40 billion
dollar annual food bill that would
mean an increase Of 3.2 billion dol
lars in the annual price of food.
The subsidy on food amounts to
only billion and a half annually
and it is paid in federal taxes large
ly by those with the most ability to
pay. The rise in food costs would be
borne alike by rich and poor.
Profits 4 Times Greater
What about the charge that profits
are being curtailed? The per cent of
gain in profits in 1914 over the 1886
to 1899 average in the retail field,
before taxes, was as follows:
Hardware retailers, 4S4 per cent;
small furniture stores, 185 per cent;
variety chain stores, 339 per cent;
mems apparel stores, 1893 per cent;
department stores, 609 per cent;
chain groceries, 152 per cent; auto
dealers, 200 per cent.
The gain in profits before taxes
In the industrial field shows the
same large percentages with all
manufacturing showing a 450 per
cent average. Textiles and leather
show a 73O per cent gain; metals
and products, $50 per cent; build
ing materials, 270 per cent; chemi-
Gals, 230 per cent; food, beverages
and tobacco, 200 percent.
Another connnlaint from Soma