The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-25
Statistics And Politics
BY ARTHUR o

. WASHINGTON. When statistics get into
politics, as they always do when their origin
is Official, they are never the inanimate rows
of figures to which true private accountancy
limits them. If they a-e satisfactory to the
purpoSej of their source, they are SO timed
that their effect will be to support its side
of an argument. If they are not satisfactory
they are accompanied by explanations to
prove they do not mean what they say.
This perversion Of honest accounting has
been practiced by politicians for so many
years that none can say when it started IN
this country. Al any rate it is still going
made luhlic today by the White House, its
source being the Department of Commerce,
headed by Henry A. Wallace.
In this document it was reported that the
Bureau of Labor Statistics index of daily spot
market prices for twenty-eight basic com
modities went up Is per cent in the first
sixteen days of July thst followed The lapse
of price controls. While consumers who buy
at retail and feel chiefly the impact of higher
costs of food would not get the full brunt of
such a rise in these commodities Immediate
ly (some not at all If production really gets
going), these statistics are impressive by
themselves. But because many political back
ers of p have cen prephesying "skyrock-
eting' advances, and because a Is per cent
rise in these commodities is neither that, nor
in the direct consumer range, the department
obliged with the following argument 70 bolster
prophecies which the figures alone did not.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the re-
cent behavior Of prices is that the large in
creases occurred despite the prospect of the
reimpcsition of P controls and of a roll
back to June 30 levels. Without this prospect
overhanging the market, price increases
would most certainly have been greater and
more general.
That is definitely not statistics. 1t is opinion.
1t is the gift of tongues to. a row of figures,
conferred for political reasons. The voice be-
hind the figures continued:
There is another reason why The recent
changes are not a falr test, price-Wise, of
what would have happened if ceilings had
been lifted under ordinary circumstances. 1t
is to the interest of those groups in the com
munity who have been lobbying to end price
controls to keeo price increases at a mini
mum during the interim while the fate Of
OPA is decided by Congress. This consider
alton has undoubtedly notivated some of the
voluntary 'Fhold-the-line' agreements which
have been widely publicized by industry.
There also is opinion. but now from the
class angle which was drawn %acutely and
continuously by the Roosevelt administration
and from which the Truman administration
operates occasionally and Mr.. Walace's part
Of it always. The statistics are not as alarm
ing as the pro-OPA jeremiahs said they would
be; therefore,, for various reasons this period
has not been a fair test" Industry, or most
of it, never moves in the public interest but
always for low and selfish motives; there
fore, whichever sections of it have tried to
hold the line did so for the basest of reasons.
So argues the tongue, loaned to the row OF
figures because in themselves they did not
make the administration S case.
The Department Of Commerce, by its name
and it's appointed function as the iiaison be-
tween government and business, would nor
mal1y seem to be an odd source for the non
statistical annex Of this report. But Mr.. Wal
lace has often been a ha1 sh critic of Ameri-
can business, on several occasions having
charged that 'fascists'' awaiting the triumph
of their philosophy control important parts Of
it. Also another report o. the Department
comes 70 mind to render the source Of this
one less incongruous.
Last October, when the workers in the auto
motive industry were preparing their heavy
wa e-increase demands, and at the same time
insisting that these could be granted without
a rise ii the prices If automobiles, a docu-
ment suddenly issued from the Department
of on its official letter-head. This
conveyed the finding, based on statistics"
of course. that the automotive industry could
q ~ pSl SShl Wy lof
without adding to the cost Of it's finished
products. This timely piece OF political &C
countancy was seized on quickly by those
whose cause 1t pointedlv assisted.
The Department remained silent during
protests that the conclusions were ridiculous
and the statistics and timing we're partisan.
But after the strike of the auto workers was
settled ON the President s wage increase pat
tern of 1e 10 cents contingent however, on
commensurate rises in the price of auto
mobiles, Mr.. Wallace spoke He said the docu-
ment was not the voice of the Department
of Commerce; it was an independent
survey by one section: and the form of the
release was a 'mistaka." 1t required months
for this discovery, during which the strike
ran its bitter length and the independent
report was at the center OF the controversy.
The President, it is now being said will
"reluctantly' sign the compromise bill on
price controls which the Senate and House
conferees have agreed on. He vetoed the last
one though the majority leader, MI. Barley.
accurately forecast that another would be no
better ano perhaps worse. If the new bill
becomes law, and the price results belle the
augurs Of doom, government statisticians will
be able to explain that away also.-New York
Times.