The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-06-25
Violations Found Here Crute Pins BLan1e For Meat Shortage On Cattle Raisers

Cattle raisers of the West are causing the scarcity of meat and indirectly fostering black markets, Stanley Cfute, Connecticut admin istrator of the Office of Price Ad- ministration, charged last night. MT Crute was guest of The Waterbury Democrat on its weekly Forum ot the Air program on WATR. Admitting that violations have been uncovered among Waterbury meat sources, the OPA director said that subpoenas had been issued to some large dealers. Unable to give further information as to the local situation, the State OPA di- rector said that ''clean-up would be made here wherever necessary He said also that there will be def mite information on the results oi the investigation within another day or SO.
 Promising considerable meat after July (but a real scarcity up to that time), Crute said that fol- lowing the drying up of the pas turage this Summer the withheld cattle will be released to the mar ket by the cattle raisers. This will result In plenty of meat and q lowering of prices which will last until October" Then we will see trouble again because of lack of feed and the inability to raise large Stocks," he said.
 Demand Unusually High
 Although our cattle crop this year is the second highest in our history the demand for meat has been the highest in our nations history" he said in explaining some of the scarcity.
 In . 20-minute opening address the Connecticut OPA director cited the high production figures in many commodities such as shoes, shirts, radios, vacuum cleaners, women's hOsietry and others as a mean of defending OPA controls against charges of having crlrtailed produc- ton.
 Price controls have not held up production in Connecticut and that has been proven" he asserted. Faiss to Get Reply
 ,Orute said that he sent letters to every OPA office in the State asking for evidence wherein State |'manufactlrerS In the respective areas complained that production wes held up by OPA controls.
 q did not receive one reply from these letters," he said. Praising American industry highly for what he termed to be 8 remarkable re- conversion job," he added it is re- grettable that business generally permits 8 few selfish businessmen to falsify this splendid record for their own selfish gains"
 Citing the 55, 5,3O0, 900 employed throughout the nation-the highest in its history-as a safeguard and healthy cushion, he listed numer- ors production figures of the na- tion's industry to support his con- tention that controls were not ham, pering production.
 HaR Million Dozen Shirts
 Some of these were: 539OO0 dozen shirts during March, l046: 463, 900 mems suits during this year as com pared to 462,O00 in 1941; 90 million nylons: 57 million pairs Of shoes.
 During a brief question and answer period following his address Crute described generally the pro- cedure used in typical OPA in- veStigation. He urged consumers also not to purchase at the higher above- ve-ceiling-price, contending that such practice would soon cease once the demand ceased.
 The State OPA director was in- yited here by The Waterbury Dem- ocrat to use it's half-hour radio facilities on WATR as means of explaining to the people the situa- tion concerning the meat shortage and the OPA controversy general ly. James M. Moore, news editor of The Democrat, introduced the speaker.