Evening star., 1947-12-14
Economic
Continued From First Page.)

ana the freeSt on the face of the
earth," they said.
1--WE intend to do our best to give
those principles of freedom another
chance to operate for the greater
benefit of all, with only such re-
straints as the Government must
impose to make them operate
wisely"
Before the Senate group reached
its agreement on anti-inflation pol
icy, the House Banking Committee
formally recommended passage of
its own bill. This also is based on
the belief that the cost of living can
be curbed largely through voluntary
action, instead of the compulsory
control powers which President
Truman asked.
The Republican, dominated House
committee, while waring against
selective price and wage controls
part of the present Truman pro-
gram-did not absolutely rule out
the possibility that eventually it
might be necessary to resort to the
standby price, wage and rationing
authority sought by the President
The bill reported by the House
committee proposes four moves de-
signed to bring down the high cost
OF living: Temporary relaxation OF
the antitrust laws to permit bust
ness to enter into price-reduction
agreements, extension of export
controls, broadened authority owe,
transportation, such as the alloca.
ton of boxcars where they are most
needed and boost in the gold re-
serves Of Federal Reserve Banks and
their members.
The House committee pulled q
November 9, 1916, speech by Mr.. Tru-
man out of the files to illustrate its
contention that compulsion might
prove hazardous. They quoted the
President as saying:
The price administrator has ad-
vised me that, with so much of the
economy freed from price controls
clinging to the rest would, in his
judgment, lead to distortions In
production and diversion of goods tc
an extent far outweighing any bene-
fit that could be achieved"
The committee commented that il
also fears that the imposition OF
selective price controls at this time
might bring about precisely those
distortions and that diversion
which the President feared a year
ago"
"On its face" the report con-
tinued, IAN attempt at selective
price control might diminish the
production of precisely the goods
that are in short supply, and might
tend to divert production to less
scarce and less essential goods that
are not controlled.
1916 Statement Quoted.
The committee also quoted the
President as having said on October
IA, 1916, that price control and
wage control are largely dependent
upon each other" The lawmakers
said it follows that selective price
control would have to be paired with
selective wage controls.
But" the committee asked, 'if
the price of steel, for example, were
held down while the prices of other
commodities were permitted to rise,
could the Government hold down
wages in the steel industry while
allowing wages in other industries
OF 60 up? What would be the res
ponse Of the steel labor unions to
such q proposal?
would there, in fact, be any way
to impose selective price controls
that would not lead to q demand
for return to overall price and wage
controls in order to prevent the dis
tortions' and diversion that an at
tempt at selective price control
would bring about?"
The committee said it had "en-
deavored to comply with that part
Of the Presidents program which it
believes can safely be put into effect
Immediately" It added that the
whole program would be studied in
the regular session opening in Janu-
ary.
While Democratic members of the
committee do not plan to issue a
minority report, one of them, Rep
resentative Monroney, Democrat, OF
Oklahoma, expressed the belief that
the unit should have had more time
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