The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1947-05-09

| businessmen, no uldlLeT now 6nllS0L6n-
ed or public spirited he may be, can do
much by himself to control what hap
pens to the final price that we consum-
ers pay.
A second reason why price control
by entreaty has proved ineffective lies
in the basic nature of the profit sys-
tenn. In the free enterprise system
most prices will adjust themselves to
reasonable levels under normal condi-
tons When the supply of goods and
the money available to pay for them
are in balance, competition will tend
to bring prices down. and, by and large
to assure the public improved values.
Since 1871, however conditions of ci-
william supply and demand have been
badly distorted by the war and it's
aftermath. We have been in a sellers
markell market in which supply and
demand on most products have been
unbalanced to the advantage of the
producer and the distributor.
It's all right to talk glibly about the
public duty of our businessmen and
our farmers to sell only at reasonable
prices in a period in which they can,
for the most part, get whatever they
ask. But, human nature being what it
is, can we really expect the individual
farmer to sell his wheat at $1.60 a
bushel when his neighbors are selling
theirs at So bushel? Or the bust
nessman to cut his prices 80 percent
he can get? Businessmen and farm
ers, for the most part, are no more
selfish than the rest of us. But what
would you do under such circum-
stances?
FaIIacy Number Four
How about the fourth explanation?
"The whole trouble lies with labor
with it's constant strikes and incessant
demands for higher wages
The claim that higher wages since
last June are the basic cause for the
sharp increase in prices is simply I'M
true. Average wholesale prices for
all industrial products have risen &c
percent in the last 10 months. Wages
in this same period are up only per-
cent. In most Observation-Disclosures to
rapidly increasing volume and lower
overhead costs-this 5 per cent in
crease could, in all probability, have
been absorbed under price control with
no increase in the final price at ALL
Nor can we explain away the sharp
price increases or the slackening of |
in i'm I1c f1.io civ
last June on the basis of strikes and |
work stoppages. During the last 10
months the number of hours lost by
strikes has been at much the lowest
point since VJ-day.
The myth that our working people
are revealing in fat incomes and luxury
living dies hard. Our average wage
Garner is worse off today than he was
three years ago. It's true that his
hourly wage rate on the average is
20 percent higher. But because he is
fewer hours his weekly pay
check has risen only SO percent.
Real Income Down 1870
Figure in the increased prices that
ne and his wife have had to pay since
asst June and you find that his weekly
pay check will buy IS percent less
Today than in 1914. Add on the fact
hat our working people are clearly
conscious that business profits after
axes and net farm income are run
ling at rate 80 percent to 40 percent
above the wartime peaks, and you
will understand their rapidly growing
bitterness.
If it is unfair to blame the individ-
lal businessman, the individual farm
II, or the workers in our plants for
What has happened since last June,
whom should we blame?
Price control for the average bust i,
lessman was headache In the vast
)PA pricing operation, there were
'ften delays and occasionally some .
tupid mistakes.
With only one year to go, many
association leaders re- c
ected the counsel of such seasoned S
as Eric Johnston, George a
Geade, Jack Straus, of Macy's, and l
he heads of the committee for eco q
ionic daVelOnmant and imna tiontIv |