Evening star., 1950-09-10

cerieS.
The wives and children OF our
fighting men would be hurt ever
more. They would suffer far worse
than our workers, because many
of them are dependent on fixed
family allowances.
Everybody living on a pension
on retirement benefits, or q fixeo
income Of any kind would be huri
/ in the same way.
Millions of individuals would be
caught between spiralling prices
and tagging incomes.
The Government - and that
means all of us-also would be
hurt because the cost of our de-
tense program would skyrocket.
We must not let these things
happen.
The new Defense Production Act
provides the Government with
certain powers to stabilize prices
and wages. But the fight against
imitation is not just the Govern.
ment's fight. It cannot be wor
just by issuing Government regu-
lations.
1t is your fight, the fight of al
of us, and it can be won only II
all of us fight together.
I want to talk with you first ol
all, about what we must do as
loyal, intelligent. and responsible
citizens. quite apart from any Gov.
ernment regulations.
For the consumer, the guiding
principle must be: Buy only what
you really need and cannot de
without.
Every American housewife has q
most important responsibility. She
must not buy more than she needs
She must put off buying whenever
she can. If she does this, there
will be enough of the essentials
in fact. enough of almost every.
thing-to go around. If the house.
wife insists on buying more thar
she needs, there will not be
enough to go around, and price.
will go up.
For example. there was rise
of about two and one-half per CEN
in retail food prices between JUNE
Is and July Is. Most of this rise
was due to panic buying anc
prof1teering. We are finding out
now that there was no reason fol
panic. The ample supplies of sugar
for instance, show how foolish il
was for some people to hoare
sugar last June and July. We
have plenty of food.
AS foolish panic buying has sub
sided. retail food prices have de.
clined more than 1l2 per cent
from their high levels of last July
I am glad to see that people have
stopped most of the scare buying
that started right after the out
break Of Communist aggression in
Korea. A lot of credit should &c
to those people throughout the
country who have organized move
ments against boarding and panic
buying.
To take one example, house
wives in Portland. Me, signed and
carried out an anti-hoarding
pledge. This was real public
service. It was a patriotic act
and hope that other groups else
where are doing the same kind OF
thing to hold prices on an even
keel.
For businessmen. the guiding
principles must be: Do not pile up
inventories; hold your prices down
No Excuse for Price Rise.
There Is obviously no excuse for
price increases where costs have
not risen-and in many industries
costs have not risen since the out
break of fighting in Korea. Where
costs have risen, there. is no ex-
cuse for price increases which 20
beyond the amount of the rise in
cost. Individual price adjustments
may have to be made here and
there to correct inequities, but
there Is no need for general price
increases. In fact, many busi-
neses are enjoying large enough
margins of profit so that they do
not need to raise their prices even
though they have incurred higher
costs.
In cases where price increases
have already been made without
being justified by higher costs,
businessmen should reduce these
prices Immediately. I have been
told about companies that have
increased the prices of all their
products-all the way across the
board-without corresponding in
creases in costs. That is just plain
prof1teering. and should not be
tolerated.
If businessmen will conscien-
tiously review their prices, we shall