Evening star., 1951-09-26

throughout the country today felt
the growing force of a Govern
ment breakdown which already has
brought charges of 96 price control
violations in 27 cities.
While the Office of Price Stabil-
ization continued to count UP
"chiseling" and similar cases ii
reported uncovering during the
last "a hours, wide and varied
range of other developments IN
the economic controls field in
cluded:
/. OPS Director Michael V. Di-
Sale, asserting that meat prices
are far too high, accused some ele-
ments of the beef industry of try
ing to destroy price controls. The
American Meat Industry, main
target of Mr.. Disable, retorted
that he was frustrated individ-
ual." 1t attacked the control
program as totally unworkable'
and leading to chaos in the pub
lies beef supply"
2. Defense Mobilization Direc-
tor Charles E. Wilson and Price
Stabilizer Eric Johnston an
nounced that the Defense Produc-
ton Administration has prepared
orders that would re-impoSe rent
controls on 3 million dwelling
unit sin 200 cities. The controls
will be put on again whenever Mr..
Wilson and Defense Secretary
Lovett decide they are needed.
3. OPS announced new dollars
and cents ceilings on wholesale
pork prices effective October l..
Officials estimated this might
cause a drop of as much as cents
a pound in ham and bacon prices
in some places. New beef ceilings
will go into effect this week, as
previously indicated. and may
boost retail prices about p cents
a pound.
4. OPS disclosed it will put dol
lar and cents ceilings in place of
formula" price controls on many
manufactured goods.
Would Restore Quotas.
5. The Senate Banking Commit
tee voted yesterday for an amend
ment to restore Government au-
thority to impose livestock Slaugh-
tering quotas But the amend
ment would provide strict li1nita-
tions. Congress earlier this year
banned livestock slaughtering
quotas. The proposed amendment
would still prohibit beef price roll
backs. but would allow quotas with
a proviso that OPS keep them
elastic enough to take in all ami
mails offered for slaughter.
The Agriculture Department,
meanwhile. reported continued
drop IN meat production that is
subject to Federal inspection. That
production remains under the level
of a year ago, mainly because of
a Is per cent drop in marketingS
of peef cattle. Marketing of hogs
increased 7 per cent last week, the
department added.
OPS launched its inspection
breakdown at dawn yesterday. 1t
declared that the enforcement
raids in the 81 cities tabulated
thus far showed "a majority" of
big and little slaughterers were
violating regulations to some ex-
tent. Some of the violations, OPS
said, were failure to keep required
records or refusal to open records
to inspectors. Others included SELL
ing over ceiling prices and false
weighing of ofcarcasses.
Raids in Virginia.
The largest number of reported
violations thus far was in st.
Paul. with 80 alleged offenses
listed.
OPS agents staged surprise raids
In Virginia and some violations"
were uncovered, Enforcement OFF,
Ger Harold Stephenson said in
Richmond. Two-man teams of
agents dropped in for spot investi-
cations at slaughterhouses in
Alexandria. Richmond, Roanoke,
Lynchburg, Bedford, Goode and
TazeWell, he said.
An OPS official in New York
said that some of the serious Of
fenses may result in criminal as
we'll as civil prosecutions. Grim
inal violations carry penalties up
to three years in jail and a
$4,000 fine.
But New York City came
through the initial breakdown
without a single reported viola
ton, OPS said. There were nine
alleged violations throughout all
New York State and New Jersey
as far south as Trenton.
The first enforcement raids in
Chicago repeatedly turned up five
violations and several suspected