Evening star., 1951-06-01
Curb on Time Buying
|0f N and Cars Hill
|At House Hearing
By Francis P. DouaIos

N HUuAt Hcdlilly 4
By Francis P. Douglas
Regulation Of installment buy
ing Of television sets and auto
mobiles was attacked in Congress
today.
Robert c. TAFT, representing $50
companies in the radio -television
manufacturers association, in a
statement to the House Banking
Committee, said that Regulation
w has resulted in throwing 5000
workers out Of their jobs and has
caused many dealers to go bank
|rupt. s
Regulation w is the Federal Re-
serve Boards rule requiring down
payments Of Is per cent for tele-..
vision sets. 331s per cent for au-l
tomohiles. and is per cent for
furniture. The pay-out time is
uniformly Is months.
Urges One-Year Limit. @
Charles C. Freed of Salt Lake
City appeared before the Senate
Banking Committee on behalf OF.
the National Automobile Dealers
Association. He urged that any
Extension of the Defense Produc-
tion Act be confined to only one
year. that the one-third down
payment on automobiles be made
the ceiling and that the number
of months allowed to pay the.
balance be at least Is.
A different point of view from
that of the industry representa-
tives was expressed by Mrs. Eliz-
abeth K. Porter, president of the
American Nurses Association. In
a statement to the Senate Com
mittee she pleaded for economic
controls that will halt rising prices
and rents. prevent PROTECTING
and insure equitable distribution
of the tax burden.
Mr.. TAFT made these points:
J.. Production, which averaged
100000 sets a week last October.
was down to 77.272 a week in
the last three weeks.
2. Factory inventories aver
aged a total of $1,000 sets in
the first five months of 1850.
Now the factories have 100000
unsold sets in inventory.
Trained Workers Lose Jobs.
|. 3. Trained personnel is being
thrown out Of work, endangering
the future military production of
electronics.
4. The Federal Communications
Commission freeze of te!evislon
station licensing is preventing ex.
tension of television to half the
families of the country and lin
iting the market for TV sets.
Meanwhile, recommendations
for further tightening bank credit
and broadening the powers to con-
troll installment buying and real
estate purchases were before Con-
gress today.
A report made public by the
White House urged that the Fed
|eral Reserve Board be given pow
Ter to increase the reserve require
ments of banks, including the
|State-chartered banks which are
not members of the Federal Re-
serve System.
Drawn Up by Wilson.
Increasing the reserve require
Irnents would decrease the amount
Fof money the banks have to lend.
The Federal Reserve Board has
never had power to regulate the
State banks which have not be-
come Federal Reserve members.
The report was drawn up by
a committee headed by Charles E.
Wilson. head of the Office of De-
tense Mobilization. Other mem
|hers are Secretary of the Treas
ury Snyder, William Chesney
Martin. jr.. chairman of the Fed
eral Reserve Board, and Leon H.
Keyserling. chairman of the
Presidents Council of Economic
Advisers.
In other economic mobilization
measures the Government took
these steps:
l. Changed from May 20 to
June 4 the effective date of the
10 per cent rollback of the price
which slaughterers may pay for
live cattle.
Order Prepared.
2. Prepared to issue an order
cutting by 80 per cent the amount
of steel which may be used by
manufacturers of household appli-
ances. The order would be ef-
fective July l. and the cutback
would be from the rate of steel
use in the first half of 1850.
3. Moved to protect American
sugar supplies which are selling
substantially under the world
price. The Agriculture and, Com
merce Departments ordered ex-
porters of more than 1876 tons of
sugar to certify that the shipment
did not originate from domestic
supplies. Exports of more than
that amount will be restricted to
sugar imported under bond for
refining and export. 80,