Evening star., 1951-07-22
AS Senator Moody Sees It
Truman, Instead of Initiation,
Seems to Be Coalitions Turqet


ter for the confusion -mongers
They then could let the veto lie
and having wiped out the check
on prices entirely, blame the in
evitable damage on the White
House. That is the sort of thing
Senator Morse was talking about
when he charged his party leader
ship with thinking more about the
next election than of the public
welfare.
Vote Is Revealing.
Against this background. the
House vote of 180 to ISL in favor
OF the Davis amendment was re-
vealing. The core of inflationist
strength, of course. was Republi-
can. with 140 votes. Only Is Re
publicanS refused to swallow the
transparent demagogy.
With the 16, stood 1876 Demo-
Gratis, but 40 Democrats voted
with the COP rightists. While
Republicans voted nearly 8 to l
for the Davis amendment and
Democrats voted more than 3-to-1
against it,. the coalition needed
those 40 votes to win.
This same coalition, only "a
hours before voting to place the
national economy in a strait lac-
ket. jammed through another
amendment introduced by Repre-
sentatives Poague, Democrat, of
Texas, and Cole, Republican, of
Kansas, going in precisely the
opposite direction. u
| This amendment was denounced
Immediately by that great so
clallst," Mobilization Director
Charles E. Wilson, former presi-
dent of the General Electric Corp.
and ttat charming radical" "
Sterilization Director Eric John
ston, who owns four businesses of
his own and gave up another job
OF $125,000 year to serve his
country in this emergency.
Mr.. Wilson called what the
House is doing "a windfall for
Communism" Mr.. Johnston said
the Poague Cole amendment
would give Government guar
antee of excess profits to just
about every business in the coun-
try on every item produced"
"Cost-Plus" Basis Voted.
In this amendment. the same
coalition which voted to freeze
the economy rigid for four months
would prohibit establishing any
ceiling price on an industrial or
farm commodity except on a
"cost-plus" basis. The price to
the consumer. according to the
coalition plan. must cover % the
current cost of materials or their
parity prices, whichever is higher:
Cd all current processing, manu-
featuring and distributing costs,
including all reasonable" indirect
costs, and (3) a reasonable pro-
f1t," defined as not less than IS
per cent of the average profit for
the same items during the three
most profitable years of the focr-
year period 1945-194g.
Behind its reasonable" facade
this proposal is loaded with eco
nom1c dynamite. Any such law
would compel either the abandon
ment OF industrial price controls
entirely, enabling the coalition
lists to blame high prices on the
President, or else would put a
swarm of Governmental agents
into the Offices and records of
businessmen everywhere, paving
the way for the charge that "the
Government is socialist" or
someone is just seeking power -
II it could be applied TO all,
1the Poague-Cole amendment
would make sharply higher prices
automatic, and while it is dressed
in a cloak calculated to appeal
to rural interests, actually would
hoax the farmer.
Imitation Would Follow.
! On any farm item selling below
parity, the middleman could use
parity as basis for his price to
the consumer without passing the
increase on to the farmer. Grape
fruit, for example, are yielding the
farmers about So cents box, or
26 per cent of parity. but no con-
sumer ceiling price would be
imposed under the parity price
of $2.02. Similarly. the market
price of wheat is a little over 81
a bushel, but parity is.$2.48. The
result would be high food prices
pouring gasoline on the inflation-
airy fire and ultimately increasing
prices of things farmers buy.
! Released by the
u North American Newspaper Alliones