Evening star., 1951-06-24
Both Houses 10 Debate
Bills for Extension Of
Controls This Week

~sb@ wv
Continued From First Page.)
farm products. but permits reduce
tions on others.
The Senate Committee majority
report, signed by Chairman May
bank and Senators Frear, Demo-
crat, of Delaware; Capehart,
Republican, OF Indiana; Bricker,
Republican, of Ohio; Schoeppel,
Republican, of Kansas; Dirksen.
Republican, of Illinois, and Rob-
ertson, Democrat, OF Virginia,
declared:
The evidence showed that the
threat of future rollbacks, pos
sibly even to pre-Korean price
levels, was acting or might act
as a deterrent to production by
imposing an undue risk on the
processing, financing and distribu-I
ton of commodities.
The Government has had,
since the general price freeze in
January, 1851, five months to roll
back any prices which were Sc
riously out of line. Producers
should not be required or expected
to go on indefinitely not knowing
whether their prices will be rolled
back to a pre-Korean level.
Since. anything that hampers
production has an inflationary
tendency, your committee came to
the conclusion that it would con-
tribute to the stabilization pro-
gram to impose limitations on the
authority to roll prices back
Better Than No Bill"
Senators F'ullbright of Arkansas,
Sparkman of Alabama, Douglas of
Illinois, Benton of Connecticut
and Moody of Michigan, all Demo-
cratic members of the committee
objected that passage of the bill
as reported will be telling the
American public it does not care
about imitation, the strength OF our
economy or the value of the dol
lar"
The five Senators explained that
they voted to report out the bill
because they believed lit is GER
tainly better than the chaos OF
having no bill at ALL"
" Yet" they contended. "the bill
Is merely a crippled version of the
present law, hamstring by sin
gle, brief amendment the So
called anti-rollback amendment.
It should be clearly understood
that this bill does not apply to
beef alone. 1t strikes across the
board-at prices paid by labor,
by business and by farmers"
See General Price Increase.
Their statement warned against
these specific effects:
l. A general price increase to
the level of the highest prices.
2. Upward revision of the wage
stablization formula.
3. Possibility of setting of some
farm prices at low levels If the
price regulation went into effect
Immediately after a future drop
in such prices.
4. Invalidation of all manufac-
turers' price regulations as well as
all reporting work and expenses
of more than $4,000 manufac-
turerS.
5. Making unlikely the passing
on to consumers the advantages
of drops in raw materials costs.
6. Large price increases to those
concerns caught short by the gen.
eraI price freeze.
4. Prevention of the lowering
of import prices.
drastic Mistakes Made"
Senator Ives, Republican of New
York, also a committee member,
warned in a separate statement
that the curb on rollback authority /
will throw the burden of past
mistakes where it least belongs
on the consuming public"
The New York Senator said all
prices should have been controlled
and rollbacks made last January
1T is apparent to all that dras-
tic mistakes have been made" he
stated, but this was almost in
evitable. Politics and controls do
not mix well. This the administra-
ton has taken almost one year to
discover, At last, however, the ad-
minstration is beginning to do
now what it should have done six
months ago.
Sees Inequities Perpetuated.
when ceilings were first
clamped on, prices should have
been rolled back where necessary.
Failure to permit further roll
backs will cause prices to go up
even further and perpetuate seri-
Gus inequities in the existing price
structure. Another price rise
would inspire another wage rise
and We would be on our way again
along the swirling path of infla-
ton. This situation cannot be
tolerated
Senator Benton gave out a fur
ther statement of his own last
night describing the pending bill
as "Pandoras box that will let
loose many of the evils of infla-I
ton" He asserted that the meas
ure as reported out represents an
abject surrender to pressure
groups all along the line"
The Connecticut Senator served
notice that he will fight for a two
year extension of the Defense Pro-
duction Act, oppose the curb on
the rollback authority, seek stricterI
controls on commodity specula-
ton, and urge authority for the
Government to build defenseI
plants.
Controls Renewal Urged.
The House bill, in the opinion
of Senator Benton. has many more
admirable" features than the
Senate measure.
The Senate committee majority
report, however, vigorously urged
renewal of controls legislation
Failure tn keen the Defense Pro-