Evening star., 1951-08-23
Slight Meat Price Rise
Due, Reversing OPS
Plan for 10-Cent Cut
BY the Associated Press

BY the Associoted Press
Beef price ceilings may 60 up
cent or two a pound on many
cuts instead of being reduced q
dime as the Government had
planned.
Meat industry officials got word
of the contemplated price boosts
from aides of Price Administra-
tor Michael v. Disable and ex-
pected to get further details to-
day at a meeting with Mr.. Di-
Sale.
Housewives probably will have
to pay the penny or two extra
a pound for beef round cuts. But
ceilings on hamburger are likely
to remain unchanged and a few
price cuts on loin and rib cuts
are expected.
But Office of Price Stabiliza-
ton officials made it clear to in
duStry leaders at a meeting yes
terday that there will be gen.
eral increase in beef prices. They
said the higher prices are re-
|quired under the new Defense Pro-
duction Act to compensate the
industry for tagging cattle by
product yields.
Normal Profit Margins Fixed.
The new law, under which mo-
bilization officials have said living
costs may go up S to 8 per cent,
requires ceilings to be fixed so
that normal profit margins are
preserved.
officials said prices for cattle
hides now are about 25 per cent
below ceilings and tallow prices
about 33 per cent under ceilings.
so greater profits from beef are
needed to preserve the industry's
profit position. Tallow and hide
ceilings are to be adjusted down.
ward when the beef price boosts
go into effect probably In a
month or two.
Earlier this year Mr.. Disable
launched a beef price cutting pro-
gram, involving a series of roll
backs. designed to lower beef
prices by a dime-a-pound this
autumn. The meat industry
argued that this program would
discourage beef production and
Congress barred further beef price
cuts.
Hearings May Start Soon.
President Truman is getting
ready to ask Congress to give
him tighter control powers
against imitation, and to eliminate
some of the features written into
the new law only a few weeks
ago. Elimination Of the normal
profit requirement and restoration
of the now banned livestock
slaughter quotas probably will be
asked by Mr.. Truman.
But congressional leaders have
expressed doubt that the Presi-
dent can get anything more than
the present law. The OPS deci-
sion to let beef prices rise a bit
would seem to indicate the
agency's hopes are none too
bright either.
OPS officials repeatedly told the
meat industry group that they
expect hearings on Mr.. Truman's
proposals to start next week.
Entire Program Under Review.
These officials said the entire
beef price program is being re-
viewed with the Industry Advisory
Committee. including enforcement
methods. They said the industry
men rejected an OPS suggestion
for an overriding ceiling for cattle
a top price buyer may pay fol
any steer.
The contemplated beef ceiling
price increases probably will come
TO between a half dollars to a dol
lar a hundredweight, OPS officials
estimated, or half to cent a
pound at wholesale. They said
this will figure out at about a
cent or two a pound on many
retail cuts.
OPS officials said they had re-
ceived a formal request for upward
price adjustments from only one
packer. but the agency had de-
cided to initiate the price boosts
because they are inevitable" un-
der the new laws provisions.
One official said that because of
the taIlow and hide price drops
which, incidentally, have produced
somewhat lower retail prices for
such things as shoes and SOAP
"the packers are screaming bloody
murder that their (prof1t) margins
are being wiped out-they are all
losing money"