Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-02-24

factory list price of the lowest
priced Chevy two-door is slightly
over $1,000 tits much improved
car, OF course) Butter could be
bought before the war for less than
81 cents a pound: today the price is
around 10 cents "a few years ago
1t was in the 80s). In the same
period, the price of a one-pound
loaf of white bread has more than
doubled, and the price of a three
bedroom house has tripled.
Incomes, of course, have gone UP,
too. Factory workers averaged
$23.86 a week in 1899; last month
their average weekly pay (before
tax deductions) was around $50. q
Here are some typical comments
of economists who feel the Federal
Governments present tight" credit
policy can hold living costc in
check: ..t :.
DR.. Martin Gainsbrugh, chief
economist of the National Indus
trial Conference Board, asserts:
i believe the current program Of
monetary restraint is helping 10
reduce price pressures. This
should become more evident in the
months ahead as the expanded
capacity and more efficient adj
ditionS to our stock of equipment
last year now come into production.
Prices rose in part last year be-
cause of the intense demand for
equipment of all types. In the
months ahead these newly installed
facilities in turn will contribute
toward lower costs of production"
Who's to Blame?
Principal spokesman for those
who see wage hikes as the chief
spur to imitation is DR.. Ralph Robey,
economic advisor to the National
Association of Manufacturers.
The main cause of price rises
To-Day, he says, lis the ability of
Nationwide unions to demand and
get wage increases which far outrun
gains Ill output per man-hour."
And he adds: obviously. what
needs to be done to curb this
wage-price spiral is to limit the
power of monopolistic unions to
raise labor costs so rapidly that
price increases become inevitable"
Stanley Ruttenberg, director Of
research for the AFL-CIO, casts
"price-leading corporations in basic
industries" in the villains role.
The price rises of the past 10
months" says Mr.. Ruttenberg, ARE
not due to general inflationary pres
sures Excessive demand for a wide
variety of goods in short supply.
as in the immediate postwar yearS
or after the Korean conflict. Recent
price pressureS have arisen from
large price-leading corporations IN
key basic industries, in which price
competition is largely absent. Price
boosts fol- basic goods are being
passed on from basic manufacturers
to tahricators, wholesalers, retaii..
ers and consumers y
Harvard's Prof. Schlichter says
the tax policies of the Federal
Government have spurred imitation
bv making it easier for big corpora
tons to raise wages. This, he says;
is because So per cent of the extra
wage cost can be deducted from the
employers tax bill. so that each
dollar of wage raise actually costs
the employer only 48 cents. tfs4
"A useful step in checking. the
present imitation would be for the
Government to stop stimulating it."
says Prof. Schlichter. His proposed
remedy: THE corporate income tax
laws should De modified to forbid
large employers from counting wage
increases as deductible expense for
at least IL months after the IN
crease is granted" ~
(The Associated Press)