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Gertrude Shaw

OPA Order Lifts Price Ceiling on Hundreds of Items!

Vital Foods Among Items Covered by Price Order

(19 October 1942)


From Labor Action, Vol. 6 No. 42, 19 October 1942, pp. 1 & 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).



On October 10 the New York Times carried on its front page the headline “New OPA Food Price Order Permits Rise in 11 Groups.”

What Kind of Farce Is This?

The President threatens to go over the head of Congress if it doesn’t give him the power to “stop inflation,” as he put it. Congress – after much wrangling – gives him certain powers. The President creates the job of stabilization director and gives it to Associate Supreme Court Justice Byrnes. Leon Henderson of the OPA trumpets throughout the length and breadth of the land that now prices will be fixed on everything.

But —

WITHIN A WEEK the New York Times carries on its front page the headline “New OPA Price Order Permits Rise in 11 Groups.”

Yes – what kind of farce is this?

Such practical jokes the working class cannot afford. IT CANNOT AFFORD THEM FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT THE “FIXERS” IN WASHINGTON ARE NOT JOKING ABOUT PUTTING CEILINGS ON WAGES.

Along with the announcement of the new price boost, Mr. Henderson handed out a little soothing syrup to the little man and his wife to the effect that “the ultimate effect on consumers would be a slight increase in prices, a cent or two at most, on items affected.”

BUT THERE ARE SEVERAL HUNDRED ITEMS INCLUDED IN THE ELEVEN GROUPS OF FOOD ON WHICH PRICES WILL GO UP. A cent or two on several hundred items adds up to dollars, AND WHERE ARE THE DOLLARS TO COME FROM?

However, there is no assurance that the increased prices will amount to ONLY a cent or two. FOR ON CAREFULLY READING THE NEWS ITEM IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT MARK-UPS ARE PERMITTED FROM 7 PER CENT TO 25 PER CENT. And this on several hundred items of food – all daily necessities.

For instance, breakfast cereals – those foods that we are told are an excellent source of much needed vitamin B – can be marked up as high tis 8 per cent by certain jobbers and wholesalers. You can bet your empty cereal box that the increases will run much higher by the time the retailer posts the prices that the housewife will have to pay.

WITH WAGE CEILINGS WHAT THEY ARE, WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING TO COME FROM? Mr, Henderson carefully explains that his new price-raising order will “permit certain essential foods to flow through wholesale and retail channels to the consuming public.”

But why were they not flowing to the consuming public before Mr. Henderson’s farcical order? Because – mind you – channels of food distribution were not finding it PROFITABLE to handle these essentials. This is not the explanation of Labor Action alone. It is the reason given by the OPA itself. To the “fixers” in Washington such reasoning is apparently beyond dispute. But what about the worker? Is it good enough for him? Is it good enough for the working class housewife?

A hundred times – NO!

Mr. Henderson’s explanation simply underlines in deep black the fact that the distribution of food for the masses is controlled by the rules of the profit game. It simply makes as clear as the nose on a face that the Washington “fixers” are guided by the interests of the profit-making class – not by the needs of the people.

That is why the Washington “fixers” are serious about wage ceilings but make a farce of price ceilings. IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, THE ECONOMIC LORDS OF PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION BENEFIT BY LOW WAGES AS THEY DO BY HIGH PRICES,

The victims of this farcical policy are the “little people” – the workers, the working farmers, the struggling little retailers.

An end to this farce!

Labor Action calls for joint committees of trade union workers, working class housewives and working farmers to fix and control prices and rationing. These elements of the population can truly protect the interests of the little people. THEY CAN PREVENT RUNAWAY PRICES BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN INCREASING PROFITS.


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