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Thursday, February 8, 1951 ' " * M PRICE RISES LOOM DESPITE NEW CURBS THE CLINTON CHRONICLE Washington, Feto. 3—Despite price control the consumer faces a price rise of another 3 or 4. per cent or more in the next six months, along with steadily worsening shortages of goods. A steep tax increase is another certain (blow, sooner or later. It may hjt the consumer twice—by taking more out Of his paycheck by with holding, and by adding excise taxes to the things he buys. He emphasized that this should not be taken as a forecast of auto production, because ^substitution and conservation will be possible to pre vent "anything like” a correspond ing cut in motor oar output. The auto makers themselves look for a dip of perhaps 40 per cent later this year. Radio and TV Output Radio and television makers re port that their output will be off 25 I ^ — • v/w» W TV AJ.A v/i*. As for scarcities, official have to 35 per cent by April and possibly hinted that by the second half of this ( 45 or 50 per cent by summer, be- ■VPar rJgafpncn rtlan+e I 4 year defense plants may be taking 50 per cent of a few critical mater ials. Output of autos, radios, washers and home appliances will dip—prob ably not by half, but enough to hurt. The pinch, in other words, is just beginning. It will last about 13 months, by present signs, before the country gets over the hump of re- amament and the pressure eases. That was made plain when the joint chiefs of staff fixed their $87 billion defense spending goal a few days ago. The billions represent planned spending and contract-letting be tween last July 1 and the middle of 1952, to accomplish this three-fold strategic aim: 1. Raise, train, arm, equip, supply and maintain a fighting force cap- i able of waging all-out war for one year. 2 Bring industry to a state of re&diness which will permit full-1 scale war production before that! year of grace expires. 3. And meantime, maintain the| forces in Korea, perfect the home de fense by air and sea, build up the! National guard and reserves, and 1 arm our Allies overseas. This means a rain of inflationary federal dolUrs, beating against a price fixing structure which admit tedly is leaky to start with. Some Economic Stabilization ag ency officials harve predicted private- 1 |y that the cost of living will move up 3 or 4 per cent because of exemp tions, loopholes and wage-increase factors in the stabilization policy adopted. Other Federal economists, also un quotable by name, set the probable riae even higher. A few estimate that; • climb of 1 per cent a month is still possible. The December gain was 1 1-2 per cent, and some believe It will ( be hard to cut that rate in half. RaUMting I'nlikely Yet with fair unanimity, officials discount the likelihood of consumer rationing on any broad scale. Food is plentiful, goods wtU be scarcer but the average family has obtained its | new refrigerator or vacuum cleaner and has bonght its recent-model car.|_ And If Congress approves Presi dent Truman's proposal to pile $3,- bi.lion in new excise taxes on con sumer goods, that will be a kind of ration ng*in itself. Some of the low er-income families will be squiixed out of luxury market. . | Administration officials who pride themselves on Judging the mood of Congress jjrediet Mr. Truman prob ably will get most of his spending $10 billion revenue-raising request That iicludes $4-billion in income taxes, and $3 billion more in corpor ation levies. Whether he will get approval of the other « billion needed to balance next year’s budget is less certain, these sources say. But sentiment among officials, fa vor a strong tax policy to cut down demand and achieve preparedness without piling up new debt. On the other hand, wage boosts are expected for millions of workers after the Wage Stabilization board arrives at its final formula. Production Costs This will hike production cost^ To cover such cost factors, ESA has in- , dicated that factory prices, now fro zen, soon will be shifted to a flex ible cost-plus-normal profit pattern, j At retail, too, the present flat ceiling j will become a ceiling on profit mar gins, so that store-keepers may pass on higher costs to consigners. The numerous food items which haven’t yet reached a parity price re main free to rise. And because parity is based on the cost of things farm ers buy, parity itself will be mov ing upward for a time. Price Director Michael V. DiSalle put the prospect frankly in testimony (before Congress. DiSalle said ESA j cannot yet stop the upward trend, just slow it down. It’s like a car traveling 60 miles an hour, he said, it must be slowed before it can be stopped. Most auto companies predict their output this quarter will be 20 to i 30 per cent below 1950’s record rate. Looking farther ahead, a high NPA official recently told auto producers] that the full extent of the military "take” is not yet known. But as a guess, he said, the .total might come to 50 or 60 per cent of some mater ials before the end of the year. they reach a parity figure, or a fig ure equal to prices in May of 1950. While this effects only about a doz en major crops which are under par ity, the provision in the law works to prevent freezing of prices on all farm produce. The Farm Bureau Federation, the only major farm organization to do so, is definitely opposed to price con trols of any farm produce, or any other commodity,. including wages. In a recent statement, Allan Kline, president of AFBF, declared if such ceilings were placed on farm pro duce, farmers would not give all-out production. Others questibn this pre mise, asserting that the farmers, if asked to do so by their government in the cause of national security would give the same all-out pro- Jduction that any other segment of As Washington Sees It.. .1 Th "? IS but .... ...... es of farm commodities are rising. iHF NAT(inA mFNF Durin ^ thc p ast few wcoiu such ■I*" IlHIIvnML «IvLmL crops as wheat, corn, soybeans and 1 hogs were crowding the parity fig ure, where they could be controlled under the law. «• •'> - ,4::. ... j Here is the picture: if farmers are making money now on $21 hogs, they could continue to make money if price* on everything they bought wai frozen at comparative prices. The only other out, is to permit the price , of hogs to soar to $31 as happened In the meantime, a battle is under, during the last war, and pay the dif- way in (Jongress for amendment of [ ference in subsidies, which is costly the national production act of 1950; and must eventually be paid for in cause of cutbacks in copper, alum inum, cobalt and other metals. Special to The Chronicle. Washington, D. C., Jan. 24—Latest time-table for the imposition of price wage controls, which at first and may take the form of a temporary freeze, U about March 1. Prices may be rolled back to a November or De cember 1 figure. to eliminate the provisions which prevent control of farm prices until taxes. However, if prices can be peg ged, and at least costly subsidies 1 avoided, then the farmers and ev- ery other taxpayer would be better off. There is no question but that the faimer would rather not have subsidies. He has been traditionally opposed to such « plan, preferring to get his fair price in the market place. But if farm prices are not controlled and are permitted to rise under the law of demand, folks sim ply could not afford to buy pork over the counter from $31 hogs. Hence the subsidy system during the last war. President Truman has said he will seek amendment to the act to permit control of farm commod ities at fair prices. The battle over the nation’s for eign policy was started in the first week of the new 82nd congress, ev en before the President had delivered his state of the union message. Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio made his piten as an administration critic by ques tioning the President’s constitutional right to send troops to Europe in sup port of the Atlantic Treaty while the nation is not in a state of declared war. It will be remembered Tarft questioned this right even with re spect to Korea. Taft’s position is that we should wait until Russia strikes in Europe before sending Am erican troops, while the position of the administration is that sufficient armed forces in Europe may prevent such a strike, and therefore may pre- j vent war. Page Seven THE CHRONICLE Completely Coven Clinton’s Trade Area for Advertisers YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED a 1 TO SEE THE BEAUTIFUL 1951 CHRYSLER Saturday, Feb. loth We will give an ORCHID to the first 250 ladies i attending the 1951 Chrysler Showing. COMMERCIAL HOUSEHOLD WIRING Electrical Appliance Repairing and Electrical Construction Work Floor Plugs A Specialty ARNOLD M. CANNON 4M W. Maple St. TeL J12-XJ Suber Motor Co. I WHITMIRE, S. C. PHONE 75 stages! OF UtHT - AAAa a a? 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