European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse                                On armed watchmaker Ralph of who lost on ohm in the has ssh into tempered watch Ralph Laming the at tha Bulova school o Are eng e r at no to the taxpayer Price continued frontage 3 that its the same loaf i used to pay twelve cents and it seems like yesterday that i was mad because they raised it to fear has been expressed in some quarters that the Sacramento House along with her counterparts in other Hast yet seen the in spite of the fact that the latest Index shows Teope of decline in a few retail prices of some foods Suft As and some meats and House hold goods like soap have shown a downward towels and sheets Cost some clothing and millinery prices Are this situation has caused pres i ident in one of his calling attention to the widespread threat of economic col lapse in the current to make a particular plea to the nations whole salers to hold prices in the president tended to stress some of the brighter aspects of the postwar comparing current conditions with those of the Peak prewar year of economic he noted a 71 per cent increase in physical volume of the country production distinct from the Dollar value of output and an increase in the average american after from to this he on the average for every woman and child in the an increase of 32 per cent in the Power to buy goods and this of Means Little when one takes into account that the Rise in Price since 1929 has i taken a huge bite out of that in creased the president himself commented on the fallacy of the Parison in pointing out that because of High prices Many families Are finding it necessary to dig into the savings which they had built up out of higher incomes in order to meet the High Cost of living even private in enjoying a similarly High return of is sufficiently alarmed to bring up such scare words As even that old Debbie depression a family Ralph has a year old at Home he has o use his artificial Arm to help my with jobs Waling cleaning windows and doing the Jack president of h Macy and the huge new York department came out bluntly and told his customers a full Page advertisement in new York papers that prices Are too High and advised the Public that this is consistent with the generally adequate Supply of the National association of responding Truman asked whole salers to see what they could do to hold prices in Check and warned that if the spiral continued customers would stay away in goods would go begging for prices then would ment would demand for goods would drop off still in the whole process of Boom and recur As it did in the Early a Strong practical warning of How this might operate once Sud has already appeared although the critical construction always one of the keys to National Prosperity or recession under the Strain of the current situation and the building business has been acting nervously enough to keep government economists and in vate observers on Edge even m the midst of the housing s bricklayers and cities have put out i because builders Are becoming to invest in the in places where a Boom in current contractors say they intend to curtail operations As soon As present commitments Are full led because High costs of material and labor make their investment too in new York for Between and skilled Ossmen already construction contracts have declined estimated to in Jar in planned housing has been ily in Little spokesmen for the Carpen  that 20 per cent of the cites building workers Are Idle because contractors with plans Al ready on paper ire holding off actual in Portland Union officials say one fifth of the cites building workers Are out of work and several Hundred Homes stand twas to meet the threat of a similar crisis developing in the nations whole business Structure that like Mer chants of Newburyport took their United stand to Cut Ford motor com Pany had made an Independent Chipping prices by fifteen to fifty dollars on their new Auto models reduction of a few per cent Chrysler went them a Little better Ortto cuts of Twentyfive to fifty five International Harvester came out with a much heavier there is Little disagree ment among economic groups on the Basic from the Nam to the Cio All concede that the balance be tween income and prices must be and the differences come Over what is responsible for inflation and what must be done to make the and the Public demand for lower i prices and the movement to bring them Down through voluntary action has been complicated by several for one labors current drives for higher wages in several major industries to meet the increased Cost of living has been drawn into the business charges that such Grants would Only shoot prices up still labors rebuttal is that prices already have gone too far ahead of wage increases and that Industry can afford to Grant costo living raises without higher figures in a so report declare that Industry profit even during the current period of High is generally unprecedented and is certainly adequate to meet still higher another complicating Factor is the Federal governments program of at tending Aid to foreign the terrific jump in the Price of wheat this Spring was attributed largely to the governments buying up of a Large part of the country Grain crop for although the Grain Market has settled Down somewhat in the last month or there is fear Ofa new sky ride if the government enters the Grain Market opponents of the voluntary Price cutting in claim that the real cause of the inflation is not de liberate Over hiking of prices onem part of Industry but just such pro Grams undertaken by the Federal government they Point out that the general expansion of particularly to foreign has m creased the Supply of Money an the demand for and thereby has pushed prices some who Are in sympathy with voluntary Price cutting stall pre dict gloomily that it is doomed to failure because such a program cannot be effective unless All the multiple factors in the nations fall into line simultaneously and of their own will they in a country As Large As the United states such an eventuality is ssh Anthey look to the Days of opa which sought w accomplish similar ends by compel Lor Overall Price cutting program ignore my Fine shades of varying in different industries and on the european Premier Blums socialist government in France s regime in with its Long Tion of Yankee Commerce and com against government control m solution of the economic 22