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Show (Qhufwiqtoti JamzI Prstom Henry Wallace let a large New Deal cat out of the bag last week. The Secretary of Commerce admitted ad-mitted that his statement last industry could raise wages without with-out price increases was based on a set of doubtful assumptions. His statement and similar statements from other Administration Adminis-tration leaders gave labor a powerful pow-erful weapon in its campaign for wage increases. Now He Retracts! . . . At the time, industry protested that any conclusions about its ability to pay workers more money mon-ey without raising prices was strictly guesswork. The answer: More statements about industry's ability to pay! Now that the damage is done, Mr. Wallace retracts. But he did not do so until the' General Motors Mot-ors had been settled and the workers 'had received a 18 cents an hour increase. "There are, of course," the Wallace statement last week . blandly about-faced, "inherent uncertainties in projecting cost, price and profit relationships for any specific, industry as a whole." Industry pointed all this out last November, but it did.no good! |