Show news BE hi ftfe TEN by PAUL allon MALLON y Re released teased by western newspaper union MEAT ANIMALS WILL RETURN TO MARKET WHEN PRICES RISE I 1 washington it Is not difficult to find out what made the meat disappear the farmers according to my best farm arm experts have entered upon a practical boycott of the market as a result of the OPA price ceilings some increased ceilings were allowed a few weeks back but not enough to lure cattle or hogs into the market paul porters group operating OPA increased cattle from 18 to 2025 a hundred pounds and moved hogs up from 1485 to 1625 a hundred since then packing supplies of meat have dwindled steadily until the cities have gotten around to horse meat butchers shelves are empty nearly everywhere except tor for slim allowances low ances of sausage cold meats and other interior inferior substitutes for normal supplies the farmers are simply taking a gamble that prices will go higher the teed feed situation is conducive to holding meat on the hoof excellent crops of corn and grain and good pasture conditions have afforded opportunities tor for feeding and fattening now to sell for a higher price later JUST protecting SELF this may seem to the consumer to be a rather selfish arrangement but the economic management which the government has built up over the past few years has practically required the farmer to do what he is doing he sees inflationary prices au all around him strikes tor for tremendous increases in wages running as high as 30 per cent are being conducted in the large cities and in a price inflation period naturally aurally he would assume his owr right to strike now the government on the OPA side of the matter has produced figures fig Tires showing much less cattle than last year are going into the midwest teed feed lots for fattening and in other ways excuses itself and refuses to look the situation in the he face seeing the consumers side of it alone in OPA it has fixed ceilings for what it calls antl anti inflationary purposes wholly unmindful of the truth of the matter which is the ceilings themselves have become purely theoretical and the meat cannot be obtained at any price the government is empowered to keep up this stalemate until OPA expires next june but with the election coming on its position Is becoming more and more embarrassing politically every day my guess would be that the white house considers it is being pressed closer and closer in into to a political predicament from which it will extricate itself in the usual if not the normally intelli intelligent gent way by lifting the prices again by the normally intelligent tell igent way I 1 mean going thoroughly into its whole mismanagement of the intricate machinery from the time a calf is born until it reaches the butcher shop and then revise the regulations so a as s to produce meat supplies at fair prices in common justice A BID FOR FARM VOTE so as I 1 say my guess is that perhaps a week or two before election the price ceilings will be relaxed in order to get the farmer vote however this does not seem to M me e to be even particularly reasonable P politics 0 I 1 as congress wanted to relax the OPA restraints considerably more in the beginning and congress is the agency facing election this year not mr truman or his OPA so while a further boost in prices would perhaps relieve the pressure on the white house the majority of congressmen facing reelection election re up to nearly two thirds of theia number have a record more favorable to the farm viewpoint and the obtaining of meat incidentally agriculture secretary anderson who was originally brought into the picture by mr truman to take charge of the food supply situation and to straighten it out by this time he had distinguished himself in congress by making a report which was generally approved as showing some comfor sense in the matter has been ill in new mexico for the past several weeks his friends have been doubtful as to when or whether he would be able to return an inside factor which may have contributed to the demoralization of the admin adain meat machinery again WHAT DID STALIN MEAN stalin said he had no fear of war but he said nothing about the size of his army which was put at sia million teen anen in the last public announcement no last june certainly the atmosphere has not been cleared as much as an announcement by stalls would have cleared it if he had said he was cutting the size of the russian army to the size of ours thus also he accused agents ef cf the other rl nations of waving war hags flags for foi propaganda fleet effect on the conference |