Show OPA HAS ITS GOOD POINTS president brur truman an when signing the OPA extension bill gave credit to the stabilization agencies for serving the nation loyally and well in the face of their unpleasant and thankless task of enforcing controls during a critical period just how much the controls have bene fitted the public is brought light in a worldwide world wide study of if inflation problem just made by the life insurance companies in america from official data the bureau of labor statistics figure of per cent war rise in united states living costs as of april 1945 has been criticized as not sufficiently inclusive clu sive but even at the highest rate claimed the record is remarkable in contrast with that of most other countries outside of the british commonwealth mon wealth the study revealed that the greek r drachma was wiped out when money in circulation reached a peak of times prewar china was next with costs up per cent italy 1637 bulgaria 1308 the netherlands ther lands 3 france we might add here that members of the armed forces from here who are serving in in china can verify the facts about inflation in china one of them in in a letter to us states that you can get 1400 chinese dollars for one american dollar but that it wont buy anything with an armload of the currency needed to purchase a pair of shoes if there were any the nations ment mentioned boned above are countries which suffered war devastation but among the nimar neutrals neut as for example portugal had a rise of 72 per cent in living costs spain 47 sweden 49 and switzerland 53 in latin america argentina had a low of 7 per cent but bolivia was up cuba 87 mexico and so on these figures are hard to believe by many people but when you think of paying 25 to for a pair ot of shoes ai or 5 tor for a loaf of bread they take on new meaning add to this the near starvation conditions existing in many european countries and the american citizen should feel fee very grateful for his blessing in luding eluding the OPA |