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Show ON THE HOME FRONT The wealth of the Rockies is being mobilized for war. Metal mines ' throughout the region, which have been inactive or operating oper-ating on a hand-to-mouth basis for many years, over night have become bustling camps, reminiscent reminis-cent of the early era of the old west. The basic cause of widespread revival of the mining industry is of course, the war need for stra- tcgic metals. The immediate cause was an order issued in Washington Washing-ton last week by the office of production managment and the office of price administration substantially sub-stantially increasing the ceiling prices for copper, lead and zinc. The new program ' involves the payment of premium prices by the government for any production produc-tion of copper, lead and zinc in excess of quotas. The premium prices are-.17 cents per pound for copper, 11 cents for zinc, and 9-14 9-14 cents for lead. Maintenance of the prices is assured for two and a half years, beginning Feb. 1, 1942. Consumers will have to make sacrifices, but the OPA is making mak-ing every effort to see they don't have to pay excessive prices for the things they need. Sugar prices shouldn't rise until un-til present stocks in the hands of retailers are exhausted and then only fractionally, if at all. I There's no shortage of any food stuff in sight, although sometimes some-times people create temporary local shorages by "runs" based on false rumor. The OPM order allocating cellophane cel-lophane is going to make a lot of things look a lot different. It'll change the packaging of cosmetics cosmet-ics and soaps and razor blades and jigsaw puzzles and punch boards. Cigarettes will still come done up in cellophane where the manufacturer has eliminated the use or tin foil. There's been a rise of 10 cents a thousand in the price ceiling above the so-called "ten cent bands" of cigarettee, but they shouldn't cost you more over the counter. The retail price has been on that basis for some while. The office of civilian defense has enlisted the nation's 1.600, 000 Boy Scouts for the duration. They'll assist civil defense units in emergencies. The OCD has launched a victory garden program the idea is larger vegetable gardens gar-dens in every community. |