OCR Text |
Show COMMENTS BY ACCIDENT OR BY DESIGN According to responsible authorities, attempts have been made to hold up production of civilian goods in the belief that a policy of scarcity is an effective morale builder. If this is true, a despicable trick is being played on consumers and the battle against inflation may be made immeasurably more difficult. ,Most observers agree that the immense productive cap-pacity cap-pacity of industry now stands as the best guarantee against uncontrolled inflation. Unless industry turns out things peo-Dle peo-Dle need in sufficent quantity to offset the billions of new dollars which the war has put into the hands1 of the public, the natural laws of supply and demand will wreck price ceilings. ceil-ings. Industry should be encouraged to produce the goods and retail distributors should be be encouraged to make those goods available to consumers on as large a scale as possible without actually impairing war production. Complicated regulations have been to blame for removing remov-ing from retail shelves many critically needed consumer items. When merchants and manufactures point to the effect ef-fect of specific regulations on dwindling supplies, they are assured that everything possible is being done to correct the situation but the regulations continue in force and supplies dwindle. Low price clothing is a case in point. Certain lines of women's and children's apparel have literally been ruled off the market. If these regulations that restrict production and distribution dis-tribution of consumer goods are part of a misguided attempt to bolster1 civilian morale, it is about time the country learned learn-ed the truth. A nation whose people have .sent ten million men to war, will not appreciate public servants playing with the home front like children play with a toy. ., |