[Eighteenth Quarterly Report for the Period Ended June 30, 1946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION
PAUL A. PORTER, Administrator
EIGHTEENTH QUARTERLY REPORT
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED
JUNE 30, 1946
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE • WASHINGTON . 1946
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. - Price 20 cents
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
Office of Price Administration, Washington, D. C., November 5,19^6.
Sirs: I have the honor to submit herewith the eighteenth report of the Office of Price Administration, covering the period ended June 30, 1946.
Sincerely yours,
Paul A. Porter,
Administrator.
The Secretary of the Senate.
The Clerk of the House of Representatives.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. Critical Economic Developments____________________ 1
Speculation and Instability________________________________ 1
Sources of Price Increases_________________________________ 3
Expanding Production_____________________________________ 5
Wage-Price Policy_________________________________________ 7
II. Price Control Programs________________________________ 12
Food______________________________________________________ 13
Apparel and Textiles______________________________________ 15
Building Materials and Lumber____________________________ 17
Consumer Durable Goods____________________________________ 18
Automobiles and Tires_____________________________________ 19
Machinery and Metals______________________________________ 19
Chemicals, Paper, Fuel____________________________________ 20
Appendix to Price Chapter________________________________ 21
Actions Resuming Price Control____________________________ 21
Dollar-and-Cent Prices__________________________________. 21
Price Reductions_______________________________________ 22
Price Increases___________________________________________ 22
Releases from Price Control_______________________________ 37
III. Transportation and Public Utility Rates______________ 53
Transportation__________________________________________ 53
Public Utilities__________________________________________ 57
IV. Rent Control__________________________________________ 62
Amendments and Interpretations____________________________ 62
Area Office Operations____________________________________ 64
Protests and Review Proceedings___________________________ 65
V. Emergency Court of Appeals__________________________ 67
Price Control Cases________________________________________67
Rent Control Cases______________________________________ 70
VI. Sugar Rationing_____________________________________ .71
Consumer and Institutional Rations________________________ 72
Industrial User Rations_______________________________: _ _ 72
VII. Enforcement_____________________.__________________ 73
Enforcement Activity____________________________________ 74
Litigation_______________•______________________________ 79
Statistical Summary_____________________________________ 82
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Critical Economic Developments • 1
I
CRITICAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS
The boom that got under way soon after VJ-day resulted from a combination of factors in which the pent-up demand for consumer goods was of basic importance. American consumers exhibited a propensity to spend heavily out of their high incomes, even though a major group of normally available goods—consumers’ durables—was almost completely off the market. Associated with this was business demand that itself resulted from confidence that consumer spending would run at boom levels. These factors were particularly important both because of their dimensions and because of the long-run dependence of the economy upon them. There were, in addition, such factors as the heavy foreign demand for relief and reconstruction purposes and a need to replenish inventories even if consumer demand had run at lower levels. These were both smaller in volume and, of course, shorter-run in character than the basic factors of private demand.
During the last quarter of 1945 these several elements of demand combined to check the decline of total outlays that followed VJ-day. During the first quarter of 1946 they resulted in an upturn in total ¡pending despite further cuts in military expenditures. This upturn continued through the second quarter but by the end of that period question might have been raised whether the economic developments to that time, especially with respect to the relationship between prices tod wages, did not foreshadow a choking off of consumer spending and hus an early set-back to postwar prosperity. If so, then at the end >f June the economy was particularly vulnerable to price increases. Unless these were carefully administered and held within narrow limits, their most significant effect would be to hasten the end of the boom tod to sharpen the set-back—a set-back which, according to the purposes of the original Emergency Price Control Act, was to have been Voided through the maintenance of stability until the period of war-itoe pressures had passed.
SPECULATION AND INSTABILITY
Speculative pressures continued to force new rises in the real estate, ’ommodity, and securities markets. As observed in an earlier report,1 peculation had increased the inflationary pressure during a period dien, such pressure might have been expected to diminish as civilian
1 See Sixteenth Quarterly Report, pp. 8-10. _
2 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Price increases took hold at every level durin.g the second quarter of 1946
Sensitive prices of basic commodities rose over seven times as rapidly in the second quarter of 1946 as they had under "Hold-the-line“
For wholesale prices in general, the rise was nearly 9 times as rapid
Average Monthly Increase
Consumers' prices followed suit
Total Increase
May 1943-March 1946 (34 months)
Average Monthly Increase
March 1946-June 1946 (3 months)'
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Critical Economic Developments • 3
supplies came steadily into better balance with nonspeculative demand. In light of the record of the succeeding summer weeks, however, it is clear that the peak of speculative pressure on stock prices had been passed by the close of the quarter. Diminishing speculation meant an easing of the total inflationary pressure, though by no means its immediate disappearance. Beyond this, however, it signaled the fact that in the judgment of businessmen the demand for goods over the longer run could not be expected to continue at levels that would sustain scheduled output at current prices. This significant business judgment was beginning to make itself felt at the very time that the campaign for still higher prices was most intense.
Under these speculative pressures and accompanied by the claim that inflation had “already taken place” and that it was therefore folly to fight against “its consequences, price increases,” the campaign to kill price control came close to success. The bill passed on June 28 was vetoed by the President as worse than no control at all and the Nation was left without price or rent control for a period that was to last 25 days.
Prices moved up in all markets during the quarter, in sharp contrast to the stability that had prevailed throughout the latter war period. Sensitive prices in primary markets rose 4.4 percent in 3 months as against 7.7 percent during the 34 months ended in March 1946, or over 7 times as rapidly as under “hold the line.” Among these basic commodities was cotton which, uncontrolled, in 3 months rose 12 percent for a total increase of 38 percent since VJ-day. Wholesale prices increased 3.7 percent, as against only 4.6 percent, or almost 9 times as fast as under “hold the line,” and consumer prices, too, rose 7 times as rapidly as during the “hold the line” period, suddenly climbing 2.4 percent in 3 months as against 4.1 percent over 34 months.
SOURCES OF PRICE INCREASES
These price increases reflected many factors. In part, they resulted from the automatic operation of statutory provisions, such as the so-called Bankhead Amendment tying textile prices to the price of cotton, which itself was uncontrolled. In part, they represented a reversion, made necessary by the lifting of direct production controls, to price relationships as a guide to balanced production. In part, they resulted from the new wage-price policy established February 14 by Executive Order 9697.2
In large part, finally, they represented those adjustments found to be necessary to a “swift and orderly transition to a peacetime economy.” 8 In pursuing this objective, the agency was on admittedly
* See Seventeenth Quarterly Report, pp. 4-6.
1 Executive Order 9599, effective August 18, 1945; see Fifteenth Quarterly Report, p. 1.
4 ® Eighteenth Quarterly Report
In the second quarter, rising production and rising prices pushed up the dollar value of national output
1945 1946
-but at higher consumers' prices,consumers' spending slowed down
1945 1946
* Only quarterly data available
Sources- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Department of Labor, Department of Commerce-
Critical Economic Developments • 5
dangerous ground and it consciously adopted a policy of calculated risk to insure that neither prices, by their level or relationship, nor the pricing process, by undue delay, hampered expansion of production.
This calculated risk was twofold. On the one hand, adjustments might be granted which would immediately require other increases and thereby set in operation an entire chain of increases having serious inflationary consequences. Quite as serious and far more difficult to detect and avoid were increases which would put prices out of line with those to which full capacity output must be geared. For while in many hardship cases the immediate problem of reconversion pricing was to cover special costs of the changeover period, in general this was primarily the function of the tax refunds provided for by the same Congress that enacted the Emergency Price Control Act.
The Office sought, in its reconversion pricing, to minimize the effect of so-called bulge costs, i. e., the bulge of costs’traceable to the low level and low efficiency of operations during the changeover. The real test of reconversion pricing, indeed, lay not in how effectively earnings were maintained in the short run, but in how effectively industry was enabled both to cover costs and to tap demand at full employment, once the temporary backlogs of demand had been filled» The Office, however, was in some respects legally bound, and in others had become committed, to meet some requirements of the former type. Whether the prices actually charged would meet the latter and basic requirement was a responsibility that the Office shared with industry itself, which was of course under no compulsion to charge the full legal price.
There was, indeed, general recognition that further price increases could not be sustained over the longer run. A battle cry in the fight to end price control was “get rid of OPA, so higher prices will expand production and bring prices down.”1 Many who expressed this view had no notion how seriously such a swing of prices would affect the economy. Others, however, were consciously urging a reversal of the policy of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, which called for stability throughout the period of pressure as necessary for the avoidance of postwar collapse. They ware willing to see the country take its chances with “boom and bust.”
EXPANDING PRODUCTION
At the very time, however, that the cry wa§ most loudly heard that OPA must “get out of the way of production” and that the agency was feeling some embarrassment, lest despite its best efforts it should in some way hinder expansion of output, production was rising to new peacetime peaks. Production for civilian use, moreover, a growing fraction of the total, ran at all-time record levels during both the first
715347—46--------2
6 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
For industry in generai, price increases were more than adequate to match wage increases
Hourly earnings increase-_ Offsetting price increase _ Actual price increase____
Percent increase - wartime woge peak to June 1946
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of the Census (See Table I.)
Critical Economic Developments • 7
and second quarters. The increase over the first quarter was not a steady one, for disputes between management and labor, traceable in large part to disagreement as to the soundness of the President’s proposition that substantial wage increases were necessary, caused serious set-backs during some months. It was these set-backs, coupled with the delay in appearance of goods at retail while the pipe fines were being filled, that lent substance to the charge that production was being held down, although each quarter showed a rise over the preceding quarter.
This expansion took place in production as a whole and in nondurable goods production in particular, and in all lines of durables. In most of the lighter durable lines, prewar volume was attained arid surpassed during the quarter. Furthermore, as the pipe lines were filled and retailers’ inventories increased, the results of production became steadily plainer to the ultimate consumer. In “soft” goods, where production had expanded more rapidly, output was well sustained and supplies at retail grew steadily more adequate. Production of civilian shoes and men’s and youths’ suits continued to run well above prewar levels. Meantime as the outfitting of returned service personnel proceeded, the end of the period of abnormal demand for clothing came steadily nearer.
Consumer and business demand continued strong into the second quarter, but there was evidence that consumer demand was no longer surging against supply with the force it had demonstrated in the previous quarter. As individual incomes continued to rise, retail sales reached new peaks, but sales of nondurable consumer goods fell off, so that the gain was more than accounted for by the continued expansion in those lines where shortages were most stubborn. Taking total consumer expenditures, including services as well as goods at retail, there was a lag behind the rise of incomes, and the physical volume of goods and services sold appears to have declined from the peak reached in the first quarter.4
WAGE-PRICE POLICY
It was to insure that the market for consumer goods would be sustained, not only in the short run but beyond the first postwar year, that the wage-price policy of August 1945 was adopted. To cushion the decline of weekly wages occasioned by the elimination of premium-Pay overtime and other reconversion developments and to sustain the volume of consumer incomes, wages were released from direct control (except in the construction industry) and limited wage increases were
‘The Department of Commerce data on consumer expenditures (see chart, page 4) show a decline between the first and second quarters. There are technical grounds, however, for believing this may reflect incomplete adjustment for seasonal variation and that, fully adjusted, dollar expenditures were maintained or somewhat increased. Elimination of the price factor indicates a decline in terms of physical volume.
8 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Profits as a whole reached new peacetime levels; after taxes they were at all-time peaks '
Source: Deportment of Commerce * Shown at adjusted annual rates
Reconverting industries had their troubles, but were helped by the tax laws
While in the 'bof Clines business was extremely profitable
Critical Economic Developments •• 9
encouraged by the President. The one check retained was to require that wage-increases generally not be made if price increases would thereby become necessary. The extremely favorable profit record of most branches of industry demonstrated the feasibility of substantial wage increases on these terms. Operations approaching wartime use of productive capacity not only would permit such increases but could hardly be sustained unless the ultimate markets, no longer dominated by military demand, were strengthened by higher wage incomes.
Despite a wave of wage increases within this framework,6 however, certain major industries insisted that wage increases were impossible unless price increases were granted. In the compromise that was finally worked out in February 1946, wage increases were recognized for price-adjustment purposes if they fell within the patterns already set in those industries where profitability had been acknowledged and wage bargains had been made under the August 1945 policy.
Under the policy as modified in February, price increases were nonetheless to be limited to those which were necessary to prevent undue lowering of industry earnings. Accompanying this modification of wage-price policy, however, was a relaxation of the Office pricing standards in the interest of speeding reconversion, a relaxation sufficiently great to provide basis for question whether, even under the wage increases given the green light by the new policy, wages would be restored to balance with prices.
What is now known on the basis of latest data concerning the situation in June 1946, and thus even before the price increases occurred which followed the temporary elimination of price control, is not reassuring on this point. In manufacturing as a whole, average weekly earnings, despite the wage increases, had declined 8.7 percent—from $47.50 to $43.35—from the wartime peak reached in January 1945. Meantime, consumer prices had risen 4.9 percent. Far from being sustained, average weekly earnings, in real terms, had thus declined 13.0 percent between January 1945 and June 1946. For workers in some industries the decline was even sharper. In the automobile industry, the extreme example, average earnings dropped from $59.49 at their peak in February 1945 to $49.45 in June 1946. The rise of prices further reduced the buying power of automobile workers’ incomes, which in real terms suffered a total average cut of 22 percent.
This decline of weekly earnings and rise of consumers’ prices— although the full story for June was not yet known—was recognized at the time as a cause for concern. In longer range significance,, however, these aspects are probably overshadowed by the disparity
•Among the important companies granting wage increases during this period were the Standard Oil ® New Jersey, Timken Roller Bearing, Studebaker Corporation, and Pacific Gas and Electric.
10 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
that had developed between prices at the producer level and the hourly cost of labor (hourly rather than weekly earnings). For it is at this level—where wages may, on the one hand, be too high for profitable operations or, on the other, too low to sustain the consumer spending upon which production ultimately depends—that the relationship between wages and prices is critical and balance is most important.
Changes in average hourly earnings and in wholesale prices have been measured for a large number of industries from the wartime month in which the earnings reached their peak to June 1946, and the price increase necessary to offset the increased hourly cost o: labor has been calculated on the basis of the ratio of labor cost to value of product in 1939.6 Factors which in any industry may have cut output per man-hour and increased unit costs beyond the increase of hourly earnings have been ignored as temporary in character anc therefore of passing significance. On this basis of comparison, it appears that in industry after industry the rise of prices—resulting from all causes—by June 1946 exceeded, in some cases very substantially, the increases necessary to offset the wage increases occurring during the same period. In only 4 of the 15 industries for which the comparison could be made (see table below for details) were price increases less than fully offsetting.
This evidence of wage-price disparity—imperfect though the comparisons may be due to limitations of the data—is nonetheless fully corroborated by the profits record. For corporations as a whole, 1946 is expected to be the most profitable of all peacetime years and after taxes to surpass even the wartime profit peaks. During the first half of the year peacetime records were generally surpassed except in durable goods manufacturing. Indeed, the supposedly difficult secon( quarter itself yielded after-tax profits which, at an annual rate, broke all records. Even the automobile industry, one of the hardest hit by reconversion, was showing signs of pulling out of the red without benefit of tax refunds. At least one major automobile corporation hat closely approached the financial break-even point by the end of the quarter, according to a statement by its president, although production during June was just over one-third of the production during the same month in 1941.
As the quarter ended, with price control at least temporarily terminated, the American people wondered if history was about to repeat itself and this war, too, was to be followed by “boom and bust. The facts on the critically important relationship of wages and prices make it clear that there was good ground for this concern. With
• These Census data, the latest available, are also used to weight hourly earnings increases in establish®! initial reconversion prices (see Sixteenth Quarterly Report, page 11).
Critical Economic Developments
• 11
many prices already outstripping the rise of wages, further price increases would have to be limited both in degree and in scope if serious trouble was to be avoided and markets were to be assured for the output of the economy under operation at full employment.
Comparison of Increases in Average Hourly Earnings and Wholesale Prices in Selected Industries
From Month of Wartime Earnings Peak to June 1946
Industry Patio of labor cost to value of product2 (percent) Percentage increase to June 1946 *
Average hourly earnings > Offsetting price increase4 Actual price increase *
15 Industries8 16.1 11.4 1.8 6.4
Group A: Less-Than-Offsetting Price Increases
Bituminous coal 59.2 15.9 9.4 7.3
Anthracite coal 56.7 14.8 8.4 4.2
Auto tires and tubes _ i 15.5 11.1 1.7 0
Petroleum products... — 5.2 11.6 .6 -.3
Group B: More-Than-Oftsetting Price Increases
Agricultural implements 21.0 5.1 1.1 9.7
Iron and steel 19- 9 7.8 1.6 11.1
Food ' 8.6 10.2 .9 6.1
Lumber..... , 27.7 10.0 2.8 13.6
Textiles.... 3 21.5 12.8 2.8 9.6
Paper and pulp... 15.1 13.7 2.1 6.1
Cement..... 16.4 8.1 1.3 3.2
Furniture.--. 24.9 8.0 2.0 4.5
Brick and tile...--- -- 1— 33.1 18.7 6.2 9.6
Hides and leather. 21.2 10.7 2.3 3.8
Chemicals ... 9.4 8.8 .8 1.2
1 Measured from the month of highest average hourly earnings (August 1945 or earlier) in the industry.
2 As of 1939, Bureau of the Census.
’ Bureau of Labor Statistics series.
* Product of average hourly earnings increase and labor cost ratio.
! Bureau of Labor Statistics series, monthly wholesale prices.
• Data refer to the selected industries—accounting for 85 percent of factory and mine production which comprise all for which the relevant BLS and Census data suitably correspond. Percentage increases shown
are weighted averages of the 15 industry increases. For manufacturing as a whole, the percentage changes
in the averages are distorted by shifts among industries, viz., average hourly earnings increased 3.6 percent, the calculated offsetting average price increase averages 0.6 percent, the actual increase of wholesale industrial prices was 5.9 percent.
12 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
. II.
PRICE CONTROL PROGRAMS
No basic change in the price control program was introduced during the second 1946 quarter, the Office concentrating upon carrying out Administration economic stabilization policies introduced in previous months.
The granting of price increases was greatly accelerated, both on an industry-wide and on an individual company adjustment basis, the number of increases allowed during the quarter being almost double that in the January-March quarter. Industry-wide increases jumped from an average of 74 per month in the first quarter of 1946 to a monthly average of 142 in the second quarter, while individual company adjustments rose from 1,430 a month in the winter quarter to 2,746 in the spring. A total of 427 industry-wide price increases was allowed during the April-June quarter as compared with 222 in the preceding quarter, while individual company adjustments rose from 4,290 during January-March to 8,240 during April-June.
The new wage-price policy, which had become effective in February under Executive Order 9697, was responsible for a substantial proportion of the total increases allowed. This order had greatly broadened the basis for permitting price ceilings to reflect wage increases by widening the grounds for approvability of wage increases.1 The quarter also saw a spurt in the number of discretionary adjustments made by the Office in order to increase supplies of needed civilian production, thereby facilitating effective transition to a peacetime economy. Many such adjustments were made for building materials and lumber in furtherance of the national housing program, and a number were made to encourages production of low-cost consumer goods, in line with the Office policy of reducing higher living costs resulting from elimination or reduction of so-called low-end supply.
More than half of the total industry-wide increases allowed were for industrial materials and manufactures, about 30 percent for consumer goods, and 19 percent for food and feed products. The bulk of the increases on the latter were required under the Government’s grain-feed pricing program which led to higher grain and feed ceilings and resulting increases in the price of bread and cereals, and later in the prices of dairy products. Increases allowed in the clothing and textile field were chiefly for the purpose of stimulating low-end
1 See Seventeenth Quarterly Report, pp. 4-6.
Price Control Programs • 13
production. Repricing of reconversion goods was virtually completed during the quarter, except for certain miscellaneous and relatively unimportant items.
A complete list of industry-wide increases granted during the quarter may be found in the appendix.2
In accordance with standards set by the Office of Economic Stabilization in July 1945,3 the Office continued to remove from price control minor items which did not enter significantly into business or living costs, further control of which represented an administrative burden to the Office, and decontrol of which would not cause diversion of materials, facilities, or manpower necessary to the effective transition to a peacetime economy. The Office also suspended from price control, under the Office of Economic Stabilization authorization, some commodities important in living or business costs where it appeared likely that balanced supply and demand would keep prices at a stable level. After a trial period these commodities were to be exempted entirely from control, or the former controls reinstated.
By the end of June 1946, the Office estimated that a total of 14.0 billion dollars worth of goods had been decontrolled. Of this total, 3.0 billions were in the food field, 6.7 billions in hard goods, and 4.3 billions in soft goods.
Among the important food items suspended from control during the quarter were all fresh berries except cranberries; processed berries and berry products; most fresh and frozen fish and most foods processed from fish except canned fish; watermelons; and table and juice grapes. Gray fox, North American opossum, raccoon, skunk, and wolf fur skins or garments and trimmings made from them were suspended at all levels as minor living or business cost items. Items made of silk, priced at the manufacturing level under the General Maximum Price Regulation and under Maximum Price Regulation 274, were likewise released from control. Many nonbusiness-cost items and products of heavy machinery and equipment used by large companies with sufficient bargaining power to resist excessive price increases were suspended from control in the industrial field, as were also certain cosmetics and miscellaneous commodities.4
FOOD
Major activities in food pricing stemmed from the Government’s grain feed pricing program, announced jointly May 8, 1946, by the Office of Economic Stabilization, the Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Price Administration. The new program was designed
2 See pp. 22-37. •
3 See Fifteenth Quarterly Report, pp. 2-3.
4 See appendix, pp. 37-52, for complete list of products released from control during the quarter!
715347-46--------3
14 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
to accomplish, three objectives: (1) To remove uncertainty concerning grain-price ceilings until June 30, 1947; (2) to encourage movement of grain for famine relief abroad, for human consumption in this country, and for essential livestock feeding in deficit grain-producing areas; and (3) to bring about the proper balance between livestock numbers and grain supplies available for feed. Following issuance of the program, the Office permitted ceiling price increases on corn, wheat, barley, rye, oats, grain sorghums, and various feeds.6
Other price increases in the grain-products field permitted during the quarter as a result of higher raw material and wage costs, and particularly as a result of reduced volume incident to the foreign famine-relief program, were for bread and bread-type rolls, corn meal and corn flour, and several breakfast cereals including corn flakes, puffed wheat and puffed rice, and beer.6 At the end of the quarter, similar adjustments were pending on wet com-milling products, macaroni and noodle products, and pancake mixes.
Directly connected with the increases for grain products was the second dairy-products program announced by the Office of Economic Stabilization on May 29. Earlier in the quarter, dairy returns were raised by 20 cents per hundredweight through an increased producer subsidy, and an additional 20 cents per hundredweight was announced, to be effective July 1. The further increases in feed costs, however, led to an immediate additional rise. Since subsidy funds were not available, the price of milk was increased by 40 cents per hundredweight at the producer level, with the original increase in subsidy rate of 20 cents per hundredweight continued, thus providing the producer with total increased returns of 60 cents per hundredweight.7 Increases were also granted on a number of manufactured dairy products, including butter, Cheddar cheese, and evaporated milk, and ceilings were established on manufacturing milk and on commercially separated cream.8
Several other actions of significance in the food field were taken during the quarter. In order to improve compliance on the part of I slaughterers with the live cattle and calves regulation (MPR 574), slaughter controls were reinstated during the quarter, with the Department of Agriculture handling federally inspected slaughterers and the
5 FPR 2: Amendment 10, Revised Supplement 2; Amendment 8, Revised Supplement 3; Amendment 11,I Supplement 4; Amendment 7, Supplement 6; Amendment 12, 2d RMPR 487; Amendment 4, MPR 604;I FPR 3: Amendment 5, Supplement 1; Amendment 1, Supplement 2; Amendment 5, Supplement 3; Amend-1 ment 3, Supplement 4; Amendment 3, Supplement 5; Amendment 3, Supplement 7; Amendment 2, Supple I ment 8; Amendment 9, RPS 73; Amendment 10, RMPR 74; Amendment 14, MPR 305; Amendment 1,1 MPR 526; Amendment 14, 2d RMPR 150; Amendment 5, RMPR 173; all effective May 10,1946. i
•Amendment 5, RSR 14-B; effective June 12, 1946. Amendment 1, Supplement 11, FPR 1; effective ■ June 14, 1946. Amendments 12 and 13, RMPR 259; effective June 25,1946.
t SO 163; effective June 1, 1946; SO 164; Amendment 21, MPR 329; both effective June 7,1946. j
• Amendment 55, RMPR 289; Amendment 74, MPR 422; Amendment 70, MPR 423; all effective June | 17, 1946. MPR 612; MPR 613; both effective June 17, 1946. '
Price Control Programs • 15
Office handling all others.9 Ceiling prices were raised for cigarettes,, and for beet and cane sugar at the refiner level.10 Finally, the regulation covering the 1946 pack of canned fruits and vegetables, reflecting about the same raw materials cost as for 1945 but making adjustment for approved wage increases and sugar cost increases, was issued.11
For restaurant meals, food, and beverages, sellers, including railroad dining cars, were permitted to reflect current raw-food costs in ceilings for entirely new offerings, those resumed since the war, or offerings the major ingredient of which was exempt at all other levels.12
APPAREL AND TEXTILES
Actions of significance in the apparel field included relaxing amendments to the maximum average price regulation for clothing and a number of price increases. In the men’s tailored clothing area, MAP exemption prices were revised, the make-up operation period extended, and tolerances adjusted by the formula method. MAP exemption prices and tolerances for all hosiery categories were also revised during; the quarter.13
A price increase for staple work clothing was intended to return: average 1936-39 profits to the industry as well as to increase supplies-of these low-end garments, and manufacturers’ current ceilings for staple work gloves were raised to offset material and labor cost increasesand to assure the 1936-39 ratio of profits to net worth.14 A revision of the men’s shirts, shorts, and pajamas regulation, providing for adjustment of ceilings in accordance with the industry earnings standard and also for low-end adjustment of men’s dress and boys’ dress and sport shirts, was ready for issuance at the end of the quarter, as was also an industry-earnings-standard adjustment for men’s heavy outer-wear.
As an incentive to low-end output of shoes, which had been cut by rising labor and material costs and removal of wartime quota restrictions, producers of shoes the same as, or comparable to, 1942 types-were also granted price rises during the quarter.15 Ceilings for rubber footwear were raised under the product standard, and those for rubber heels and soles were increased to restore base-period earnings to the industry.16
• Control Order 2, and Supplement 1; both effective April 28,1946.
88 Amendment 10, SR 14-D; Amendment 4, RPS 66; both effective April 4, 1946. Amendment 3, MPR'. effective June 24, 1946.
11 Supplement 19, FPR 1; effective June 24,1946.
¡ 18 Amendment 13, Restaurant MPR 2; effective June 13,1946.
I 18 SO 108: Amendment 6, Special Order 3; effective May 13, 1946; Special Order 14; effective May 20, W. Amendment 7, Special Order 3; Amendment 6, Special Order 5; both effective May 31, 1946.
14 Amendment 12, RMPR 208; effective April 17, 1946. SO 162; effective May 31, 1946.
18 Amendment 3, RMPR 506; effective May 20,1946.
18 Amendment 6, RMPR 229; effective April 30, 1946; Amendment 7, RMPR 229; effective June 22,1946^
Amendment 18, MPR 477; effective June 4,1946.
16 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
( Tanners of domestically finished leather were authorized to lift ceilings so as to offset labor and tanning-material-cost rises, decreased raw-skin supply, and reduction of yield from use of inferior raw stock. At the same time, an added increase was permitted for goatskin and kidskin (from imported raw skins), to offset in full a rise in raw skin prices allowed in Reconstruction Finance Corporation’s Office of Defense Supplies schedule of purchase prices.17
Following the termination of international controls on the world supply of hides and skins, the Office removed controls on foreign buying and substituted a 5 percent mark-up over landed cost for dollar-and-cent prices on hides and skins for American importers.18 During the war period available world supplies of hides and skins had been allocated among participating countries by the Combined Raw Materials Board, and the import-export and purchase of hides and skins had been kept under close governmental regulation. Supplies of these materials did not improve markedly after the close of hostilities but remained seriously scarce in relation to demand. After the dissolution of the board at the close of 1945, therefore, international controls were maintained through the establishment of an International Hides, Skins, and Leather Committee. This committee was later terminated and with it the specific import controls and the programs of public purchase. Conditions in foreign markets were such, however, that purchases by American buyers would have been seriously impeded unless they were placed in a position to bid competitively with other buyers. The. Office thereupon acted to permit American buyers to compete, but to discourage speculation by resellers in this country.
Continued increases in raw cotton prices became so disturbing that the Office of Economic Stabilization directed the Office of Price Administration to issue a regulation ordering an immediate increase in the margin requirements of the cotton futures exchanges, in the hope that excessive speculation in raw cotton would thus be checked.19
Other actions in textile pricing included an over-all producer increase in current ceilings of bedspreads, napery, and woven decorative! fabrics, with the greatest increase going to the lowest-priced range;! the increase served to inline these products with other cotton articles! previously granted increases.20 To avoid impediments to production! pf a scarce item, 10O-percent-wool overcoatings 26 ounces and heavier delivered at $3.25 per yard (net) were exempted from the maximum! average price.21 Dollar-and-cent prices for mohair matchings, tops!
17 Orders 13,14, MPR 61; effective June 7, 1946.
18 SO 165; effective June 26,1946.
19 Margin Requirement Regulation 1; effective April 9,1946.
- 2« Amendment 22, SO 131; effective May 2,1946. -
21 Amendment 4, Revised SO 113; effective April 8,1946.
Price Control Programs • 17
I nails, and yarns, in excess of 1941 freeze prices, were set during thé I quarter to increase yarn supplies and to reflect legal minimum prices I for mohair to producers.22
| BUILDING MATERIALS AND LUMBER
The Office again concentrated its efforts in these fields upon bring-I ing out maximum production for home construction needs. After1 I passage by Congress of the veterans’ housing bill with a provision for I premium payments on building materials, the joint interagency steer-I ing committee for premium payments (National Housing Agency; I Civilian Production Administration, and Office of Price Administra-I tion) immediately began work on application of these payments; I Before the end of the quarter the National Housing Agency had I issued its premium payment plans for brick, plywood, and gypsum I liner.
Ceiling prices were raised during the quarter for a number of build-I ing materials to remove price impediments to production. Among I the more important products for which increases were granted were I Douglas fir doors, warm-air furnaces, western pine stock millwork, I stock screen goods, softwood molding, cast-iron heating boilers and I cast-iron radiation, cast-iron soil pipe and fittings, asphalt and tarred I roofing products, and automatic electric temperature controls.23 In I addition to these major price actions, 198 dollar-and-cent area pricing I orders were issued by OPA field offices during the quarter.
Higher ceiling prices, designed to overcome production impediments I to the housing and other essential programs, were made effectivé ¡■during the quarter for the following lumber materials: Hardwood -■flooring, western railroad fir ties and pine ties, Lake States hemlock, il tidewater red cypress, box grade veneer, western pine, Douglas fir el and hemlock boards, all west coast lumber, western agricultural shook, I slack cooperage, white cedar shingles in the Lake States, western pine i-| cut stock, and eastern railroad switch ties.24 Rises in legal maximums, ■el granted under Executive Order 9697 to return base period earnings e;| to the industry included Appalachian hardwood, southern hardwood, I 22 Amendment 19, RPS 58; effective May 31,1946.
)I1H 28 Amendment 1, MPR 44; effective April 4,1946. Amendment 9, Order 1, MPR 591; effective April 19, ..■1946. Amendment 16, RMPR 293; effective May 6,1946. Amendment 7, MPR 381; effective May 8,1946. ‘ ■ Amendment 2, MPR 601; effective May 21, 1946. Amendment 9, MPR 272; Amendment 13, Order 1, .dl MPR 59i; both effective May 21, 1946. Amendment 6, RPS 100; effective May 23,1946. Amendment 8, 45; effective May 10, 1946. Amendment 14, Order 1, MPR 591; Amendment 14, Order 48, MPR 591; r 'I both effective May 24,1946.
■ 24 Amendment 5, MPR 458; effective May 17, 1946. Amendment 2, MPR 556; effective June 11, 1946. ■Amendment 7, 2d RMPR 222; effective May 8, 1946. Amendment 3, MPR 412; effective April 22,1946. ^Amendment 3, MPR 538; Amendment 1, RMPR 176; both effective May 24,1946. Amendment 4, RMPR I 94; effective April 5, 1946. Amendment 23, RMPR 26; effective April 5, 1946. 2d RMPR 26; effective I May 31, 1946. Amendment 15, RMPR 186; effective April 12,1946. Amendment 5, MPR 342; Amend-I ment 10, MPR 481; both effective April 9, 1946. Amendment 6, 2d RMPR 222; effective April 22, 1946. I Revised Order 3, RMPR 94; effective June 26,1946. Amendment 5,3d RMPR 216; effective June 8,1946.
18 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
west coast cooperage, red cedar poles, wood wool, northeastern softwood, northeastern hardwood, western red cedar, south central hardwood, and eastern and central agricultural containers.25
CONSUMER DURABLE GOODS
Initial reconversion increase factors were announced during the quarter for 11 additional products: Photographic equipment, 14 percent; metal office furniture and equipment, 10.5 percent; metal cots and double-deck beds, 3 to 5 percent; business machines, 12 percent; awnings, 12 percent; watches and clocks, 15 to 20 percent; outboard motors, 10 percent; bicycles, 18 percent; box springs, 16 percent; electric ranges, 11 percent; repair parts for several small applicances, 18 percent.26 On the basis of higher wage and materials costs, initial reconversion increase factors were raised for domestic laundry machines, domestic cooking and heating stoves, household mechanical refrigerators, radios, vacuum cleaners, metal upholstery springs, metal beds and new coil and flat bedsprings, metal household furniture, innerspring mattresses, wool floor coverings, lawn mowers, radio cabinets, cast and sheet aluminumware, and small appliances.27
In addition to making these reconversion increases, the Office also finished the bulk of repricing under Executive Order 9697, which admitted consideration of further wage and materials cost rises in setting ceilings. Adjustments were granted for pillows and upholstered cushion innercasings, china, linoleum and felt-base floor coverings, window shades, shovels, mechanics’ hand service tools, hand cutting tools, dry batteries, and heavy forged tools.28
Despite the large number of increases granted at the manufacturing level, the Office estimated that the average increase at retail in the consumer durable goods field, resulting from industry-wide increases since the issuance of Executive • Order 9697 on February 14, 1946,
25 Amendment 23, MPR 146; effective April 11,1946. Amendment 22, RMPR 97; effective April 5, 1946. Amendment 2, MPR 520; effective June 24,1946. Amendment 3, MPR 554; effective June 15,1946. Amendment 29, 2d RSR14; effective June 15,1946. Amendment 2,3d RMPR 219; effective May 8,1946. Amendment 9, MPR 368; effective April 24,1946. RMPR 402; effective April 22, 1946. Amendment 21, MPR 155; effective May 31,1946. Amendment 6, RMPR 320; effective June 29,1946.
28 MPR 188: Order 10, effective April 11, 1946; Order 11, effective April 19, 1946; Revised Order 1470, effective April 20,1946; Orders 12 and 13, effective May 8,1946; Order 14, effective May 13, 1946; Order 15 and 16, effective May 21,1946; Order 17, effective May 30,1946. Amendment 7, MPR 64; effective June 7, 1946. Amendment 53, SR 15; effective June 15,1946.
27 Amendment 2, RMPR 86; effective April 30, 1946. Amendment 7, MPR 64; effective June 7, 1946. Amendment 9, MPR 598; effective April 18,1946. Order 18, MPR 599; effective May 16,1946. Amendment 15, RMPR 111; effective June 28,1946. Amendment 5, MPR 548; effective April 25,1946. Amendment 3, 3d RMPR 213; effective April 22,1946. MPR 188: Amendment 1, Order 8, effective April 29,1946; Revised Order 5, effective May 6,1946; Amendment 1, Order 4875, effective April 17,1946; Revised Order 3, effective May 1,1946; Amendment 1, Order 2, effective June 19,1946; Revised Order 1, effective June 17,1946; Amendment 2, Order 6, effective May 20,1946. See table 4, appendix, for amount of increase.
28 Amendment 6, MPR 584; effective May 31,1946. Amendment 1, Order 14, MPR 116; effective June 13,1946. MPR 188: Amendment 1, Order 4875, effective April 26, 1946; Order 5000, effective May 9, 1946; Order 4973, effective April 26, 1946; Order 4990, effective May 7,1946; Order 4991, effective May 7, 1946; Order 5054, effective June 28,1946; Order 504, effective June 26,1946.
Price Control Programs • 19
and including only those items on which price increases were granted, amounted to less than 5 percent. Taking the consumer durable goods field as a whole, exclusive of automobiles and building materials, and including also those items on which there were no price increases, the average retail increase between February 14 and the end of the quarter amounted to between 2 and 2% percent.
AUTOMOBILES AND TIRES
Price ceilings for the entire automobile industry were revised during the quarter in order to reflect in new car prices increases in materials and parts prices incurred by manufacturers since ceilings were first established in the fall of 1945, including the rise in steel prices and wage adjustments-in the parts and materials industries, as well as specification change increases. Since retailers’ dollar margins were on the average at the minimum which the Office was required to allow, the dollar amount of the factory price increase was passed on to the consumer. Retail maximums for new automobiles were raised on the average as follows: Packard, all 1946 models—24.4 percent over January 1, 1941, and 10.4 percent over current ceilings; Chrysler, nine 1946 models—23.7 percent over January 1, 1941, and 7.5 percent over current ceilings; Ford, all 1946 models—5.7 percent increase over current ceilings; General Motors, all 1946 models—4.8 percent increase over January 1, 1941, and 5.1 percent over current ceilings; Studebaker, 1947 models—14.2 percent over current ceilings; Hudson, all 1946 models—6.2 percent over current ceilings; Nash, all 1946 models—6.7 percent over current ceiling prices.29
Increases were also awarded for tires and tubes, both for replacement purposes and for original equipment, in order to maintain supply.30
MACHINERY AND METALS
Reconversion increases issued during the quarter to the machinery industries included a rise of 11 percent over October 1941 prices for tire inflation stands and a 16-percent increase over June 1941 prices for steel power boilers.31 At the same time original reconversion increase« factors were raised to reflect higher materials and wage costs for metal stampings, screw machine products, printing machinery, radio transformers, and specialty transformers.32
29 MPR 594: Order 23, effective April 18, 1946; Amendment 4, Orders 7, 8, 10, effective April 24, 1946; Revised Orders 18-22, all effective April 30, 1946; Amendment 1, Order 23; Amendments, Order 13; Amendment 5, Orders 7, 8,10; Amendment 6, Order 9; Amendment 5, Revised Order 5; Amendment 6, Revised Order 4; Amendment 1, Revised Orders 18-22; Orders 25, 26; Amendment 6, Order 12; Amendment 2, Order 11; all effective May 22, 1946.
30 Amendment 11, RMPR 143; Amendment 7, RMPR 528; both effective June 18, 1946; Amendment 6, RMPR 119; effective June 11,1946.
31 RMPR 136: Order 617, effective May 11,1946. Order 620, effective May 13,1946.
32 Amendment 32, RMPR 136; effective April 8,1946. Amendment 34, RMPR 136; effective April 19, 1946. Amendment 1, Order 568, RMPR 136; effective June 8, 1946. Amendment 35, RMPR 136; effective May 7, 1946. Amendment, 2, Order 572, RMPR 136; effective April 25, 1946.
20 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
In the metals field, to compensate for wage increases and partially to reduce subsidy payments, price increases were granted for primary lead and primary copper.33 The merchant iron ore industry was granted a price rise under the industry earnings standard, and prices for byproduct coke were raised under the standards of Executive Order 9697.34 Other increases in the metals field were granted for alloy steel products, nails, and screen wire cloth; malleable iron castings; manganese steel products; gray iron castings; railroad castings; packers’ tin cans; bolts, nuts, and screws; and brass mill products.35
CHEMICALS, PAPER, FUEL
Principal actions taken in the chemicals and paper fields raised ceiling prices under the discretionary powers of the Office to increase maximums in order to encourage production of needed materials which were in short supply. Thus prices were raised for spearmint oil, yellow bar laundry soap, Hawaiian sugar molasses, and west coast industrial alcohol. In the paper industries, higher prices were allowed for bag paper, magazine book paper, strawboard material, groundwood papers, wood pulp, and kraft container board.36
In the fuel field, the Office had to determine price adjustments for bituminous and anthracite coal as the result of higher wage awards and increased materials costs. Maximum mine prices for bituminous coal were increased by amounts up to $1.47 per ton and for anthracite by 40 cents to $1.15 per ton. These mine price increases were permitted to be passed on by all retail dealers, except producers of briquettes and packaged fuel.37
88 Amendment 8, RPS 69; Amendment 2, RPS 70; Amendment 5, RPS 15; all effective June 3, 1946.
8< Amendment 3, RMPR 113; effective June 24, 1946. Amendment 5, MPR 29; effective June 28, 1946.
8* Amendment 17, RPS 6; effective June 11, 1946. Amendment 11, MPR 241; effective April 26, 1946. Amendment 2, MPR 235; effective April 22, 1946. Amendment 13, MPR 244; effective May 3, 1946. Amendment 18, RPS 41; effective April 1, 1946. Amendment 5, MPR 350; Amendment 9, SR 14-G; both effective June 4, 1946. Amendment 2, RMPR 47; effective April 1, 1946; Amendment 6, SR 14-G; effective May 6, 1946. Amendment 5, SR 14-G; Amendment 2, MPR 408; both effective April 1, 1946; Amendment 7, SR 14-G; effective May 1, 1946; Amendment 10, SR 14^G; effective June 3, 1946.
88 Amendment 7, MPR 472; effective May 24,1946. Amendment 8, MPR 391; Amendment 11, MPB 390; both effective May 29,1946. Amendment 14, SR 14-F; effective April 1, 1946. Amendment 12, MPR 295; effective April 1, 1946. Amendment 14, MPR 182; effective June 29, 1946. Amendment 5, RMPR 451; effective June 17,1946. Amendment 5, RMPR 32; effective June 15,1946. Amendment 6, MPR 449; effective June 15, 1946. Amendment 5, RMPR 144; effective April 22, 1946. Amendment 1, MPR 32; effective April 1, 1946.
87 Amendment 158, MPR 120; effective June 21, 1946; Amendment 23, MPR 112; effective June 25, 1946; Amendments 44,45, RMPR 122; both effective June 28,1946.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 21
APPENDIX TO PRICE CHAPTER
Table 1.—Actions Resuming Price Control, April—June 1946
Effective date Commodity Level of action
Apr. 10,1946 May 6,1946 May 24,1946 June 1,1946 Platemaking, electrotyping, and related printing Green Spanish olives - 2... ' White flesh table stock potatoes i Rye (1946 crop) All. Importer. All. All except retailer.
Table 2.—Dollar-and-Cent Prices, April—June 1946
Effective date Commodity Level of action
Apr. 1,1946 Paperboard (west .coast)—.— Producer.
Apr. 2,1946 Sheep pancreas glands Slaughterer.
Apr. 5,1946 Firestone tires (4 new heavy-duty industrials) Retailer.
Do Plug fuses All.
Apr. 6,1946 Douglas fir inside door jambs and stops Do.
Do Douglas fix and other west coast lumber (f. o. b. Canadian mill). Industrial users.
Apr. 7,1946 Wooden beverage cases (except for milk bottles) sold east of and including Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Producer.
Apr. 8,1946 Aerosol insecticide dispensers (less than 1-pound sizes). All.
Do Coolerator refrigerators (3 new models) Retailer.
Do Rubber braid building wires Producer and wholesaler.
Apr. 10,1946 Bulk ground white pepper All.
Apr. 13,1946 Jack and Norway pine poles, anchor logs, and stubs. _ Producer.
Apr. 15,1946 Imported broom corn (f. o. b. port of entry) All.
Apr. 17,1946 Primary slab zinc (packing and loading charges) Do.
Apr. 25,1946 Milk bottle stock paperboard Producer.
Apr. 30,1946 Nonmetallic sheathed cable.. All.
May 6,1946 Green Spanish olives Importer and processor.
Do Motor Vehicle rental for construction work (except Army standard vehicles). Supplier.
May 7,1946 Norwegian sild sardines (in refined herring oils) Importer.
May 8,1946 Bathing and shower caps (synthetic, substitute, or natural rubber). All.
May 9,1946 Fiber and paper shades — Retailer.
May 10,1946 Women’s bend outsoles (heavier weight leather) Producer.
May 17,1946 Gum flooring Mill.
May 20,1946 Sheep and lamb leather Producer.
May 22,1946 Passenger automobiles All.
May 31,1946 Mohair yams, matchings, tops, and noils Producer.
June 5,1946 Aspen and jack pine box bolts (Wisconsin and upper Michigan). ■ Do.
June 7,1946 Distillers’ feed byproducts All.
June 11,1946 Philippine Island copra and crude coconut oil.... Importer.
June 15,1946 Mahogany lumber (Swietenia and Khaya species) Importer and mill.
June 17,1946 Women’s nylon hose (finer than 30 denier yarns, and cut and sewn lace and mesh). All.
June 26,1946 Western pine and associated species Mill.
715347-46----------4
22 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 3.—Price Reductions, April-June 1946
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of decrease
Apr. 5,1946 Apr. 8,1946 Apr. 24,1946 May 20,1946 Do Yellow cypress lumber (4 FAS grades). Rubber braid building wires Elastic webbing, braid, and cord-Sheep and lamb leather (for bags, novelties, and pocketbooks). Wheat (Atlanta, Ga., basing point). Lightweight writing papers (in jumbo rolls). Sheeted clay-coated specialty board (jumborolls). Store and office machines Mill About 9 percent. Varied. Do. Average 6 percent. Varied.1 Onionskin and manifold, 30 cents per M for rag content; chemical wood pulp, 20 cents per M. 85 cents per hundredweight. About 1.3 percent.
Producer and wholesaler. Producer...— ... do
Terminal market
June 3,1946 June 5,1946 June 15,1946 Producer
do.
—do
1 Freight rate reduction, depending upon point of origin.
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*
Effective date Commodity Level of action -Amount of increase
Apr. 1,1946 Do Bolts, nuts, screws, and rivets... Brass mill products Producer 7 percent. Average Iji cents per pound. Average 1.5 cents per pound. 15 cents per hundredweight. 8 cents per M square feet. 16 percent.' 10 cents per barrel. 11 percent, rounded to the nearest 5 cents. $8 per ton. $2.78 per ton. Varied. 15Ji percent over October 1941. Beef and veal, average Ji cent per pound; lamb and mutton Ji cent. Average % cent per pound; 1 Ji cents per pound on 80 percent ofall sausage products. 10 percent. About 5 cents per wine gallon. 11.2 percent on base models. 10Ji percent. Processor: 0.8 to 1.6 percent. 4 cents per pound.
do .
Do do ' Warehouse distributor. Packer
Do. Carcass veal (freezing and storage allowance on Government sales). Chestnut corrugating medium paperboard. Clay glass melting pots, tank blocks, accessories. Crude oil
Do Producer
Do.. do
Do do
Do Fireclay and silica refractory brick (Missouri and east of the Mississippi). Fourdrinier Kraft container board. Imported Hawaiian molasses (f. o. b. west coast tank stations) . Paperboard All
Do.. Producer
Do.. Importer
Do Producer
Do Railroad parts and assemblies (90 percent steel castings). Meat and variety items do
Do Retailer
Do. Pork items do
Do Waterproof rubber footwear Producer
Do West coast ethyl alcohol (from imported Hawaiian molasses). Wire-tied cushion-spring units (with sisal pads)., Cast-iron gas-fired heating boilers. Dried fruits Distiller
Do Producer
Apr. 2,1946 Do All
do
... Do....... Hog pancreas.glands , ... Slaughterer.
Do Home laundry machines. Producer and wholesaler. Wholesaler and retailer. Producer Producer: * 9.5 percent over 1941.1 Wholesaler: 16 to 25Ji cents. Retailer: Indeterminate. % to 1 Ji cents per pound. Producer: Average 28 percent. Producer: 56.6 percent above 1941. Wholesaler: 28.0 percent. Retailer: 14 percent. About 3 cents per box.
Apr. 3,1946 Apr. 4,1946 Do Blankets (cotton-wool and cot-ton-wool-rayon mixtures made by Chatham and Pepperell). Carded eotton yarns
Douglas fir doors All
Do Ford auto radios (two models, uninstalled). Special cherry boxes and display lugs (Yakima and Wenatchee, Wash., area). x do
Do. Producer
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
1 Instead of 7.7 percent granted in October 1945.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 23
Table 4.—Price Increases, April-June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
Apr. 5,1946 Do Plug fuses Producer 21.4 percent over 1941. 8J4 percent. Average $4.60 per M b. m. About $4 per M b. m. for Douglas fir and hemlock boards; about $2 per M b. m. for western hemlock. $2 per M. $1 per 100 cases, half-depth cases; $2, fuH depth.
Southern hardwood lumber (all species except yellow cypress and all grades except construction). Western pine and associate species. Douglas flr and western hemlock lumber. Sand lime, building brick. Mill
Do All
Apr. 6,1946 Do Mill
All
Apr. 7,1946 Wooden beverage cases (painting' charge-^east of and including Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas). Awning cloth Producer. ..
Apr. 8,1946 Do _ Converter and jobber.. Producer Indeterminate.
Berry cups and dividers (sold separately). Electrical wire and cable (containing silver). Friction tape and splicing compound. Hard-rubber SLI battery containers, covers, and vents, and standard items of molded, extruded, lathe-cut, and chemically blown sponge rubber. Maraschino, glace, and brine cherries. Metal stampings 10 percent. Varied.»
Do All
Do. .. Producer 10 percent over October 1941.
Do„ do 15 percent over January 1942. to 1 percent. 19 percent. 12 to 26 percent.
Do .... Processor
Do. Producer
Do . Nonneoprene' rubber hose, belting, and packing. Red sour pitted cherries (packed in Utah and Colorado). Retail meat and variety items (kosher). Rubber braid building wires do
Do .. Processor.... 13 cents per dozen No. 2 cans,
Do Retailer J 43 cents No. 10 cans. Beef and veal, 4/10 cent per
Do i. Producer and whole- pound; lamb and mutton, 3/5 cent. Indeterminate.
Do . , (low-end items). Specified medium- and low-capacity tanks and vessels, 585 gallons or less (except tanks designed for use with industrial equipment). Barrels, nail kegs, and slack (except west coast). Cairned slab bacon (sold to Government) . Pine nail keg stave and heading bolts (truck deliveries in 11 Virginia counties). Pork chops (sold to purveyors of meals). Smoked hams ■ saler. AH Producer: 17 percent over July
Apr. 9,1946 Do. . Producer.... 1941. 10 percent for staves, hoops.
All except retailer and headliners; 5 percent for all headings, 2 cents per finished keg; 5 cents per barrel. $1.70 per hundredweight in 14-
Do. Producer pound tins. 11 percent. 25 cents per hundredweight.
Do. All except retailer
Do do $1 per hundredweight for
Do Work clothing (jean, drill, twill, and poplin). Basic construction machinery, equipment, and parts. Glazed sash, windows, and garage doors. Ground black pepper Producer smoked, skinless, boneless, and fatted hams weighing over 12 pounds. Varied.
Apr. 10,1946 Do AH 4.8 percent.» Producer: Approximately 1
do
Do .do percent. Processor: About 8% cents’» pound for bulk; 9 cents a pound for 3 pounds or less. Retailer: 2 cents for 1^-ounce tins, 3 to 4 cents for 4-ounce tins.
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
2 To reflect higher cost of foreign silver content.
• Until June 15.
24 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
Apr. 10,1946 Do Ground white pepper All Processor: About 13 cents a
Men’s waterproofed garments Qow-end items). General Motors, 50 models (Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac). Appalachian hardwood (except timbers and dimensions) . Carded cotton coutils (grey goods). Photographic equipment (except commercial 35-mm. motionpicture cameras and items already released from control). Western agricultural shook Ceylon No. 2 cinnamon Producer. pound for bulk; 12 cents a pound for 3 pounds or less. Retailer: 2 'cents for 1)4-ounce tins, 3 to 4 cents for 4-ounce tins. 10 percent Producer: 8.3 to 17.5 percent
Apr. 11,1946 Do All
do over 1942. Retailer: 5.0 to 15.9 percent. 10 percent.
Do Producer 35.2 percent and 26.5 percent.4
Do All Producer: 14 percent over Octo-
Apr. 12,1946' Apr. 13,1946 Apr. 15,1946 ‘ Do Producer ber 194.1, or 7 percent over March 1942. Retailer: About 9 percent over 1941. $7.50 per M b. m.«
Importer .. 5 cents per pound.
Defluorinated phosphate (100-pound paper bags). . Distribution transformers (industrial transformers 500 kilovolt-ampere and under, and parts and accessories with specified exceptions). Chrysler auto radios (2 models, . uninstalled). Fruit preserves, jams, jellies, and .apple butter. Southern pine grain doors (for freight cars). Women’s, girls’, children’s, and . toddlers’ outerwear. Cotton textiles (2 combed broadcloths for men’s shirts). Little cigars Processor All $1.48 per ton. 5.4 percent.
Apr. 16,1946 . Do do Producer: 49.7 and 34.7 per-
do.. cent; special brand purchaser, 23.6 and 17.0 percent; dis-tributbr, 22.0 and 15.6 percent. Retailer: 10.3 and 10.6 percent, respectively. Retailer: About 1 cent per
• Do Producer pound jar.« 11 percent.
Do Retailer Indeterminate.
Apr. 17,1946 Do All .. do 5 percent. $1 per M.
Do Oranges^ lemons, and tangerines . Overwrapping packaged rice (heat-sealed, moisture-proof cellophane). Peeled pine and hardwood insulation bolts (Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana east of Mississippi River). Primary slab zinc (packing and loading charges). Staple work clothing (men’s and boys’—made of chambrays, Coverts, denims, drills, jeans, and whipcord). Wool floor coverings do Country shipper: Oranges, 20
Do Distributor cents in California and Arizona, 15 cents in Florida and Texas; lemons, 28 cents; tangerines, 22 cents in California and Arizona, 14 cents in Florida and Texas. Retailer: About 1 cent per pound. 30 cents per hundred 12- or
Do Do Producer Supplier , 16-ounce packages. $1.10 per cord for pine and 5 cents for hardwood. 10 cents pej.ton for wiring and
Do - All strapping in bundles, and 50 and 70 cents, respectively, on wooden and steel pallets. Producer: 12 to 15 percent.
Do do„— Retailer: About 22 to 29 cents per garment. Producer: 4)4 percent.
Apr. 18,1946 Do.. Dyed carded and combed cotton yarns. Household mechanical refrigerators. Packard (10 new models) do Producer: 5M to 6% cents per
do pound by type and ply J Producer: 8 percent. Retailer: About 4 percent. Producer: 14:1 to 19.7 percent. Retailer: 10.8 to 15.4 percent.
Do .. do
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
4 For mills paying and not paying, respectively, WLB wage increases.
6 Increase effective until May 31,1946.
* Reflects rise in sugar costs. Only processors with a no-balance inventory processed from sugar purchased before Feb. 10,1946, may take the increase.
’ Distributed in 2 bands for producers paying and not paying WLB-wage rises.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 25
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
Apr. 19,1946 Do.. Industrial power transmission equipment. Machine tools (including hand-and foot-powered immobile machine tools). Metal nonhousehold furniture.... All 7.8 percent. Producer: 20 percent over Oc-tobef 1941. Producer: 10.5 percent. over October 1941. Producer: 5.2 percent. Supplier; 10 percent over 1942. Country shipper: 50 cents per bushel.8 Retailer: About 2 cents per pound.8 Average 12.3 percent.’ Wholesaler: 14 to 34 percent. Retailer: 1 to 20 percent. Producer: 5 to 35 cents per item as listed. 10 cents per barrel. 5 percent per pound of cotton • content. % cent per pound of contained cotton. 48.8 percent above most comparable 1942 car. Retailer: 43.0 percent. 35. cents per M 1-inch yards* 9.6 percent. Producer: 51.6 percent over most comparable 1942 car. Retailer: 45.2 percent. Average 10 percent. About 14 percent on cotton and 5 percent on wool. Mill: 10 percent over 1942. Producer: 15 percent. Average 7H percent. About 23 percent. cent to 22 cents per yard, depending on width.10 Producer: 15 percent. Indeterminate.
do
Do do...
Do . Screw machine products 2 do
Do... Screw machine'services (except bolts, nuts, screws, and rivetSj and automotive parts). Snap beans do
Do .....do
Do Warm air furnaces, subassem- do
Apr. 20,1946 Do. blies and repair parts. Cotton bedspreads and table napery. Metal cots, beds, and springs.... Wholesaler and retailer. Producer and jobber.. All
Apr. 22,1946 Do Cement—except white (southern California, Arizona, and southeastern Nevada). Cotton grey rope, yarn, twine,
Producer and jobber. _ Producer
Do and cord. Cotton rope, twine, yarn, and
Do. cord. Ford (new model) All
Do Gummed cloth tape (sheetings and osnaburgs). Manganese steel castings and castings products. Mercury automobile (newmodel). Market wood pulp (on listed grades). Special American and Asiatic Producer
Do... do..
Do. All
Do Producer..
Do do..
Do cotton blankets and wool blankets. Tidewater red cypress lumber... Vitrified clay sewer pipe and allied products (eastern and east central States). Western red cedar lumber (bevel, bungalow, and special sidings). White cedar shingles (Lake States). LeverS, raschel, and barmen laces (82 low-priced laces). Pole line hardware and line con- AH.
Do do
Do. do
Do Mill
Apr. 23,1946 Do Producer and jobber.. All
Do. struction specialties (except for overhead trolley lines). Preservative treatment of lum- Supplier
Do her by nonpressure methods. Steel ducts for electric wires All Producer: 13 percent over Oct. 1,1941. Producer: 8.0 to 16.4 percent over 1942. Retailer: 2.3 to 11.0 percent. Producer: 17.3 percent over March 1942. 9 cents per pound. Producer: from 3 percent to 7J^ percent according to grade. Producer: 25 cents per M. Retailer: 1 cent on 2 packs; vending machine sales, except “economy,” 1 cent per pack.
Apr. 24,1946 Do-. (except tubing, fittings, flexible conduit, and raceways, including fittings). Automobiles (9 models Dodge, De Soto, Chrysler). Cutting tools and machinery attachments and accessories. Industrial casein (inedible) do. ..
do
Do Producer
Do Northeastern hardwood lumber All ....
Apr. 25,1946 (except timber and dimension items). Cigarettes do
E ||S|
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
8 Increases effective until Apr. 30.
* Replaces reconversion factors for furnaces of 9 percent for oil burners and 12.5 percent for gas.
10 Ceilings may not exceed established cut-off prices.
26 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
Apr. 25,1946 Do Do Do - Fluorescent and specialty transformers. Metal upholstery springs, construction, and accessories. Maple sirup and sugar (bulk sirup, and block sugar, containers of 24 ounces or less). Mufflers, tail pipes, and exhaust All - .....do Packer, wholesaler, and retailer. Producer12 and whole- Producer: 11 percent over October 1941 on fluorescent; 19 percent on specialty.11 Producer and wholesaler: 8 to 10 percent. Packer: About 3 cents per pound. Producer: 12 percent above
Do Apr. 26,1946 Do Do Do Do . Do Apr. 29,1946 Do.. pipes (replacement). Milk bottle stock paperboard (2 major manufacturers >3). Linoleum and felt-base floor and wall covering (except carpets). Malleable iron castings. Pennsylvania anthracite (group 1 mines, when shipped via the Great Lakes and sold on dock on the United States bank of LakaSuperior or the west bank of Lake Michigan, north of and including Waukegan, DI.). Pontiac auto radios (2 models, uninstalled). Steel shovels, spades, and scoops. Tdols, dies, jigs, fixtures, molds, and patterns (sold with machines, parts, and industrial equipment). Caskets and shells and shooks (low-end). Clay drain tile (Ohio and Michigan. Lamb and mutton wholesale cuts. Lead-special packing and loading (at buyer’s request). Metal household furniture Spectacle frames (low-end) Home washing and ironing machines. Cast iron radiation and accessories (convectors, convector baseboard, and bathroom radiators, radiators for blower and ventilator systems, and radiator bushings, plugs, nipples, brackets, pedestals, and chaplets, including steel chaplets). Nonmetallic sheathed cable (type R, insulated with synthetic rubber). Repair and replacement parts under GMPR (for domestic cooking and heating stoves, washing and ironing machines, mechanical refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and attachments, business and office machines). saler. Producer——— All ; Producer Dealer All ..—do.—. .. Producer do.. All.. . March 1942. $10 and $26 per ton, respectively. Producer: About 15.5 percent over March 1942.14 Retailer: 6 percent. Average 7 percent. 5 to 15 cents per net ton. Producer: 45.5 and 46.3 percent. Pontiac to distributor: 25.0 and 27.1 percent. Wholesaler: 21.3 and 23.3 percent. Retailer: 8.8 and 10.2 percent. All over 1941. Producer: 9 percent. Retailer: About 7 to 10 cents each. Varied.16 15 and 25 percent, respectively. $1.20 per ton.
Do Do Do Do Apr. 30,1946 Do.—... Do.—— Do All except retailer..... Supplier- Producer do All do. — do . do ...... 10 cents per hundredweight for kosher foresaddle, forequarter, bracelet, and all whole or half chuck; 25 cents per hundredweight for fabricated cuts (WSA specifications) sold to specified buyers. 20 and 40 cents per ton. 7 percent above 1941.16 25 percent. Producer: 6.8 percent over current ceilings.17 Producer: 37 percent over October 1941. 11 percent over October 1941. 5.0, 9.5, 16.5, 6.0, and 12.0 percent, respectively.
• Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
11 Replaces increase factors of 6.3 and 14.4 percent issued in January.
12 Except automotive producers.
13 Producing 60 percent of output.
14 Replaces 9 percent rise granted in February.
it New ceilings may reflect current instead of base-period costs.
16 Replaces reconversion increase factor of 5 percent issued in February.
>’ Total 17 percent over 1941.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 27
Table 4.—Price Increases, April-June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
Apr. 30,1946 Do Rye bread (not less than 1 part rye to 4 parts wheat flour). Waterproof rubber footwear Brass mill products - All Producer: 2 cents, per pound.18 10 percent.
Wholesaler '
May 1,1946 Do AU Producer: Average 13.3 percent over March 1942. r 1 to 35 cents per barrel, Producer: 9.4 percent.
Crude oil (8 pools in California, Kansas, Michigan, and Oklahoma). Hand lawn mowers Producer
Do All
May 2,1946 Bedspreads, napery, and woven Producer About 8J4 percent.
Do decorative fabrics (at least 95 percent cotton). Radio receiver and special pur- Producer and whole- Producer: 20 percent for re-
pose tubes. saler. placement tubes; 15 percent
May 3,1946 Asphalt coated insulating sheath- AU for all others. Producer: $4 per M square feet.
Do ing (25 by 32 inches). Gray iron castings Producer 16 percent for ceUings frozen at
Do Pearling barley Merchandiser (except August 1941-Jariuary 1942 prices; 12 percent for those fixed by formula from Oct. 26, 1942, through December 1943; 6/percent for those with prebase-period ceilings or with ceilings fixed in 1944. 5 cents per pound.
Do Special millwork producers, country shippers, truckermerchants, and retailers). AU Indeterminate.
May 6,1946 Bolts, nuts, and screws A11 except producers... 7 percent for products sold on a
Do Chemical cordwood (Missouri).__ Finished corduroy and velveteen- Green Spanish olives Mill list or discount basis. 11 percent.
Do Producer 11.8 percent on carded cordu-
Do All toy, 21.3 percent on combed; 11.3 percent on carded velveteen.19 25 to 50 percent.
Do Insulation and felt cordwood Producer 3.5 to 17.5 percent; also $2 per
Do (produced in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri). Low-cost apparel (sold by credit retailers). Prefabricated dwelling structure Retailer... cord for deliveries to mUl by track. 17 percent on cash sales.
Do AU except producer Varied.
Do and subassemblies (uninstalled). Pulpwood (Delaware, Mainland, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri). Vises and parts (except machine attachments and hinge or chain pipe vises). W estem pine stock millwork.... Wire-tied innerspring mattresses; Audio transformers and chokes Producer.. Average 7 to 8 percent per
Do AU standard cord; also, zone V, $2 per cord, for deUveries to mill by truck. Producer: 8 percent over March
Do do 1942. MiU: Average 23 percent.
Do .....do Producer: Additional 2 percent
May 7,1946 Producer over October 1941.M 7.7 percent.
Do (having fixed iron cores). Combed cotton yams (sold for do 5.4 percent.
Do making zipper tape). Knitted products (men’s, women’s, and children’s knit underwear, sleepers, and hosiery of cotton, wool, or mixtures of the two; and flat and circular fabrics, tubing, wristlets (for gloves), and bags). Mftnhanics hand service tools All....' ... Producer: 75 cents to $5 per
Do do pound of contained cotton yarn. Retailer: About 2 to 5 cents per pair for hose, and 5 to 35 cents per undergarment. Producer: 5 percent over
Do Oats (shipped into Kansas for feeding purposes). Radio transformers and vibrators.! M erehandiser ..... March 1942. Average less than }4o cent per
Do .. Producer bushel. 3.4 percent.
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
18 Until June 30. ... , ,
19 To mills paying approved wage increases; other mills somewhat lower.
90 Total 18 percent rise.
28 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
May 7,1946 Do Reverse twist carded yam (exclusively for making cotton hose). Wood boring and cutting tools (manually operated). Armored (BX) cable Producer.- All... cents per pound. Producer: 17.3 percent. Producer: Average 14 percent. Producer: About 33percent. Retailer: About 10 percent. Producer: 12 percent. Retailer: About 3J4 percent over 1942. Average 12)4 percent. Mill: Average 14 percent. Re-
May 8,1946 Do - do
Bathing and shower caps (synthetic, substitute, or natural rubber). Business machines do
Do do
Do Do Copper wire products and services. Northern hemlock lumber (Lake All except retail All
Do States area). Northeastern softwood lumber do - tailer: Average 10 percent. Mill: $3.50 per M b. m. Mill: $2 per M b. m. Mill: 75 cents to $1 per M . . pieces. Mill: 25 to 40 cents per square. Mill: 8 percent f. o. b. mill. Indeterminate.
Do (square edge hemlock, spruce, Norway pine, eastern white cedar, jack pine, and the same species imported from eastern Canada). Northeastern softwood lumber do
Do (round edge white pine). Northeastern softwood lumber do
Do Do Do (eastern spruce lath); Northeastern softwood lumber (white cedar shingles). Northeastern softwood lumber (white and Norway pine imported from Ottawa Valley, Canada). Plastic products. do do —— Producer
Do. Do Retail shoe resoling (Avonite, Neo-cord, O’Sullivan plastic). Stock screen goods Repairman All 15 cents for men’s and boys’ sizes under 3)4 and all women’s sizes; 25 cents for men’s and boys’large sizes. N-Producer: Average 14.5 percent f. o. b. mill or 13.4 percent delivered. Producer: 12 percent on sales to distributors. Producer: 17 percent. Indeterminate.
Do Textile awnings All except retailer
May 9,1946 Do Compressors, condensing units, and parts (5horsepower or less). Finished rayon piece goods All —.
Producer and convert-
Do - Northern white, cedar and tama- er. AU..... Producer: 11 percent. Producer: 15 percent for cloth; 20 percent for fiber and paper; 9 percent on direct sales to consumers. 20 percent on sales of less than $10. Producer: 22.3 percent over October 1941 for artificial abrasive grain; 24.2 percent for coated and bonded products using the grain. Producer: Average 7.5 percent for East, and 3 percent across the board for the West. Producer: Average 10 percent. Retailer: 5 percent on new equipment. 15 to 35 cents.
Do rack fence posts (from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). Window shades and rollers do 1 —
Do . Wooden fence posts (small sales by retail yards). Abrasive products ; -- Asphalt and tarred roofing products. Farm machinery Retailer
May 10,1946 Do - All do
Do . do
Do . Iron and steel products (prime hot and cold rolled sheets and strip made from selected rimmed stock or aluminum kilned steel). Barley—--—- Warehouse
Do All 9 cents per bushel. 25 cents per bushel. $18 per hundredweight.
Do Com. ■ do >
Do Grain sorghums do -
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 29
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
May 10,1946 Do Grains and feeds (meat scrap, hominy feed, com germ meal, brewers’ dried grains, dried beet pulp, rice bran, mill feeds, and minor meals (babassu, etc.)). Feeds and meals (soybean, cottonseed, peanut, and linseed meals, gluten feed, and gluten meal). Fish meal and flshscrap and tankage. Oats All $10 per ton. $14 per ton. $10 and $7.50 per ton, respectively. 5 cents per bushel. 10 cents per bushel. 15 cents per bushel. Average 20 percent. Varied.21
do.
Do do,
Do do
Do Rye.
Do Wheat do
Do Women’s bend outsoles (heavier- Producer
May 11,1946 Do weight leather, 8- to 9J^-inch stacks of 20 pairs). Cotton waterproofed clothing (low-end). Milling services by lumber distribution yards. Snufl Wholesaler
Mill..}. { 25 cents to $1.75 per M b. m. according to service performed. Producer: Average 5.2 cents per pound. Retailer: cent to 5.9 cents depending upon size of package. Producer: 11 percent over October 1941. $10 per M feet on logs, 16, 17,. and 20 inches and larger. Producer: average 25 percent. Producer: 20.5 percent for' watches; 17 percent for-spring-wound clocks; 15 percent for electric clocks. From 12.2 to 24.2 percent. •Producer: About 17 percent. 10 percent. Producer: 15.5 percent. About $6 to $10 per ton. Varied.
Do All
Do Tire inflation stands do
Do Veneer logs (southeastern area).. Casein glue Producer
May 13,1946 Do All
Clocks and “nonjewelled” watches (domestic). Cotton textiles (15 new major item groups).22 Electrical motors (fractional horsepower and integral horsepower motors). Furniture, low-end (sales to commercial and institutional users). Internal-combustion engines and equipment. Mixed animal and poultry feeds. Softwood moldings do..
Do Mill
Do All
Do Wholesaler
Do All....'
Do Producer
Do do....
Do Steel power boilers and equipment. Upholstered furniture (low-end). Yarn-dyed slack suitings All Producer: 16 percent over June 1941. Indeterminate.22
Do Producer
Do Mill 2 to 18 percent on deliveries before Mar. 8, 1946, and 10>o 39 percent for all others. About 10 percent. Converter: Approximately 7 percent. Varied.
May 14,1946 Do Bleached sulfite waxing paper... Coated and combined fabrics. Producer
All
Do Hardwood stock stair parts Solid wood pulp paperboard do
Do Producer Average 13 percent. Producer: 8 percent.24 25 cents per bushel. From 4)^ to 12J4 percent; premium of $4 per M b. m. for bona fide less-than-carload lot rail shipments restored. Indeterminate.
May 16,1946 May 17,1946 Do Radios All
Flaxseed Cnnntrv shipper
Hardwood flooring (oak, beech, pecan, and gum). Civilian trucks, track tractors, and motorcycles (except racing motorcycles). All
May 18,1946 Producer ,
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
■ Pass on of 75 percent of a 10-percent rise to producers.
M Such as luggage, cap, and Girl Scout uniform cloths; export suitings and rayon-deeorated grey trouseringa* woven checked or striped cheesecloth; print cloth yarn grey reinforced mosquito netting, and packaged polishing cloth; 6 colored yarn dress goods; fancy whipcords and cotton suitings, both less than 25 percent wool and woven on woolen system; cotton velvet with combed yam back and carded pile; and knitted polishing cloth and laundry padding).
“ Reflects Bankhead textile increases.
“ Resellers pass on dollar-and-cent amount except for sets retailing under $21j
715347—46----------5
30 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
May 18,1946 May 19,1946 May 20,1946 Do Low-quality hull fibers (with 58 percent alpha cellulose content or less). Soft-filled cotton twills and drills. Oil crusher Indeterminate.
Mill.... 1 cent per yard for goods 3.32 yards to the pound and heavier; % cent, 3.33 yards and Mghter. Producer: 25 cents to civilians and 15 cents to Government. Retailer: 1 cent per 6- or 14J4 ounce can. Producer: 9.3 percent.28 Retailer: 4 to 5 percent over 1942. Producer: 10, 3, and 4.1 percent, respectively. Retailer: 2 to 3 cents per pair. Producer: 18 percent over October 1941 or >10 percent over March 1942.1 Retailer: about 10 percent. Producer: 15 percent and approximately 4 ‘ percent, respectively. Indeterminate.2*
Evaporated milk (domestic and British standard). Small electrical appliances All
dn
Do . Staple work gloves (made of canton flannel, jersey, combination leather and fabric). Bicycles (prewar models) do.
May 21,1946 Do do..
Cast iron boilers and radiation... do..
Do Imported natural resins Importer..'
Do Industrial air compressors (10 horsepower and under, including integral parts and accessories). Outboard motors AU*. Producer: 18 percent. Producer: 10 percent over October 1941. Retailer: About 6 percent. Producer: Average 20 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Retailer: 10 to 13 percent. Producer: 3.9 to 5.5 percent. Retailer: 3.9 to 5.2 percent. Producer: 6.1 to 8.4 percent. Retailer: 4.7 to 5.8 percent. Producer: 7.7 to 10.6 percent. Retailer: 6.4 to 9.2 percent. Producer: 8.5 to 11.2 percent. Retailer: 6.7 to 9.7 percent. Producer: 7.8 to 8.0 percent. Retailer: 6.2 to 6.6 percent. Producer: 11.1 to 13.4 percent. Retailer: 6.5 to 9.2 percent. Producer: 37.7 and 24.4 percent, respectively. Retailer: 28.2 and 16.0 percent, respectively. Indeterminate.27
Do-? do
Do Western pine moldings (low-end, household and industrial). Automobiles (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac). Automobiles (Ford, Mercury, Lincoln). Automobiles (Hudson) do
May 22,1946 DO do. do
Do do
Do Automobiles (Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler). Automobiles (Nash) do
Do do
Do Automobiles (Packard). do...
Do Automobiles (1 Chevrolet station wagon and 1 Dodge, 1946 models). Automobiles (2 Nashes, 1946 do
Do do.
Do models). Automobiles (Studebaker Champions and Commanders, 1947 model). Waterproof rubber footwear (mail-order sales). Cast iron soil pipe and fittings... Recoopered used whisky barrels. Feed screenings do Indeterminate.28
Do Retailer 9 percent.
May 23,1946 Do AU Producer: 4)4 percent.
Coopers 80 cents per barrel.
May 24,1946 Do All.~ Producer: $6 to $10 per ton. 15 percent.
Automatic electric temperature controls. Corrugated metal culverts do.
Do Producer 7 percent.
Do Fir stock millwork (screen doors and combination screen and storm doors, etc.). Fresh peaches AU Producer: 26 to 29.6 percent. Retailer: 16 to 18 percent. Retailer: about 1 cent per
Do do
Do Rubber-, pyroxylin-, or oil-coated fabrics (except windowshade cloth). Spearmint natural oil. do... pound. Producer: 13.6 percent.
Do. Producer and dealer... About 40 percent.
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
2818 percent over October 1941.
28 Two to three times former specific ceilings.
27 New models, price-in-lined with most comparable 1946 models.
28 Producer 1947 price ranges from $834 to $1,178 compared with $507 to $746 for 1941 car. Retail: 1947» $1,046 to $1,477; 1941, $674 to $992.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 31
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
May 24,1946 Do Tools, dies, jigs, fixtures, molds, and patterns. Veneer (box grade veneer from cottonwood, same veneer of other species, and commercial basswood veneer). Hawaiian molasses (sales to feeders, feed producers, industrial users, and intermediate distributors). Anklets and hosiery Producer Indeterminate.22
do 19, 23, and 22 percent, respectively. 25 cents for 5 to 20 tons loaded
May 26,1946 May 27,1946 T)o Importer
All except producer... All • in trucks and 50 cents for less than 5 tons; $6.33 for loading in 600-pound drums. Varied.
Asbestos-cement shingles Producer: 15 percent for roof»
Do Baled southern pine wood excelsior (Gulf and Atlantic Coast States (Delaware and south) and Arkansas and Tennessee). Baled southern pine wood excelsior (Gulf and Atlantic Coast States (Delaware and south) and Arkansas and Tennessee). Citrus fruits - do.... ing, and 5 percent for siding. Retailer: Approximately 10 and 3 percent. Producer: about 23 percent. Producer: $2 per ton for I. c. I.
Do do
Do do. shipments of 1 to 10 tons, $4 for less than 1 ton, and $2 on sales to direct consumers. Country shipper: 6 to 26 cents
Do Gears, pinions, sprockets, speed reducers. Hardwood flooring (oak, beech, gum, and pecan). Mica capacitors do. per standard box. Retailer: about 1 cent per pound. Producer: 13 percent.
Do Retailer 3 to 8 percent.
Do All except producer... Producer20 .... Indeterminate.
Do Machines, parts, and industrial equipment. Stock millwork Do.
Do All except producer Retailer: J4 percent.
May 28,1946 MayJ29,1946 Do Com milling products (except hominy feed, corn bran, germ cake, and germ meal). IVTAlb^iR All Processor: 50 cents per hundredweight. Retailer: 1 cent per pound. Country shipper: About 12 to 17)4 percent. Retailer: About 1 cent per pound. Producer: 10 percent.
do
Woodworking and timberworking machinery. Yellow bar laundry soap do
Do do Producer: About 20 percent. Retailer: 1 to 2 cents per bar. Producer: 20 percent.
Do Yellow pine fence posts (eastern States). Boxsprings and hand-tied boxspring constructions. Hardwood lumber (south central . area, listed grades). . Hawaiian molasses .do.
May 30,1946 May 31,1946 Do do Producer: 16 percent over 1941. Retailer: About 2 percent. 11 percent. $3 per ton.
Mill
Importer and whole-
Do Lumber (Douglas fir, western hemlock, and true fir). Mohair yams, matchings, and tops. Oil field and water drilling machinery and equipment (except drill pipe, casing, engines, and tanks). Rubber-reclaiming service and saler. All $3.50 per M b. m.
Do Producer ; 20,5, and 2 to 3 cents per pound, respectively. Producer: 10 percent.
Do All
Do Mills and reclaimers.. 6.7 percent.
Do reclaimed rubber. Shoes (low-end, similar to 1942).. Sleeping pillows (feather and down-filled). West coast ethyl alcohol (of Hawaiian molasses). Western agricultural shook All Producer: Approximately 10 to 15 percent. Producer: Average 1.8 percent.
Do do
Do Distiller... Retailer: About 25 cents per pair. About 2.7 cents per gallon.
Do Producer... $7.50 per M b. m.’i
June 1,1946 Crude oil (5 pools in Illinois} Indiana, Texas, and Louisiana). do.. 5 to 35 cents per barrel.
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
29 To reflect current instead of base-period costs.
20 On sales to a purchaser in a price class by himself.
21 Extension to June 30 of rise which was to have expired May 30.
32 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity . Level of action Amount of increase
June 1,1946 Do Fluid milk 32 All Producer: 40 cents per hundredweight, 10)4 cents per pound of butterfat. Retailer: 1 cent per quart for milk; )4 cent for skim milk, chocolate milk, and buttermilk; 1 cent per half pint for cream (16 percent butterfat), 83 )4 cent per half pint for cream (half cream and half milk) .83 Producer: 12 percent. 95 cents per hundredweight. Producer: 7)4 percent for mills paying 1946 wage increase, 4.3 percent for others. Retailer: About 13 cents per blanket. Average 15)4 percent. 2)4 cents per pound. 2)4 cents per pound.34 1 to 2)4 cents per pound. Varied.
Portable pneumatic power-driven tools. Battery lead scrap (shipments of less than 8,000 pounds). Blanket items flow-end bed blankets and blanket robe cloth made of American and Asiatic cottons and 5 percent wool-mix). Brass and bronze alloy ingots.... Brass Tn in products do
June 3,1946 Do Producer....... All....
Do Producer
Do do
Do Copper - Processor
Dn_ Copper and copper base castings. Copper or copper-alloy or copper-clad wire and cable and lead-covered wire or cable (except armored cable, and except cord sets, battery cables, wiring harnesses, and ignition sets). Copper scrap, copper alloy, and brass mill scrap. Lead scrap . ; Producer
Do All
Do do 1)4 to 1)4 cents per pound. 1)4 cents per pound. Producer: 1)4 cents per pound of lead content; 2)4 cents per pound of copper content. 1)4 cents per pound. Producer: 16.5 percent for plain; 14.9 for sweetened. Retailer: 1 to 3 cents a package. About $19 per ton. Country shipper: 10 cents per
Do Producer
Do Metallic-lead products and copper base hardeners and deoxidizers. Primary and secondary lead Afi
Do Processor
Do Scrap chewing tobacco All
Do Sheeted lightweight writing papers (under 17 by 22-11 (500) in weight). Snap beans (f. o. b. Pompano, Producer
Do All except producer...
Do Fla., and San Jose, Calif.). Used storage batteries in boxes (drained or liquid). Industrial electric storage batteries. Packers’ tin, condensed milk, All bushel. Retailer: )4 cent per pound. 61 cents per hundredweight. Producer: 10 percent over October 1941. Producer: 9 percent. 10)4 percent. $5 to $13.50 per ton. 10 percent.
June 4,1946 Do ‘ do
do
Do and general line cans. Rubber heels and soles Producer and whole-
June 6,1946 Do Butchers’ and grocers’ paper and imitation parchment. Cotton waterproofed clothing saler. Producer
All except producer
Do. Do (low-end). Low-pressure steel boilers Power-operated pumps and equipment. Retail wrapping papers and specialty board items (finishing operations). Railroad iron and steel scrap All do Producer: 7.9 percent. Producer: 8 percent for sales without power units; 15 percent with units; 5.3 percent for gasoline dispensing pumps. Paper: 25 cents per hundredweight for most common operation; 75 cents for less common. Board: 15 to 75 cents per hundredweight. $1 per gross ton.
Do ... Producer ...
Do Dealer (segregating railroad scrap from other).
♦ Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjuStmene provisions.
88 Except Federal marketing areas, where milk is not OPA-priced at producer levels.
88 Except in New Mexico, and part of Arizona and specified sections of Washington, Oregon, Texas, and Tennessee
11 Produced from mines where approved wage increases have been effective since Feb. 14.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 33
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date ' Commodity Level of action Amount Of increase
June 6,1946 Do Automotive metal stampings (replacement or service sales to parts and vehicle producers). Wisconsin and upper Michigan aspen jack pine box bolts (7 inches and over in diameter). Clay building brick and structural tile (New Jersey). Distillers’ feed byproducts Producer 19 percent. 75 cents per cord. Producer; $1.75 per M brick, $1.90 per ton of tile. Varied.
do
June 7,1946 Do AU
do
Do ... Domestically finished leather. do Tanner: 6 percent. Reseller: 3 percent. Tanner: 16 percent. RescUer: 9 percent. Producer: 11 percent for electric, 13 percent for others, botn over January 1942. Retailer: About 2 percent for electric and 3 percent for others. 10 percent. Producer: About 20 percent. Producer: 8.5 percent.
Do Goatskin and kidskin (from imported raw skin). Household stoves (electric and nonelectric). Household upholstered furniture. Lead pigments and pastes (containing 60 percent or more lead). Meat-packing and poultry-processing machinery and equipment. Tanned leathers (except chamois, reptile, aquatic, and ostrich). Waxed paper do
Do do
Do Producer
Do All
Do do...,.
Do All except retailer Tanner, processor, and cutter: 6 percent. Wholesaler: 3 percent. About 4 percent of net sales. Average 15 percent. $1.25 per M b. m. Average 14 percent. Producer: 7 percent. Producer: Average 13 percent. Producer: 8 percent. Producer: average 11.4 percent. 17.3 percent over March 1942. 10.4 percent. Producer: 6.1 percent. %o cent per pound. $2.18 per long ton. Producer: 1J4 cents for each
Do Producer
June 8,1946 Do Agricultural wire-bound wooden containers (west coast). Eastern railroad switch ties do
do
Do (authorized for buyer requested restricted railroad car loadings, except mixed hardwood ties in New England, softwood ties in New England, northern Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Eastern railroad switch ties do .
Do (except mixed hardwood ties in New England, softwood ties in New England, northern Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Printing trades machinery and equipment. Certain power switchboard equipment. Dairy processing machinery and equipment (industrial). - Metal lath All
June 10,1946 Do do
.... do...A
Do do
Do Repair services on boring and cutting tools and machinery. Vitreous enamel frit Vitrified-clay sewer pipe and allied products (south central area). Brazilian babassu oil Producer and inde-
Do Do pendent shop. Producer AU
June 11,1946 Do Crushers
Brazilian castor beans and oil Importer
Do - (Pacific coast importers). . Lead-acid storage batteries, cells, and plates. Specialty bathing caps (March 1942 models). Steel-mill products (alloy steel products). Steel-mill products (baled tie wire). . All except retailer Producer
Do 1 cent per pound increase of contained lead. Varied.
Do AU35 Producer: 4.6 percent. Producer: 20 cents per hundredweight.
Do do
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
35 Resellers absorb until July 1, when increase will be passed on except on specialty alloy structurais and plates.
34 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount’of increase
June 11,1946 Do Steel-mill products (18 by 14 mesh steel screen cloth). Steel-mill products (nails, in-. eluding staples and brads). Tires and tubes (original equipment) . Western pine and Douglas fir railroad ties. Apples (early 1946 season) All Producer: 11J4 percent. Producer: $10 per ton. Average 4J4 percent for com-
do.
Do Producer
Do do plete assemblies. $4.50 per M b. m. for switch
June 12,1946 Do Producer and whole- ties and $5.50 for Douglas fir , cross ties. Average 1 cent per pound. Producer: 1 cent per pound loaf or per dozen rolls. Varied.
Bread and bread-type rolls (except rye). Carded cotton yarns (sold as wrapping twine). Woven decorative fabrics (cer- saler. All
Do Wholesaler -
Do Supplier affiliated job- Do.
June 13,1946 Do tain distributor sales). Blended merino yarns (half cotton, half wool). Restaurant meals, foods, and beverages (including railroad dining cars). Semivitreous china and pottery (household). Armored (BX) cable bers. All Producer: 5 percent.
Retailer Varied.
Do. Producer 7 percent.
June 14,1946 Do. All Producer: average 11.3 percent. 10 percent over October 1941.83
Construction machinery and equipment. Corn flakes Producer
Do. All Processor and repacker: 2ft
Do. Fans and blowers do - cents per pound. Retailer: 3 cents for 11-ounce package. Producer: 14 percent for power
Do. Ferrous metal windows _ __do units of less than 1 horsepower, and 9 percent for 1 horsepower and over. Producer: 13 percent over Oct. 1,1941. Producer: 25 percent over Octo-
Do Listed waste fittings and trimmings (made of brass). Puffed rice do
Do. _do ber 1941. Processor and repacker: 2 ft cents per pound. Retailer: 1 cent for 4-ounce package. Processor and repacker: Oft cents per pound. Retailer: 1 cent for 4f^-ounce package. $6 per ton. Producer: 23.2 percent over October 1941. Varied.
Do Puffed wheat do...
Do. . Oat mill byproducts (including imports). Specified supply fittings and trimmings (made of brass). Cement (out of area sales) Producer
Do AU
June 15,1946 Do Producer...
Dry edible beans and peas Country shipper37 Producer 10 cents per hundredweight. $8 per ton. Mill: approximately 19 percent. Varied.
Do Ground wood specialty paper North central hardwood lumber
Do.... All
Do. (cottonwood, quartered sycamore, and plain sycamore)^ North central hardwood lumber do_
Do (soft elm). Repair and replacement parts (for hand lawnmowers and small electric appliances). Strawboard corrugating material- Western red cedar poles and piling (except split cedar hop poles). - Wood excelsior and wool (Lake States). Book papers (sold to magazine publishers). Butter do Producer: 28 and 18 percent, respectively. 7 cents per M square feet. 10 percent. Producer: 10 percent for baled excelsior and wool (of basswood or poplar) and ■10Mi percent for excelsior pads and wrappers. Producer: $1 per hundredweight. Producer: 10 cents per pound plus storage allowance ranging from H cent in August to lf^ cents in January. Retailer: 11 cents per pound.
Do. Producer
Do do
Do Producer and distrib-
June 17,1946 Do utor. AU.
do
* Excludes price Increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
33 Extension of an increase due to expire June 15.
37 Increase granted to those who performed the functions of a destination distributor prior to Aug. 3,1944.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 35
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
June 17,1946 Do Cheese foods and spreads containing cheddar. Cheddar cheese All Producer: 5 cents multiplied by percentage of cheddar content. Producer: 5 cents per pound. Retailer: 6 cents per pound. Producer:,35 cents per case.
do—
Do Evaporated milk do..
Do Home aluminum cookware (except castware at retail). Linoleum and felt-base rug borders. Men’s and boys’ cotton utility shirts. Rayon yam throwing (twisting of crepe and voile threads). Women’s nylon hosiery (Jacquard, special weave). Women’s nylon hosiery (nonrun construction and outsizes). Women’s nylon hosiery (nylon legs, other parts of other yarns). Fluid milk and cream (midwest Federal marketing areas). Imported rotenone-bearing roots and powder. Low-end wood chairs and tables (tablet arm and side chairs, and tables, for schools). Replacement tires and tubes (except truck tires at retail). Asphalt and tarred roofing products (eastern area),. Industrial power transmission equipment. Phosphate rock (Florida pebble and Tennessee brown). Wood radio cabinets do Producer: 3.6 percent on sheet-
Do do ware and 5.8 percent on castware. Retailer: 2)4 cents per dollar purchase for mills or door-to-door sales and 5 cents for retail stores. Producer: 15.5 percent. Re-
Do. .... do tailer: 6 pereent. Producer: Average 12.7 percent
Do Producer for domet and flannel and 22.7 percent for suede and moleskin. 17 to 33)4 percent per pound
Do All... over 1942. Producer: 50 cents per dozen
Do do pairs. Retailer: 5 to 10 cents per pair. Producer: 75 cents to $2 per
Do. .. .do dozen pairs. Retailer: 10 to 25 cents per pair. Producer: 75 cents per dozen
June 18,1946 Do All except producer All pairs. Retailer: 10 cents per pair.. )4 to 1 cent per quart for fluid milk, J4 to cent per quart for fluid milk products, J4 cent per half pint of cream, and J4 cent per half pint of half-and-half. Importer: 12 percent. Processor: 12)4 percent. Wholesaler: 7 percent. Retailer: average 5 percent. Producer: up to 20 percent. Producer: approximately 3.4 percent. Varied.
Do Do.. June1 19,1946 Do . . do dio Distributor
Producer 3.5 percent. Producer: 40 and 20 cents per
Do....... All —
Do - . Producer.. ton, respectively. 2.7 percent over March 1942. 15 percent for goatskins and 20 percent for sheepskins. Producer: 19 percent. $10 per ton. Mine: Average 40)4 cents per
June 20,1946 Do ... East India, Bombay, and Karachi tanned goatskins and sheepskins. Electrical industrial control Importer
All
Do products. Wheat bran Producer
June 21,1946 Do. .... Bituminous coal (except unprepared from strip mines in three districts). Copper sulfate All 1
do ton.88 Retailer: About 3.7 percent. Lake dock operator: 30 to 58 cents per ton. Producer: about 65 cents per
Do Electric power driven tools (portable). Industrial sewing machines and equipment. Industrial sprocket chains (power transmission). Power-operated gasoline dispensing pumps (computing and noncomputing). Sheep pancreas glands (individually frozen). do hundredweight. Producer: 15 percent. Producer: 7 percent. Producer: 13 percent. 7 percent. 9 cents per pound.
Do . .. do.88
Do do
Do Producer
June 22,1946 Slaughterer
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
88 Amount granted is based on a 6-day week; where workweek is 5 days, 12 cents per ton must be deducted from the rise.
88 Except industrial users.
36 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
June 24,1946 Do Do Buff and polishing wheels. AU40 Producer: 17.4 percent.
Canned fruits, berries, and vege- do Retailer: about 1 cent for No. 2 tables (fancy mammoth aspara- can of asparagus; varied in- gus spears produced in Cali- creases for other items, fomia; lima beans, and fruit and items processed with sugar, such as catsup and chili sauce). Certain hardwood dining-room do Varied.41 and high chairs (low-end). Crude gypsum (out of area sales Producer.... Varied, amounting to actual to chemical and insecticide freight charges, manufacturers). Fine granulated cane and beet AH..: Refiner and processor: 10 cents sugar. per hundredweight. Iron ore (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Producer i 50 cents per gross ton and Michigan). Men’s and boys’ shirts, shorts, Producing-retailer...— Varied, and pajamas. New cotton, linen, and under- Producer Do. wear cuttingSi Radio parts All except producer Do.
Do
Do
Do
Do.
Do
» Do
Do Repair’and maintenance of busi- Producer..1 Up to an estimated 7 percent, ness machines. Softwood custom-milling and Mill. . $1 per Mb. m. in the West and kiln-drying (West, Midwest, , $3 in the Midwest and Great Great Lakes). Lakes areas. Tobacco sticks (southern tobacco Producer 25 percent, area). West coast cooperage (staves .....do ...... Average 7J^ percent, and headings, and hoop and conversion charges). Beer (off-premise consumption).. All—i. Brewer: $1.27 per barrel. Re- tailer: 1 cent per 12-ounce bottle. Cast-iron gas-fired steam radia- —do— —— Producer: 37 percent over Octo- tors. ber 1941. Farm machinery and parts New producer Varied.
Do Do
Do
June 25,1946 Do
Do
Do Pennsylvania anthracite. All—£ Average 91 cents per ton.
June 26,1946 Do Cotton pound goods and towel- do ---------- Producer: 25 percent for pound ing (less than 1-yard lengths). - goods, 11J4 cents pef dozen for cutting and hemming toweling. Retailer: 1 cent apiece for toweling. Electric furnace refractories Producer and whole- 24.2 percent over March 1942.. (high-cost refractory brick and saler. specialties, including cements and grain made of materials such as electrically fused silicon carbide and aluminum and magnesium oxides). Guava, quince, and tomato pre- All * Varied, serves. Heavy forged and mining tools Producer and whole- 10 percent above October 1941. saler. Imported hides and skins Importer 5 percent over landed cost.
Do
Do
Do
Do Western pine and associated AIL- Mill: Average $7.50 per Mb. m. species. Brass or bronze screwed fittings All except retailer— . Producer: 15 percent over Octo-and valves. ber 1941 for bulk of low-end v i items, and 20 percent for others. Cotton textiles (fabrics contain- AIL- Producer: From 4.7 to 32.5 per- ing balloon cloth (exclusive of cent, and approximately 1.5 Government or other nego- percent on flannels, tiated price), 2 types of hospital draw sheets, hopsacking by Dallas Cotton Mills, 3 cloth yarns by Borden Mills, and 5 flannels). Home vacuum cleaners do—— —...- Producer: 8.5 percent. Retail- er: 4.5 percent over 1942. Sanitary napkins „do— Producer: 2 cents per dozen.
June 27,1946 Do
Do
Do
June 28,1946 Retailer: 3 cents per dozen. Bicycles, aluminum ware, and Distributor-retailer— Varied, small electrical appliances.
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
« Except industrial users.
44 Producers take 10 percent over current ceilings or total cost plus 1.6 percent, whichever is less.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 37
Table 4.—Price Increases, April—June 1946*—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Amount of increase
June 28,1946 Do Byproduct and retort gas coke.... Dry batteries.. Producer and distributor. Producer and whole- Producer: $1.35 per ton. Producer: 8 percent. Importer: About 2 cents per pound. Producer: 11, 8.5, 6.8, and 7.6 percent, respectively. Fishermen: 2 cents per pound.42 Alaskan and Pacific canners: 10 percent. 8 percent over Oct. 1-15,1941. Producer: 75 cents per hundredweight. $1, plus up to $1 more for loading on a rail car or barge where there is no siding. Producer: Average about 8 percent. Average 10.6 percent.
Do Green coffee (ex dock point of entry). Repair and replacement parts, under GMPR (parts for domestic electric range, vacuum cleaners and attachments, domestic washing and ironing machines, and stoves). Salmon (sockeye, steelhead, Chinook varieties, except troll caught). Sanitary paper closures ‘(for milk; bottles). Vegetable parchment paper u saler. All
Do do
Do do.
June 29,1946 Do. Producer..
Producer and dis-
Do Wastepaper Goading and shipping charges). Western red cedar stained tributor.43 Dealer
Do. All
Do shingles and shakes. Eastern and central wooden agricultural containers.. Producer
* Excludes price increases allowed under individual company adjustment provisions.
42 Temporary, from May 1 through Aug. 31,1946.
43 Only distributors under MPR 349.
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 3,1946 Do Bottle coolers and display items (non-meChanical having name of product or manufacturer). Christmas decorations All Permanent.
do , Do.
Do Custom-built furniture and equipment (made for hotels, schools, churches, theaters, and public carriers). Furniture (containing glass or mirrors accounting for 50 percent or more of total cost). Portable camp stoves (burning solidified gasoline). Roller skates and shoe skate combina- do Do.
Do do Do.
Do „ do Do.
Do do_ Do.
Apr. 8,1946 Do tions (but not separate skating shoes) . Air preheaters, economizers, and super- heaters (designed and sold for use with steam-generating equipment). Antenna, systems and towers do ; Indefinite.
do. Do.
Do All complete items of telephone equipment identifiable as such without further work (except parts, storage batteries, wire and cable, cable connecters, pole line hardware and related items, anchors, and other general hardware). Alternating current welding equipment (including fusion-type welding, rotating arc-welding units, but not including transformer-type welders). Attachments and- accessories (exclusively designed for a particular machine or equipment already suspended, except those specifically excluded). Automatic screw machine, single and multiple spindle (over 2J4-inch spindle capacity). Axles - ___do Do.
Do . do Do.
Do do Do.
Do _ do_ A- Do.
Do do - Do.
Do • Baling presses (except those subject to 1 MPR 133 or 246). do. Do.
715347—46----6
38 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April-June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 8,1946 Do Barometers, thermometers, and compasses. Baskets AIL.
do Do.
Dn Bearings, truck side ... do Do.
T)o Bending rolls (all sizes and types over 50,000 pounds in weight). Binoculars and telescopes do. Do.
T>n do Do.
Do Blast cleaning equipment (sand or shot). do Do.
Do Blocks and sheaves, tackle do Do.
Do Board hammers (all sizes) __ _.do Do.
Do Boilers, fireboxes, front ends, and cabs, fittings, fixtures, devices, or appliances mounted thereon. Boring mills (horizontal, over 5-inch boring bar). Boring mills (vertical, over 62-inch swing). Bottle coolers do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Brakes and brake gears do Do.
Do Bridge, gantry, hammerhead, and jib cranes. Broom-making machinery .....do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Brushes do Do.
Do Brush-making machinery do... Do.
Do Bushings, wood, and combination wood and metal. Car wheel lathes (all sizes) do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Candles do Do.
Do Canes... do ... Do.
Do Canvas bags delivering coal, ice, wood, beer, etc. Castors, industrial do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Cement-making machinery 1 do Do.
Do Central station power boards (manual and automatic), switchboards, distribution frames and racks, repeater equipment (telephone equipment). Chain hoists do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Chair iron controls do Do.
Do Clamps do Do.
Do Clay brick making and clay working machinery. Clothes-drying racks do Do.
Do .do. Do.
Do Coal pulverizers (including burners and auxiliary* combustion equipment,, installed for primary purpose of pulverizing solid fuel for firing any type of furnace and required to be built to the National Bureau of Eire Underwriter standards. Coat hangers ... ....... do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Collar and cuff buttons and pins .do Do.
Do Compacts .do Do.
Do Core-making and core-crushing machinery. Counting devices do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Coupler devices or attachments do Do.
Do Cupolas do... Do.
Do Current limiting reactors (above 150 kilovolt-amperes). Curtain rods do Do.
Do „..do Do.
Do Custom-made furniture hardware (for do Do.
Do commercial and institutional use). Cylindrical grinders (plain and universal, over 20,000 pounds m weight). Decorative sofa pillows _ — do. Do
Do. ... .do Do.
Do Dentures ____________________ do Do.
Do- Devices and appliances on locomotives for treatment, distribution, and control of water, fuel, steam, sand, or electricity. Dies, jigs, fixtures, molds, and patterns ■ (except sales by manufacturers of products in whose production such dies, jigs, fixtures molds, or patterns are used). .do Do
Do. do ... Do.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 39
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control. April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 8,1946 Do Diesel engines (normally operated at 1,200 revolutions per minute or less, and with piston displacements in excess of 3,000 cubic inches and having a continuous duty rating in excess of 400 horsepower). Diesel, gas, or other internal combustion generator sets (150-kilowatt and over, including prime movers). Direct-current arc-welding equipment All
do Do.
Dn ..do Do.
Dn Domestic bottle cappers, openers, and do Do.
Do knife sharpeners. Domestic jeweled watches 1 do Do.
Do Domestic watt-hour electric meters do ji Do.
Do Door and fixtures (except those subject do Do.
Do to RPS 40). Doughnut machines, barbecue or rotis- do Do.
Do serie machines, food-dicing machines, rotary fish cookers. Draft gears, buffers, and attachments.-.. do— Do.
Do Driving, foundation, and running gear do Do.
Do Dust-collecting equipment (industrial) do Do.
Do Ecclesiastical and* fraternal supplies (ex- do Do.
Dn cept apparel). Electric motors (alternating current or do___________ Do.
Do direct current, 25 horsepower and over). Electric organ controls do Do.
Do Electron microscopes _ ' - - - do Do.
Do Electronic metal detectors _ do Do.
Do Electronic tube apparatus (over 5-kilo-watt capacity). Elevators and escalators, passenger and freight (not including farm grain elevators) . Engine and turret lathes (over 24-inch swing). Equipment, parts, and accessories exclusively designed for operation of boats or vessels (including propellers and-shafts but not marine engines, parts, , and accessories unless specifically listed). Face and surface grinders (all types of vertical and horizontal over 15,000 pounds). . Fabric looms and machinery for knitting, braiding, lace making, embroidering, bleaching, dyeing, cloth printing, starching, dry-finishing, wet-finishing, cloth handling. Filters, filter elements, and parts (industrial) . Fire alarms (wholly mechanical) do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do do. - Do.
Do do Do
Do do Do.
Do Flasks, ladles (not over 40-ton capacity)._ do Do.
Do Flyswatters do Do.
Do Forging presses do. Do.
Do , Forgings*, open or flat die (except commercial drop forgings). Frequency converters (all types, rotary and electronic all integral capacity units). Furnaces, electric metal-melting. _ do Do.
Do ... do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Gang and power lawn mowers .. do. Do.
Do Garment and mothproof bags do Do.
Do Gaskets, packing, and oil seals -do Do.
Do Generators, electric (150-kilowatt and over). Grinding balls (ferrous or nonferrous) do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do Hairclippers__ _______________ do .... Do.
Do Hairpins do. Do.
Do Hammocks ' — ? .. ..do Do.
Do Hampers do Do.
Do Hand-operated tools (especially designed for manufacture, repair, or maintenance of aircraft, military, or naval vehicles and equipment). Hand tire pumps do ... Do.
Do
Do do Do.
Do ... Heating, lighting, ventilating, and air-conditioning equipment. do. Do.
40 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 8,1946 Do High voltage metering equipment (1,000 volts and over). Hose and tubing, flexible, metallic (ex-cept electrical metallic tubing). Hot-top rings (for ingot molds). All
do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Household woodenware . do Do.
Do Hydraulic presses (all sizes and types over 50,000 pounds in weight). Hypodermic needles and syringes. do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do Ice-cream freezers. . do Do.
Do Industrial and marine oil burners, burn-ing No. 5 oil or heavier (except rotary and gun type). Industrial and marine soot blowers and do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do tube cleaners (power-operated). ■ Industrial and marine Stokers (with feeding capacity of 1,200 pourids per hour or more). Industrial conveyors and conveying systems (of the stationary fixed type except those designed especially for mining use or use with construction plants, or attached to construction or mining machinery, and except portable conveyors and loaders). Industrial gas burners. . do Do.
Do do Do.
Do __ do.. Do.
Do Industrial machinery (used in extraction, production, or processing). Industrial steam cleaning and degreasing equipment and parts-washing and cleaning equipment (except commercial and domestic laundry and dry-cleaning, dish and utensil washing and cleaning equipment). Industrial woven metallic wire cloth (including pulp and paper mill wire cloth, but not insect screen cloth, hardware cloth, poultry netting, welded wire fabric and items under MPR 133 or MPR 246). Inhalators ... do _ Do.
Do do. Do.
Do do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do Journal boxes, assembled do Do.
Do Key chains do Do.
Do Ladders (except step ladders) do Do.
Do Lapidary machines and eQiiipment do Do.
Do Large air circuit breaker group .do . Do.
Do Lawn sprinklers ... .do Do.
Do Lightning arresters (except 15,000-volt and less for poles and cross-arm mounting and except secondary arresters for use on power circuits 650-volt and less). Liquid controlling or regulating devices, manual (except standard general purpose valves and devices). Lock and dam machinery do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Lubricating devices do Do.
Do Machinery or equipment parts covered by RMPR 136 when machine was produced prior to Dec. 31, 1940 (parts are not interchangeable with those being produced at time of sale). Magnets (lifting and industrial). do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Manicure files and tweezers ... do Do. .
Do Manual and automatic switchgear assemblies. Marine or ship castings subject to RPS 41 or RMPR 125 specifically designed for ship or marine use (except castings in machinery and accessories used for ship propulsion). Mechanical instruments (for indicating, measuring, testing, recording). Mechanical precision springs do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Mechanical "presses (all types and sizes over 50,000 pounds in weight). Metal-enclosed switchgear do ... Do.
Do do Do.
Do Metal-molding machines do Do.
Do Metallic shims (fabricated as machine parts). Meters, gas, iron, and steel cases do Do.
Do .....do ;. Do.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 41
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April-June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 8,1946 Do Milling machines (horizontal and vertical over size No. 3). Milling machines, other than horizontal and vertical (over 15,000 pounds in weight). Minor business machines (such as checkwriters). Miscellaneous fittings, fixtures, specialties, devices, or appliances designed specifically for railroad cars or locomotives (except artillery or other exclusively military or naval equipment). Mops and mop Sticks . Motion-picture equipment and parts for 35-millimeter film (not including sound recording or reproduction units or parts of such units, rectifiers, wire and cable, lights and lighting equipment, storage batteries, electrical wiring devices and controls). All — do — Indefinite. Do.
Do Do Do Do .....do .' do do do — Do. Do. Do. Do.
Do Do Do Needles ... Neon indicator attachments (except wiring devices). New and second-hand attachments designed especially for a machine tool (produced and sold by the machine tool manufacturer or his dealer). do .....do do Do. Do. . Do.
Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do.. Do 1 Do.— Oscilloscopes —— Paper making and fiber and pulp board making machinery when sold as a complete unit (except stock preparatory and converting machinery). Parts, repair, and replacement, designed especially for machinery and equipment already suspended from control and supplied by manufacturer (including sales by resellers). Phase converters of integral capacity Pins, pincushions, thimbles, and button hooks. Pipe strainers and filters (industrial and marine). Planers, single and double housing (over 48 by 48 by 10 inches). Plant boxes and flower pots Pocket knives --------- — Porch slat shades..., Power mercury arc rectifiers (over 5-kilo-watt capacity). Power oil circuit breaker group (except outdoor power circuit breakers 15-kilo-watt and below). Power-operated regulators and damp- do do — do....— do do do do do .....do do do ... do .....do Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do.
Do—— Do Do Do Do Do Do Power switchboard group Power switching equipment group (except that for 15,000 volts and less). Press brakes (over 30,000 pounds) Printing presses, web-fed, newspaper and magazine (when specially built and engineered to individual purchasers’ requirements). Quartz crystal assemblies Radial drills (over 5-foot arm) Radio direction finders — do do do _——do „ do .....do .....do.. ... Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do.
Do .. Do Railroad and transportation equipment • (covered by RMPR 136—such as: freight cars, including all types of flanged wheels mining and industrial cars; passenger ears, for surface, subway, or elevated lines; locomotives and tenders, including mining and industrial). Railroad specialties as defined in RPS 41. do do.. Do. Do.
Do. j Do.. Do Do , Razor straps. ... Relays, regulators, and miscellaneous switchboard devices (sold separately). Rod, wire, and tube-working machinery- Rolling mill machinery and equipment.. ..i.-do do —do .... — do Do. Do. Do. Do.
Do Rope fittings (manila and wire) do Do.
42
• Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 8,1946 Saddlery hardware All Indefinite.
Do Safety appliances and warning devices... do Do.
Do..: Sand preparing equipment.. do. ... Do.
Do Do. Scissors .... Screw machines and turret lathes (over 2J^-inch spindle capacity). do do. .... i Do. Do.
Do Services in connection with the installa-, tion of any suspended machinery or do Do.
equipment when the machinery or
equipment is sold by the manufacturer
on an installed basis.
Do Shake-out equipment .... do .- Do.
Do.—— Shoe shanks do Do.
Do Sides, roofs, ends, running boards, and brake steps. do Do.
Do Soap dispensers ... do Do.
Do Soda fountains and equipment ... do Do.
Do Some store equipment (such as turnstiles and shopping baskets). do Do.
Do Small leather goods (such as billfolds).... do Do.
Do. Spmneretts ... do Do.
Do Springs and spring rigging, snubbers and shock absorbers. .....do Do.
Do Squaring shears (over 30,000 pounds)..... do . Do.
Do Steam-generating equipment, such as industrial power boilers 100 pounds per do .... Do.
square inch and higher (for stationary
and marine use, including water tube
boilers, horizontal return tubular boil-
ers, refractory lined fire box boilers, but
not including steel heating boilers as
defined in sec. LV A3ME, boiler con-
struction code).
Do Steam hammers (single and double frame). do : Do.
Do Stretchers—.. .■ ..... do Do.
Do Switchboards (all sizes and types, including PBX). do____ ___ Do.
Do Synchronous condensers of integral capacity. do „„ Do.
Do , Synchronous converters (all integral capacity units)., do Do
Do Telephone handsets and related items (all types which are complete units). do Do.
Do Thermostats (bimetallic and bellows types, except covered by MPR 591 or 188) do Do.
Do Ticket punchers....... do... Do
Tires, steel .. do_______T Do.
Do. Textile machinery for cleaning and opening, carding, combing, drawing and do. Do.
roving, spinning, twisting, yarn prep-
aration, synthetic fiber spinning, fila-
ment extrusion, staple fiber spinning.
Do Toilet and dress sets do._ Do.
Do Train control apparatus .....do Do.
Do Transformers (all types, 500 kilovoltamperes and over). do. .... Do.
Do Trucks, complete . .- do Do.
Do Trucks, industrial, hand (except lift trucks and portable elevators, and .....do Do.
special purpose commercial trucks
covered by MPR 188).
Do Tumbling barrels or tumbling mills do ; Do.
Do Turbine generator sets (150 kilowatts and over). .....do. .... Do.
Do Turnbuckles .... do Do.
Do Underframes.... _. ..... do Do.
Do Used tanks and vessels (covered by RMPR 136 and MPR 465). do Do.
Do Veterinarian equipment . do Do.
Do, Watchmakers’ cleaning machinery do ,. Do.
Do Water meters do Do.
Do Water wheel generator sets (all sizes and types, including governors). do Do.
Do.. Weighing, industrial, and laboratory scales (except coin-operated, house- do Do
hold, office, and store types).
Appendix to Price Chapter • 43
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 8,1946 Do Welding and cutting equipment, gas limited to torches, tips, regulators, and generators. Welding rods and coated electrodes._ _ All Indefinite.
do Do.
Do Wheels, iron and steel. do . Do.
Do Wheels, water ...-. do.. .. Do.
Do X-ray tubes. do.. ; Do.
Apr. 10,1946 Do Coaster jackets . do
Cologne do .. . Do.
Do. Cosmetic stockings _ I ..do.. Do.
Do Covers for cloak” hangers, sewing machines, and washing machines. Cuticle removers. . _ .do Do.
Do do.. Do.
Do Deodorizers (for ice boxes and refrigerators). Electric passenger cars do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Eyebrow pencils and dyes do . Do.
Do Eye mascaras and shadows do Do.
Do. . Fishing lines of silk, rayon, nylon, linen, or cotton (including tarred). Flags . do.. Do.
Do do . Do.
Do. Floor-sweeping compounds do Do.
Do. Hair bleaches^ dyes, and lacquers (except peroxide). Home appliances. do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Horse and cattle covers and blankets do.. Do.
Do . (other than utility and camp blankets). Lamp shades .-...do.. _ Do.
Do. Liquid and powdered wave sets do Do.
Do Meat tendefizers do Do.
Do Novelty tinsel thread and yam do.. Do.
Do. Obsolete radio parts and tubes (not used in any set since 1940). Perfume do Do.
Do. do Do.
Do. . Permanent wave creams, solutions, and lotions. Racing automobiles (including midget).. . ...do.. Do.
Do. do Do.
Do Rubber fish net bladders. do Do.
Do Seine buoys do Do.
Do. Shoe polisher and soap mitS'.. do.. Do.
Do Thebromine do Do.
Do Toilet water db -. .. Do.
Do. White flesh table stock potatoes (except certified and war-approved seed). Wooden picture frame moldings do.. Until June 26.
Do. do Permanent.
Apr. 12,1946 Apr. 17,1946 Do. Fresh berries (except cranberries) do Indefinite.
Fasteners do .. Do.
Photoelectric color Sorting of peas, beans, com, and various grains (except machines) . Printing or lithographing on metal Supplier Permanent.
Do ¿.do Do.
Do. Rental and upkeep of animal traps and snares. Grey and finished cotton fabrics (36 fabrics delivered on War Department contracts or subcontracts). ■ Corn and wheat (CCC purchases) do Do.
Apr. 18,1946 Apr. 23,1946 Apr. 24,1946 Do. .... All Do.
do Do.
Milkweed floss. do.. Do.
New and rewoven open-weave jute bagging and all cotton bagging sold by cotton oil mills. Surgical dressing (except tampons, sanitary napkins, foot products such as com plaster, and elastic products). All complete items of telegraph equipment teletype, facsimile, and carrier current equipment, including parts (except storage batteries, wire and cable connectors, pole line hardware and related items, anchors, and other general hardware). Corrosion inhibitor services for cooling systems. Dynamite do Indefinite
Do do : Do.
Apr. 29,1946 Do do. Do.
do Do
Do . do. ... Do.
Do Explosives and blasting caps do Do.
Do Guanidine carbonate,” hydrocholoride, and nitrate. Platinum group metals, products, and waste materials. do. Do.
Do do Do.
44 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, ApriF-June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
Apr. 29,1946 Do Potato starch { AU Indefinite.
Refractory lined settings _ ...do-- Do.
Do Do Turbines and turbine governors Zinc engravers’ plates , : do--.. do 1 Do. Do.
Apr. 30,1946 May 1,1946 Do Specified eyeshfelds (sold by the Government). Fabricated structural steel shapes and plates (under GMPR). Minature gasoline engines (J4 horsepower or less). Parts for previously suspended toys and games (except certain engines and apparel for dolls). Processed berries (except cranberries, and mixtures with other fruits). Watches and clocks (sold at auction by Bureau of Customs). Automobile license plates do do Permanent.
do *. Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do SeUer p._ Permanent.
May 6,1946 Do All Do.
Custom-built upholstered furniture (sold in specified quantities). Dressing, dyeing, and processing of previously suspended fur skins and peltries. Electroplated glassware, china, and pottery. Hand printing of textiles - do Do.
Do do Indefinite.
Do do__
Do do __ Do.
Do Piano benches do j Do.
May 7,1946 Do Fresh apricots, sweet cherries, plums, and prunes. Fresh watermelons do-^ , Do.
do Indefinite.
May 8,1946 Do Agar-agar do Do.
Ammonia (household) do Do.
Do Belt dressings - _do Do.
Do Bicycle rim cement _________ do. Do.
Do Bleaching fluids (household) do_ Do.
Do Boiler compounds (mixtures of alkalies). Brake fluids (sales by producer to brand owner). Carburizers (mixtures of charcoal and coke, with or without metallic salts). Case-hardening agents (mixtures of metallic salts used in molten form). Chemical porcelain _ _ _ _ do_ Do.
Do do Permanent.
Do do Indefinite.
Do . do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do Chestnut oak bark and extracts do Do.
Do Cleaning fluid (based on sodium alkyl benzene sulfate for household use). Cold top enamels and developers. .... do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Dehydrating or artificial seasoning of Southern pine poles and piling by “Tengerizing.” Domestic sumac extract do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do Ferric chloride do. Do.
Do Fire-extinguishing compounds (dry chemicals). Grinding compounds (petroleum fractions less than 50 percent). Hemlock bark and extract do Do.
Do do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do Inks (for paper printing) do. _ Permanent.
Do Osage orange extract ... .do Indefinite.
Do Packaged photographic chemicals except do Do.
Do those containing silver (for developing, fixing, toning and bleaching, intensifying, and retouching negatives or prints). Paper twine _ __ do Permanent.
Do Photographic trays :. 1 - dp Do.
Do Quercitron bark extract _ _ _ _ do Indefinite.
Do Rust removers (petroleum or petroleum fractions less than 50 percent). Sodium bicarbonate ______ .. do _ Do.
Do do Do.
Do Sodium formaldehyde hydrosulfite (sodium sulfoxalate). Sodium hvdrosulfite _ _________. :do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Spirituous beverage glass containers (except for malt). Cheese bandages, crinoline cheese circles, and press cloths (used in cheese manufacture). Custom fabricating of new white oak bourbon whisky staves, heading bolts, or barrels, and services incidental thereto. do Do.
May 13,1946 Do do. Do.
do ..... Do.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 45
Tablé 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
May 13,1946 Do Dental laboratory services in connection All .... Indefinite.
with prosthetic dental appliances. Diamond core drilling do.
Do High-alloy steel castings (used as component parts of industrial equipment). Photography services (except photostating, blueprinting, microfilming, and “photofinishing”). Sensitized paper for photographic use. do
.....do Permanent.
Do do Do.
Do Subassemblies, accessoriesTarid other integral parts of consumer durable goods already removed from price control. Almond paste ..do Indefinite and permanent.1 Permanent.
May 15,1946 Do do
Anchovies (in brine, panned, and paste)__ do Do.
Do Apparel and apparel accessories* under GMPR, made wholly of silk (exclusive of linings, bindings, reinforcements, and trimmings). Baking powder do Indefinite.
Do do Permanent. »
Do Bird, fish, and dry pet foods do £ Do.
Do Bird gravel and seed do Do.
Do Brassieres, bandeaus, corsets, girdles, and garter belts (elastic materials 40 percent or less of total yardage, with remainder all silk, exclusive otlinings, bindings, and trimmings). ■Canary seed.. do Indefinite.
Do do Permanent.
Do Canned and frozen fish cakes do Do.
Do Canned and frozen moist pet food .. do Do.
Do Canned brown bread and frozen bakery products. Canned, crabmeat specialities, fish chowders, and shad. Canned fig juice do...
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do. Canned kumquats do... Do.
Do Canned okra, beets, soybeans, turnip greens. Caramel coloring do Do.
Do do Do.
Do - Caraway seeds _ do Do.
Do Cardamon do Do.
Do Celery seeds do Do.
Do Cereal beverage mixtures , do Do.
Do Chicken foie gras do Do.
Do Chinese waterchestnuts.. .do ... Do.
Do Chop suey dinners .do... Do.
Do Chop suey mixed vegetables do ; Do.
Do Cloves do.. Do.
Do Coconut paste.. do l.. Do.
Do Cod liver (canned and paste) do Do.
Do Colletes . ... do Do.
Do Comb and cut comb honey do Do.
Do Coriander seed do £ Do.
Do Dry and dehydrated soups . do Do.
Do Dry ice cream mix (consumer size packages). Dry mustard do 1 Do.
Do do Do.
Do Envelopes (under RMPR 129) do Indefinite.
Do Enzymatic sirup do, Permanent.
Do Flours (barley,* buckwheat, cottonseed, corn, oats, peanuts, potatoes, rice, rye, or soybeans, except mixtures which contain other ingredients). Food flavorings and extracts (not containing sugar). Fried pork rinds do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Garbanzo beans do Do.
Do Garlic juice. do Do.
Do Ginger', cargo ginger, prepared or pre--served ginger root, stem ginger. Highly decorative, novelty, or luxury sunglass frames (selling to retailers at $14.50 or more and at retail for $25 or more. Holmboe gjetost. _ do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Hosiery under MPR 274 (except silk and wool combined). Household deodorants, disinfectants, insecticides, and rodenticides. do Indefinite.
Do do Permanent.
1 Parts are either exempted or suspended to correspond with status of finished product.
46 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
May 15,1946 Do Hydrolized vegetable protein ~ All.. . Permanent.
Imported anchovy sprats do Do.
Do Imported calf’s foot jelly do Do.
Do Imported canned and frozen bamboo sprouts. Imported canned hearts of palms do
Do do Do. Do.
Do Imported canned rabbit ; do ... Do.
Do Imported cigarettes do Do.
Do Imported dates do Do.
Do Imported dehydrated banana powder—. do Do.
Do Imported rye hardtack do Do.
Do Imported truffles do Do.
Do Imported turkey foie gras do Do.
Do Imported water crackers (made from flour and water baked in ovens using bundles of faggots for heat). Indian pudding do..
Do do Do. Do.
Do Mace do Do.
Marrons : do Do.
Do Maryland (type 32) tobacco (1945 crop).. do Do.
Do Mate do Do.
Do Mint sauce do Do.
Do Meat extracts do Do.
Do Men’s half hose and slack socks (leg portion all silk). Monosodium glutinate do. Indefinite.
Do do Permanent.
Do Mustard seed (consumer-size packages).. do Do.
Do Nonalcoholic bitters do Do.
Do Nonapparel items do Indefinite.
Do Nonsugar containing food coloring do Permanent.
Do Nonsugar containing waters (stiller car-' bonated, distilled or otherwise proc-cessed, natural or with salts added in closed containers). Nutmeg do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Onion juice do Do.
Do Papaya juice. ... .do Do.
Do Pimento (allspice) do Do.
Do Popped popcorn (except when containing nuts or sold as a confection). Poppy seed do r Do.
Do do Do.
Do Potato chips, salad, julienne, and shoestring. Pure maple sugar (except block and Canadian bag sugar). Pure sorghum sirup do ... Do.
Do .....do. Do.
Do .do Do.
Do Red peppers (including cayenne and chili peppers). Salted shark fillets do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Sliced or cubed dried mushrooms do Do.
Do Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) .....do Do.
Do. Soy, tabasco, Worcestershire, and barbecue sauces. Vanilla beans and extract do .' Do.
Do do Do.
Do Vinegar cured herrings and products do Do.
Do Women’s and children’s anklets (leg portion all silk). Yams, fabrics, and the processing of such yams. Naw surplus loofa sponges do Indefinite.
Do do Do.
May 17,1946 May 18,1946 Do .do Permanent.
A tti bn Ian cps do Indefinite.
Flower cars do Do.
Do Hearses .....do .... Do.
Do Motorized repair shops do Do.
Do Passenger carriers (with a seating capacity of 10 or more including all busses, airport limousines, and station wagons). Self propelled or trailer type fire apparatus. Tracks (over 40,000 pounds gross vehicle weight), or complete with special body mountings, such as tank trucks, street sprinklers, snow plows, garbage tracks, dr patrol wagons). Domestically processed animal hair, vegetable fiber, and bristle (except broomcorn), used in the manufacture of brushes and brooms. do Do.
Do do. Do.
Do do Do.
May 20,1946 do..... Do.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 47
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—-Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
May 20,1946 May 22,1946 Do. Fish (fresh, frozen, and processed, except canned, and except shrimp and items already exempt; halibut, pilchards, alewives, sea herring (sardines), Pacific salmon, Pacific tuna and tuna-like fish, foods processed from these fish; and salt cod, hake, pollock, haddock, cusk, ling, and saithe). Asbestos textiles and carded asbestos fl- All do 90 days. Do.
bers. Canned and frozen squid do Do.
Do Copper engravers, 'sheet and plate (ground and polished). Dry lentils ; do Do.
Do . do .. — Do.
Do Fabricated iron and steel strapping, including flat band or wire strapping, and comer clips or seals for reinforcing containers (except cold- or hot-rolled strip or wire sold for general purposes, and bale ties). Ferrous washers (except under RPS 41 and MPR’s 214, 235, 241, and 244). Frozen and canned spinach (except chopped or strained spinach and spinach soup sold as “baby food” or “junior food”). High- and low-pressure steel gas eylinders. Imported dried spinach do Do.
Do. .....do Do.
Do do. Do.
Do do
Do do Do.
Do Industrial steel wool do Do.
Do. . Little cigars (weighing no more than 3 pounds per M). Pickles and pickle products do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Nonferrous lock-seam tubing do Do.
Do. . Nonferrous washers (except under RMPR 125). Prepared ground poppy seed do Do .
Do . do Do.
May 23,1946 Do Almond paste (imported) do Permanent.
Imported barbecue sauces . . do Do.
Do. Imported canary, caraway, celery, and coriander seed. Imported canned and frozen fish cakes do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Imported fish chowders, kumquats, and soybeans. Imported cardamon do Do.
Do .. do Do.
Do Imported chop suey mixed vegetables do Do.
Do Imported cloves, ginger, and cargo ginger. Imported dry and dehydrated soups do Do.
Do do Do.
Do . Imported dry mustard . do Do.
Ho Imported flours (barley, buckwheat, cottonseed, corn, oats, peanuts, potatoes, rice, rye, or soybeans, except those containing other ingredients). Imported mace. . do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Imported meat extracts do Do.
Do Imported mustard seed (consumer-size packages). Impoited nutmeg .¿...do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Imported pimento (allspice) do Do.
Do Imported poppy seed . . . do Do.
Do Imported prepared or preserved ginger root and stem. Imported red peppers (including cayenne and chili peppers). Imported soy and tabasco sauce do. Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
May 24,1946 Do Coils (specifically designed and made for motors, generators, transformers, or related items). Distributing cut-outs as defined in the National Electric Manufacturers’ Association Manual (except building equipment and supplies). Guy strain insulators do
do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Hi-line (or suspension) hardware (including clamps and associated fittings). High-voltage pin-type insulators (including posts, clamps, and other variations). Outdoor switch and bus insulators (including posts). do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
48 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
May 24,1946 Do Pole-line hardware and construction All... Indefinite.
specialties (under EMPR 136, Order 604). Power, switching equipment (except for 601 volts or less). Repair and replacement parts for suspended equipment (sale of producers of the complete equipment) , whether sold for repair and replacement or to other producers as original equipment Special and apparatus insulators (except those with metal parts, but including tubes and wall, roof and floor bushings). Spool type insulators do Do.
Do do Do.
Do. do . •Do.
Do. do Do.
Do. . Suspension insulators (including hew-letts). Wet-process porcelain or glass low-voltage pin-type insulators. Cigar boxes (made principally of paperboard to hold 25 cigars or more). Cloth-back pressure sensitive industrial tape. Coat hanger pads : do _ Do.
Do. do Do.
May 27,1946 Do. . do Do.
do Permanent.
Do do _ Do.
Do Cork tipping for cigarettes do Indefinite.
Do Decorative colored crepe paper do Permanent.
Do Disk milk bottle caps do Indefinite.
Do Dress guards and patterns do Permanent.
Do Drinking straws do Do.
Do Flock-coated paper (rayon sisal and cotton flock). Friction tape and splicing compound do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Frpit and * vegetable wraps (biled and plain) and shredded oil paper (used in packing fruit). Gummed flat paper do Indefinite;
Do do Do.
Do Gummed stencil paper...! do Permanent.
Do Hanger protectors ..do Do.
Do Ironing mats do Do.
Do Luminous paper tape._ — .. .. do Do.
Do Molded and urimolded vulcanized do Do.
Do vegetable oils (excluding truss pads). Paint strainers do Do.
Do Paper doilies, draperies, and pillowcases.. do Do.
Do . Paper board bottle cap liners do Do.
Do Printed or embossed tray mats and shelf . paper. Tabs, pin tickets, and marking machine tickets. Ties for vegetables do Do.
Do do Indefinite.
Do r j do Permanent.
Do Truck tire flaps (sold for replacement purposes). Tubes, Cores, and cylindrical paperboard casings (except when impregnated and specially designed for use in electrical equipment, cones, ribbon blocks, fabric reels, bobbins, roving cans, spindles, spools, and pirns). Wo ven-paper fabrics do Do.
Do do Indefinite.
Do do ; Permanent.
May 29,1946 Do Absorbent cases (for holding and protecting fragile liquid containers during transportation). Advertising signs (containing clocks) _ .. do Indefinite.
do Do.
Do Antiseptically treated poultry litter do Do.
Do Artificially colored seedless grapes (used as food garnishes). Baby seats and beds (for use in automobiles). Baby swings do Do.
Do do Do.
Do .. do Do.
Do ... Bias' tape or binding (2 inch or less in width). Brussels sprouts do Do.
Do do Do.
Do „: Calcium carbonate (for feeding purposes). Canned and frozen pumpkin do Do.
Do ... do Do.
Do — Canned beets (except strained brchopped beets sold as baby food or junior food). Canned broccoli . do : Permanent.
Do do Indefinite.
Do Can nod celery and celery juice. ' do . : . Do.
Do Canned vegetable greens’ (except strained or chopped greens sold as baby food or junior fTod). do i- Do.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 49
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
May 29,1946 Do Articles of metal for decorative house- All
hold use (except lamp bases and articles for the preparation, storage, and service of food and beverages). Coir yam matting and rugs do Do.
Do Contract carrier services by water (except common carriers and coal transportation). Domestic canned cauliflower Supplier Do.
Do - All Permanent.
Do - Cocktail mixers .. . do
Do.., Doormats do Do.
Do Electric curling irons do Do.
Do ... Frozen and imported canned carrots.' do Do.
Do Frozen okra "and peppeis (including pimentoes). Frozen pastries, pies, and other baked goods. Frozen tempala do Do.
Do do Do.
Do . do . Do.
Do Fur cleaner (processed from corn oil meal). \ Genuine imported or domestic alligator, crocodile, and ostrich rawskins or leathers, and articles with 90 percent or more external surface consisting of such rawskins or leathers (excluded are articles made of small pieces of these leathers sewed together). Grated cheese „ do Do.
Do .... ..do Do.
Do do Do.
Do... Gray fox, north American opossum, raccoon, skunk, and wolf fur skins, or garments and trimmings made from such fur skins. Hair-straightening combs . do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Hand looms .do Do.
Do. . — Imported and domestic citron _ do Do.
Do Ironing board pads and covers . do Do.
Do Imported fresh, frozen, and canned crabmeat. Laundry and dry cleaning identification tags. Narrow fabrics (other than woven or braided, made by fastening paralleled cotton yam warps together with adhesives). Ollas and ollas bases ... do Permanent.
Do do Indefinite.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Pepper sauce and chili sauce made for dried chili peppers (except sauces containing tomatoes). Perfume atomizers ... do Do.
Do do Do.
Do.... Pliers (specially designed for optical use). Squash do Do.
Do. . do Do.
Do Stair treads (rubber, composition, or fabric). Snn dials do Do.
Do do Do.
Do. . . Web belts, slings, and straps, and animal halters (made of nonelastic Webbing woven or braided, 12 inches or less width). Rubber soles and heels (Government surplus). Bulk and packaged domestic wine do Do.
May 31,1946 June 1,1946 June 6,1946 Do do Permanent.
do Indefinite.2
Insulation cambric and separator cloth . do. Do.
Rental of certain vehicles (except as taxicabs). Packaged hops (1945 crop) Lessor Do.
June 7,1946 June 10,1946 Do. All...- Permanent.
Men’s 18-inch ankle-fitting rubber boots (Government surplus, 5-eyelet type). Tobacco flues and tobacco bam heating equipment. Basic refractory, fire-clay, ladle, runner, and silica brick. Chrome ores --- .. do Do.
do <_ >.. Indefinite.
Do. do Do.
Do.... do Do.
Do... Cobalt do Do.
- Do. Crude and ground refractory fire clay _ do Do.
Do Dynamite shell paper (used in making dynamite). Ferro-alloys, metals, and products do Do.
Do do Do.
Do Ferrochromium and chromium metal do.. 1 Do.
2 Extension of suspension due to expire May 31.
50 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
June 10,1946 Do Ferrosilicon and silicon metal All Indefinite. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Permanent. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Indefinite. Permanent. Indefinite. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Permanent. Until Aug. 28. Indefinite. Do.
Heeling board (more than 85 percent leather fiber). Hot tops _ do
Do. do
Do Low temperature mortars do
Do Milk bottle crates of metal or metal and wood combined (used for delivery of milk and return of empty glass bottles). Molybdenum do. 1
Do do
Do New solid white oak and new laminated wooden beer barrels, and the staves and headings of which these barrels are made. Paper bibs and cellophane ribbon do
Do do.
Do Portable swimming-pool liners do
Do —— Printed dials for watches and clocks do
Do Silica cement . .do.
Do Sitka spruce cigar box lumber and shook. Sleeves and nozzles do
Do - do
Do Superclay and high alumina refractories. “Tengerizing” of primary forest products. Tungsten do.
Do do -.
Do . do
Do. Vanadium do..
June 13,1946 Do. .. Agricultural talc do
Canned jellied consomme do
Do Canned ripe olives _ do
Do Cocktail food accessories (of raw or cooked batter). Fresh green peas do
Do do
Do. .... Frozen brined pimiento (peppers) . .do
Do. .. Frozen crabmeat specialties ... —do.
Do Do Imported fresh canned peppers ... do..
Live, dressed, or eviscerated rabbits (including frozen). Pickles (packed from fresh vegetables other than cucumbers). Malted milk crunch (resulting from manufacture of malted milk by vacuum drum process). Smoked, cooked, and canned or frozen cooked poultry (sold for off-premise consumption). Tamales (in hermetically sealed con-. tainers, made of any meat except beef, veal, pork, lamb, or mutton). 85-percent magnesia and diatomaceous silica insulating materials. Boy and Girl Scout uniforms (except footwear). Cotton fabric tents and waterproofed . tarpaulins (4 by 6 feet or larger, containing grommets). Dead-burned dolomite and magnesite, raw dolomite, fluxing limestone, and limestone used as glass stone. Decorative fabrics (woven entirely of paper, glass, or plastics, except cellulose, acetate, and nylon). Lime silica and molded amosite high temperature insulating materials. Pile and flat woven decorative fabrics (sold for use in the manufacture or . repair of railroad ears, busses, and airplanes) . Pile fabrics (produced by an electro-coating process). Itailroad ballast (sold for direct use in support and stabilizing railroad beds and tracks). Repair, rental, and maintenance of public street-lighting equipment, and services incidental thereto. White-flesh table-stock potatoes (except certified and war approved seed). Grapes (except Concord sold for processing). Air and fume conductor devices and do
Do do
Do do
Do.. do.
Do. do
June 19,1946 Do do.
do
Do do
Do do.
Do do.
Do do 1
Do .do
Do do
Do do
Do do
Do do
June 20,1946 June 26,1946 do
do
' accessories.
Appendix to Price Chapter • 51
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
June 26,194 Do Beer Cooling and dispensing equipment.. _ Coils and fan coils (designed for cooling purposes only). Floor stands (for valves) All Indefinite. Do.
do
Da— do Do.
Do Insulated cold-storage doors do Do.
Do Iron and steel gratings and floorings—.. do Do.
Do Metal caisson tubing and piping do Do.
Do Padlocks. — do Do.
Do Bain water disposal devices and accessories. Boof deck do < Do.
Do do Do
Do_ Valve boxes do Do
June 27,1946 Do Articles containing rubber (purchased by United States agencies). Commercial coolers and oases (except self-contained equipment). Academic caps and gowns. do Do.
do Do
June 28,1946 Do do Do.
Additives (for improving or modifying lubricating oil or specified grease properties, containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Air filter cloth (used for dust-collecting equipment). Braided or twisted packing (consisting solely of jute, flax, hemp, istle, or any combination thereof). Calcined petroleum coke (containing 50 . percent or more of petroleum). Cat and dog leather collars, harnesses, leads, and muzzles. Cordage (consisting solely of jute, flax, hemp, istle, or any combination thereof). Costumes and regalia for carnivals, masquerades, etc. Costumes for bands, drum corps, and drill teams. Ecclesiastical equipment (such as choir cottas, winged rochets and albs, surplices, vestments, and stoles). Filter twills .i do Do.
Do do Permanent.
Do do Indefinite.
Do do Do.
Do do ...... Permanent.
Do do Indefinite.
Do do Do.
Do do , Do.
Do do! Do.
Do ._ do. Do.
Do Floor oils (containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Frame cleaning curtains and 9- by 9-inch twill jean pieces made of cotton fabrics used for maintenance and repair of telephone systems. Fraternal equipment (such as robes, headdresses, coats, turbans, gauntlets, leggings, mantles, hose tights, ern- do Do.
Do do Permanent.
Do do Indefinite.
Do broidered syinbolicaprons, and plumed chapeaux). Grinding and cutting compounds (containers of 1 gallon or less, and containing 50 percent or more of petroleum).' Hard fiber cordage and twine (except binder, baler, and imported twine). Hard fibers (sold by BFC) do Do.
Do do Permanent.
do Do.
I>0 Household insecticides and disinfectants do Indefinite.
(containing 50 percent or more of petroleum) . Hydraulic brake fluid (containing 50 percent or niore of petroleum). Knee action, shock absorber, hydraulic jack, and hydraulic hoist oil (containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Lubricating oils (in containers of 1 pint or less and containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Marine oakum (consisting solely of jute, flax, hemp, istle, or any combination thereof). Metallic naphthenates (containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Motor tune up products (containing 50 percent or more petroleum). Naphthenic acids (containing 50 percent or more of petroleum).
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do.. .....do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do do Do.
Do .... dd Do.
52 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Table 5.—Releases from Price Control, April—June 1946—Continued
Effective date Commodity Level of action Period of release
June 28,1948 Do Natural and synthetic mineral oil polymers (containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Oil-press duck All Indefinite.
do . Permanent.
Do Paper makers’ dryer felts of plied cotton yams. Penetrating oil (containing 50 percent or more petroleum). Preservative oils and compounds (for metal, leather, etc., in containers of 1 gallon or less and containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Roller cloth (used as roller covering on cotton spinning machinery). Rove and yam (consisting solely of jute, flax, hemp, istle, or any combination thereof except those under MPR 340, appendix D). Smokers’ lighter fluids (containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Solid heat tables (for campfires, fireplace, kindling, etc., containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Spot removers, dry cleaners, rug and upholstering cleaners (containing 50 percent or more of petroleum, and in containers of 5 gallons or less). Stick type lubricants (for automobile and household uses, containing 50 percent or more of petroleum). Thread (consisting solely of jute, flax, hemp, istle, or any combination thereof) i Underground cable wrappings (made of paraffined cotton fabrics and slit into tapes of various widths). Upper cylinder lubricants (containing 50 percent or more petroleum). Varnished tubes and sleevings of braided or woven tubular cotton fabric (used in production of electrical equipment). Woven webbing (6 inches or less in width, consisting solely of jute, flax, hemp, istle, or any combination thereof); Wrapping twine (consisting solely of jute, flax, hemp, istle, or any combination thereof). WAC jacket (Government surplus) do Do.
Do do.... Indefinite.
Do do......... Do.
Do do Permanent.
Do do Indefinite.
Do do.... Do.
Do do Do.
Do do.... Do.
Do do .... Do.
Do do Do.
Do do ; Permanent.
Do .....do Indefinite.
Do . do Permanent.
Do .. do ... Indefinite.
Do do Do.
June 29,1946 Permanent.
Transportation and Public Utility Rates • 53
. Ill .
TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILITY RATES
At no time since the advent of price control was the evidence of upward pressure on transportation and public utility rates more noticeable than, in the quarter ended June 30, 1946. To cope with this pressure, the full resources of the agency were deployed aldng wider fronts than ever before. Not only did the Office continue to intervene before various regulatory b’odios in opposition to sundry rate-increase proposals, but it continued with concentrated vigilance to combat proposals for higher rates and charges—except where needed to supply essential services—for the diverse transportation and accessorial services over which it exercised direct controls.
Authority for intervention in matters involving the rates of common carriers and public utilities was derived from the Stabilization Act and the directives and regulations pursuant thereto, which require all common carriers and public utilities regulated by public authorities to file notice of their proposals of general increases with OPA 30 days in advance of the proposed effective dates. Rates and charges of contract carriers and for services supplied by storage, terminal, and other such companies are under the direct control of the Office.
TRANSPORTATION
The Office received from common carriers during the quarter ended June 30, 1946, 2,775 notices proposing changes in existing tariffs, the highest number since inauguration of control and 25 percent more than in the highest previous quarter, that ending December 31, 1943.
Of the notices received during the quarter, 232 were consolidated by the Office into 36 formal protests to the appropriate Federal and State regulatory commissions. Most of the remaining notices were to correct tariff errors or to announce the expiration of rates which had served special purposes. With respect to the 36 protests by the Office and consequent interventions before regulatory bodies, 14 of the proposed increases Were suspended, while 16 were allowed to go into effect;.in 2 other instances the carriers withdrew their proposals; in 4 cases the Office withdrew its formal protests in the light of subsequent information indicating the urgency of the requested increases in terms of revenue needs of the carriers.
Common earners of property succeeded during the quarter in obtaining from rate regulatory bodies authority to make increases in
54 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
their freight rates on substantial portions of their traffic in extensive areas. While most of the increases authorized were on interstate or foreign traffic, some of them constituted upward revisions of intrastate rates. In many instances, however, the opposition of this Office and shippers resulted in the granting of smaller increases than those sought by the carriers. Carriers’ requests for increases in their rates were in all instances based upon their plea of need for additional revenues.
Railroad Rates
Early in the quarter, substantially all railroads in the United States filed a petition with the Interstate Commerce Commission, seeking authority to make an immediate increase of 25 percent in their rates and charges, except where other specific increases were proposed. Common carriers by water and freight forwarders sought like increases. Following a brief hearing, the Commission authorized these carriers to make effective in July 1946 an interim increase of 6 percent in their rates and charges, with certain exceptions, plus an additional increase of 5 percent within the territory described generally as east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers. Similar increases in the intrastate rail rates were granted in several of the States and were under consideration in the remaining States. The Interstate Commerce Commission announced that it would hold hearings within a short time to decide whether these carriers should be authorized to make permanent increases in their rates on bases higher than the interim rates. These hearings were to include proposals of railway express carriers for increases in their rates throughout the United States.
The Office and shippers were successful in preventing drastic increases in the intrastate rail rates on bituminous coal from Alabama mines to Mobile and certain other points in the State. Corresponding increases in the interstate coal rates from Alabama mines to Pensacola, Fla., New Orleans, La., and intermediate Gulf ports were opposed by the Office. Hearings were held, but no decision had been rendered by the close of the quarter.
Motor Carrier Rates
Motor common carriers operating in certain territories filed notices of proposed increases in their rates, principally on smaller shipments. The Office filed protests against most of the increases proposed; and, although the increased rates were not suspended, investigations were instituted by the Interstate Commerce Commission and certain State agencies to determine their lawfulness. Hearings in these investigations were expected in the late summer or early fall of 1946.
Transportation and Public Utility Rates • 55
New England motor carriers were permitted a 1 O-percent rate increase on all traffic. In the Middle Atlantic States, motor common carrier increases were 15 percent on shipments weighing less than 6,000 pounds and 4 percent on shipments weighing from 6,000 to 9,999 pounds. Southern motor carriers and carriers operating between the South and the North or East were permitted to increase their rates 20 percent on shipments weighing less than 2,000 pounds, and 10 percent on shipments weighing from 2,000 to 4,999 pounds. With few exceptions, identical or similar increases on like intrastate traffic were made in States comprising the other major geographic territories. In New England and the Middle Atlantic States the increases were in substitution of the 1945 increases permitted carriers in those territories. Motor carriers operating in the Pacific Northwest States proposed increases in both their interstate and intrastate rates. The regulatory bodies in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho permitted most of the increases in intrastate rates to become effective. The Office then withdrew its protest against similar increases in interstate rates in the territory. Motor carriers operating intrastate in Colorado were permitted a 10-percent increase in their rates on most commodities, and certain small increases in some of their accessorial charges. All such increases were smaller than those originally proposed. Increases in the intrastate rates in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota were also permitted. The Office opposed these increases and in most instances succeeded in having the amount reduced.
About 200 motor carriers of household goods throughout the United States proposed increases in their interstate rates. Upon Office protest, such increases were suspended and were the subject of investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The matter had not yet been decided by the close of June. Likewise, proposed increases in motor carrier rates on canned goods from Colorado points to Montana were successfully opposed by the Office and shippers.
Steamship Rates
During the quarter, the United States Maritime Commission concluded its hearings oh increased steamship rates, fares, and charges from and to the Territory of Alaska, but no decision was reached. The Office protested the steamship lines’ contention that increases of about 100 percent were needed to meet operating expenses.1 The proposed increases were so drastic as to appear to be prohibitive of transportation by proponents in competition with Canadian ships and aircraft.
1 See also Sixteenth Quarterly Report, p. 77.
56 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Contract Carrier Services
A total of 77 applications for rate adjustments from contract carriers was processed during the quarter under the provisions of Supplementary Regulation 15 to the General Maximum Price Regulation. Of this total, 1 was denied, 58 granted, and 1 dismissed because of lack of adequate information; 17 involved amendments granting relief supplemental to that provided by earlier orders. In addition, the Office issued four orders reaffirming or modifying earlier regional office orders involving applications for individual rate adjustments handled in the field.
In the special category of pick-up and delivery contract carriage operations, 607 applications for individual adjustments were acted upon, of which 556 were received during the quarter. Of the total number of applications disposed of, 503 adjustments requested were granted in full, 38 were granted in part, and 7 were dismissed primarily for failure to supply adequate information to support alleged needs for added revenues. As the quarter ended, only 59 applications for adjustments in existing pick-up and delivery rates were pending, largely awaiting receipt of additional information needed for final disposition.
Among the more significant activities during the quarter was the progress in decontrolling rentals of passenger cars, except those rented for taxi service,2 and the decontrol of contract water transportation, including rentals except when performed on the Great Lakes, or within single harbors and contiguous points, or when involving the transportation of coal.3 Other measures relating to the decontrol of additional contract carrier operations were actively being worked upon as the quarter closed.
Work progressed on area-wide rate adjustments respecting towboat operations in New York Harbor; these were expected to be completed early in the following quarter. Adjustments of the 1946 rates for Great Lakes bulk-carrier water transporters, work in respect to which continued during the quarter, were also expected to be announced in the ensuing quarter.
With the appointment of an industry advisory committee, work was started on a rate adjustment for the collier transporters of coal along the Atlantic seaboard, particularly from Virginia tidewater to New England ports. Since the owners of these colliers expected return of their vessels from the War Shipping Administration June 30, they were seeking rates related to 1946 operating costs, alleging that the March 1942 rates would not pay for costs of the service.
After much deliberation, several conferences, and the study of
2 Amendment 6, MPR 571; effective June 5,1946.
8 Amendment 84, RSR 11; effective May 29, 1946.
Transportation and Public Utility Rates • 57
very incomplete figures, the New York City household goods carriers (so-called unregulated common carriers) were permitted to advance their rates to reflect actual wage increases approved during the war and since.4
Pick-up and delivery carriers in Atlanta, Ga., were permitted to increase their old 12-cent rate to 14 cents, upon a showing of financial hardship on the part of carriers performing more than 75 percent of the pick-up and delivery work in that area.5 Other area orders were being given consideration as the quarter closed.
While new trucks and equipment were not becoming available to the extent earlier anticipated, evidences of slight softening in rate levels began to appear here and there, largely because of the falling off of traffic. In as many instances, however, demands for higher rates were based on increased depreciation charges to take care of new investment in rolling stock and the falling off in gross revenues because of lowered traffic. In processing both contract carrier and truck rental rate adjustment applications, the Office took both of these factors into consideration on proper showing by applicants of the validity of their claims.
Storage and Terminal Charges
Operations were begun during the quarter under the low-end adjustment procedure recommended by the merchandise warehousing industry advisory committee.6 Under this procedure, which follows that used for many years in the regulation of rates of commqp. carriers and of certain public utilities, warehousemen may propose changes in rates to become effective on dates specified by them, at least 30 days after filing, unless disapproved by the Administrator. The procedure was not intended to cover general rate increases but was found adaptable to many special situations involving services which did not return their costs. A great many applications for price adjustments on these services were filed during the quarter, most of which were allowed to go into effect as proposed. In only a handful of cases were proposed adjustments denied. The procedure eliminated a good many inequities between various sellers and various prices, and served to a considerable extent to restore normal rate-making practices in this field.
PUBLIC UTILITIES
A total of 368 public utility rate increase notices was received and processed during the quarter ended June 30, 1946, a gain of 25 per-oent over the total in the preceding quarter. The increase in the
♦ Rev. Order 2, RSR 11; retroactively effective to March 26,1946.
11 Order 8, SR 14-H, GMPR; effective May 1,1946.
* See Seventeenth Quarterly Report, p. 73.
58 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
number of notices received was an indication of the mounting pressure for public utility rate increases, with the accent on passenger fares for local transportation, as in the previous quarter, though to a lesser degree. The Office continued to intervene before appropriate regulatory bodies to combat those rate increase proposals which it believed to be in conflict with stabilization of living and business costs.
Local Transportation Rates
The Washington-Virginia-Maryland Coach Co. (Arnold Lines) filed a new tariff with the Interstate Commerce Commission, proposing to increase the cost of every one-way interstate trip between Washington, D. C., and points in nearby Virginia by 5 cents or by 2^ cents if a token selling at 2 for 25 cents was used. The Office protested the increase, which would have added about $300,000 a year to the burden on users, and requested its suspension. The Commission suspended the operation of the new tariff and fixed a hearing date. While the Office was engaged in the preparation of testimony and exhibits, the company announced withdrawal of its fare increase request.
The Philadelphia Transportation Co., which furnishes local transit service in Philadelphia and vicinity, proposed an increase in certain of its fares from 8 cents cash and 2 tokens for 15 cents, to 10 cents cash and 4 tokens for 35 cents. The new fares, it was estimated, would increase the company’s revenues by about $5,000,000 yearly. Upon Office protest, the new tariffs were suspended by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which set a date for hearings late in June to continue into July if necessary. Whereupon, the Office filed a petition to intervene in the proceedings. As the quarter ended, the case was still in progress.
Hearings were concluded during the quarter on a 20-percent increase in commutation fares proposed by the Central Railroad Co. of New Jersey. While the Interstate Commerce Commission permitted the company to put the increase into effect between New Jersey points and New York City, the New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners held that the schedules of intrastate fares simultaneously filed by the carrier would be unreasonable unless they included 46-trip monthly commutation tickets to take care of the increasingly more prevalent 5-day workweek.
The Interstate Commerce Commission held hearings during the quarter on the propriety of the existing fare structure of the Hudson Manhattan Railroad Co., which furnishes tube transportation between New Jersey and New York City. In 1944, following extensive proceedings in which the Office actively participated before the Commission, the United States district court, and the United States Supreme Court, the railroad had been permitted to put in effect an
Transportation and Public Utility Rates • 59 alternative 10-cent cash or, ll-for-$l token fare on both its uptown and downtown lines, in place of the 10-cent-uptown and 8-cent-down-town fare. The Commission’s order was limited to the duration of the war and 6 months thereafter. In the 1946 proceedings the carrier sought to remove the time limitation and to continue the alternative fares indefinitely. The evidence adduced at the hearings bore out predictions made by the Office during the previous hearings in 1943 that token utilization would fall far short of the 90 percent rate estimated at that time by the company and the Commission. This evidence disclosed token use of less than 20 percent. The Office took the position that the Commission should order the company to institute a more practicable, convenient, and equitable token-fare structure.
Activity also continued during the quarter in the Chicago Rapid Transit Co. matter, which began in 1942 with the attempt of the company to raise elevated fares in Chicago from 10 to 12 cents. Despite the efforts of the trustees of the company since that time to secure judicial reversal of the Illinois Commerce Commission’s disapproval of the increase, the 10-cent fare generally remained in effect. After renewed appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court by the company and remand to the Commission, the latter found that the 10-cent fare was reasonable. The company, however, secured a preliminary injunction against the Commission, restraining it from interfering with a 12-cent fare.
The Illinois Commerce Commission during the quarter suspended the Chicago Surface Lines’ proposed increase in fares from 8 cents to 9 cents (temporary) and to 10 cents (permanent), and instituted an investigation.
Through resort to the Federal court, the Office during the quarter succeeded in compelling the city of San Francisco to grant opportunity for intervention in the fare increase proposal of the municipally owned San Francisco Municipal Railway. Hearings were held before the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which approved the increase. The board of supervisors, by a tie vote, failed to override the commission. Accordingly, fares were raised from 7 cents cash to 10 cents cash and 3 tokens for 25 cents.
An examiner of the Interstate Commerce Commission filed a report holding unreasonable an increase in interstate local transportation fares between Covington, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio, proposed by the Cincinnati, Newport & Covington Railway Co. The increase, if allowed, would have resulted in a $180,000 annual increase in the cost to users. The company filed exceptions to the examiner’s report with the Commission, which at the end of the quarter had the matter under advisement.
60 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Following hearings in which the Office,actively opposed the company’s request, the Indiana Public Service Commission entered an order denying the petition of the Indianapolis Railways, Inc., for an emergency increase in token fares from 4 for 25 cents to 3 for 25 cents, holding that the company had not established an emergency. The commission set further hearings beginning in September 1946 on the company’s application for a permanent fare increase.
During the quarter the Office was represented at hearings before the New York Public Service Commission at Buffalo, on the proposal of the International Railway Co. to eliminate token fares for bus and streetcar service in Buffalo and for bus service in Niagara Falls. Current fares were 10 cents cash and 5 tokens for 40 cents in Buffalo, and 8 cents cash and 3 tokens for 20 cents in Niagara Falls. It was estimated that token elimination would add $2,000,000 annually to the local transportation bill. Hearings were scheduled to continue in the ensuing quarter.
The Office also participated in the following local transportation matters: Club Transportation Corp. (New York Public Service Commission), involving permanent bus fares in Yonkers and vicinity; Gary Railways, Inc. (Indiana Public Service Commission), interurban bus fares; M. & B. Transit Lines (North Carolina Utilities Commission), bus fares in Burlington, N. C.; San Diego Electric Railway Co. (California Railroad Commission), local transit fares; Los Angeles Transit Lines, Pacific Electric Railway, and Los Angeles Motor Coach Lines (California Railroad Commission), local transit fares in Los Angeles and surrounding communities ; East Side Busses (Oregon Public Utilities Commissioner), bus fares in Portland and environs; Pensacola Transit (Pensacola (Fla.) City Council), local bus fares; Tulsa City Lines (Tulsa (Okla.) City Commission), local transit fares; Oklahoma Railway Co. (Oklahoma Corporation Commission), fares between Oklahoma City and aircraft plants; Metropolitan Lines (Arizona Corporation Commission), local transit fares in Phoenix and vicinity.
Telephone Rates
The Office was active in several telephone rate cases during the quarter. Hearings were held before the Illinois Commerce Commission on the $850,000 annual increase which would result from the new rates sought by the Illinois Commercial Telephone Co., a subsidiary of General Telephone Corp., the holding company for the largest group of independent telephone operating companies in the country. This was the largest increase requested in the telephone field since the beginning of the war. At the close of the quarter hearings continued. A large number of municipalities, the Illinois Municipal
Transportation and Public Utility Rates
. 61
League, and the attorney general of Illinois, cooperated with the Office in its opposition to the proposed increase.
Other Utility Matters
The Office participated before the New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners in opposition to the $1,000,000 increase in industrial and space heating rates for manufactured gas, proposed by four subsidiary companies of the Public Service Corp, of New Jersey —Public Service Electric & Gas Co., Peoples Gas Co., County Gas Co.? and Atlantic City Gas Co. The board had suspended the new rates and set hearings to determine their propriety at the request of this Office. Hearings had not been concluded at the close of the quarter. The case involved consideration of cost allocations and reasonable rates for incremental service.
The Consolidated Gas Utilities Corp., which supplies natural gas service in Oklahoma, entered into a stipulation with the Office that it would not, until July 1, 1947, or such earlier date as the stabilization legislation might lapse, request an increase in its rates before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. The stipulation had the effect of holding in abeyance the company’s pending application before the commission.7
Hearings were begun before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in the matter of the appeal of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. from an ordinance of the city of Cleveland, enacted in 1944, reducing electric rates.
A number of large stockyard rate-increase notices were processed during the quarter.
7 After the close of the quarter and the temporary lapse of the Stabilization Act of 1942, the company renewed its request to the commission, which on July 16 granted the requested increase. ,
62 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
. IV .
RENT CONTROL
Federal rent regulations were in effect at the close of June 1946 in 520 defense-rental areas including Alaska and Puerto Rico. Areas in the continental United States contained 72.5 percent of the total 1940 population and 84.2 percent of the 1940 nonfarm rental dwellings. During the second quarter of 1946, rent control was extended to 23 new areas and removed from 3 portions of areas. Extension of control in this period was necessary to curb inflationary rent increases and evictions following development of acute housing shortages in these areas. Expanding industrial production in 13 areas and college educational programs for veterans in 4 areas were the principal factors contributing to the housing shortage. In nearly all the areas, the return of veterans to civilian life also greatly increased the demand for rental housing.
AMENDMENTS AND INTERPRETATIONS
Amendments to the rent regulations during the quarter permitted landlords in resort areas who had rented seasonal housing units on a year-round basis during the war to meet the needs of war workers and service personnel to have seasonal rents established, if year-round demand in the area was no longer sufficient to assure continuous occupancy.1 The area rent director was given authority to establish seasonal rents for such accommodations if the housing unit is vacant at the time the landlord requests the change, or in the case of hotels, when appropriate.
. The regulations were also amended to make the exemption of summer seasonal properties applicable in the Madison, Wis., defenserental area for the period from June 1 to September 30,1946.2 Control of rents on these units was previously required because of the construction and operation of a large ordnance plant in the area. Since the plant was no longer in operation, it was unnecessary to exclude these accommodations from the seasonal exemption.
Further amendments clarified provisions pertaining to allowances for general increases in costs of construction in fixing rents for newly constructed or remodeled dwellings.3 Under a prior amendment, effective November 23, 1945, if the construction was commenced on
I Amendment 88, Rent Regulation for Housing, effective May 27,1946; Amendment 82, Rent Regulation for Hotels and Rooming Houses, effective May 27,1946.
I 2 Ibid.
» Ibid.
Rent Control • 63
■or after that date, the allowance was to be computed on the basis of general increases since 1939.4 The clarifying amendment stipulated that allowance should also be made where construction was commenced or completed after the maximum rent date but prior to November 23, 1945, and should be measured, as formerly, by the general increase in costs of construction since the maximum rent date in the particular area.
Under an amendment to the housing regulation, authority was delegated to the National Housing Agency to establish rents on newly constructed units built pursuant to specific authorization of that agency, regardless of whether priority assistance was obtained by the builder.5 Formerly, authority to fix rentals for new housing units was delegated only in cases in which the units were built with priority assistance. The amendment extended that authority to include those few units constructed under the veterans’ emergency housing program for which the builder had the necessary materials on hand.
The housing regulation was also amended to require a landlord intending to evict a tenant on a ground for which no certificate is necessary to serve notice to the tenant and the area rent office, stating not only the ground relied upon but also the specific facts in support thereof.6
Another amendment to the housing regulation made the registration provisions of the regulation applicable to all rental units in the Cincinnati, Ohio, defense-rental area.7 Housing units in that area with the maximum rent established by a renting on the maximum rent date or during the 2 months immediately preceding that date were formerly excepted from the general registration requirements.
The sections of the housing and hotel regulations which provided for adjustments when substantial hardship has resulted from an unavoidable and substantial increase in property taxes or operating costs, were amended to permit consideration of ascertainable increases in pay-roll and in property taxes in effect when the petition is filed, on a projected 12 months’ basis.8 Formerly, only increases in property taxes or operating costs actually incurred during a year prior to the filing of the petition could be considered.
Further amendments to the hotel and rooming-house regulation were made to bring this regulation into conformity with the housing regulation.9 One was to provide that when rents, exempt from con
4 See Sixteenth Quarterly Report, pp. 84r-85.
8 Ibid.
«Ibid.
? Amendment 87, Rent Regulation for Housing, effective Time 1, 1946.
8 Amendment 84, Rent Regulation for Housing, effective April 10, 1946; Amendment 78, Rent Regulation for Hotels and Rooming Houses, effective April 10,1946.
•Amendment 81, Rent Regulation for Hotels and Rooming Houses, effective June 1, 1946; see also Seventeenth Quarterly Report, pp. 78-79.
64 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
trol by reason of being fixed by the War or Navy Department national rent schedule, cease to be governed by that schedule, the rooms, for the purpose of determination of maximum rents, are to be considered as not rented during the period they were operated under the schedule, and the maximum rent is to be determined under the appropriate section of the regulation. Another amendment required registration of accommodations constructed and owned by a Federal or State agency within 30 days after their sale to a private owner, and the notice requirements applicable to other privately owned rental properties were made applicable to them after sale.
The hotel regulation was also amended to permit eviction where a tenant refuses to sign a renewal lease for the same term as the expiring lease. A further change in the eviction section, made to facilitate the efforts of the National Housing Agency to transport housing no longer needed in one locality to points of critical housing shortage, exempted from the eviction provisions temporary or movable housing accommodations which the National Housing Administrator places in a terminated status for relocation in accordance with title V of the Lanham Act.
During the period covered by this report, the Office revised the official interpretation setting forth the criteria for determining whether an eviction certificate should be granted when possession is sought for the purpose of substantially altering or remodeling housing accommodations, adding the requirements that the landlord show he has obtained the required authorization from the appropriate Government agency under the veterans’ emergency housing program and is prepared to proceed immediately with the work upon expiration of the waiting period. a
AREA OFFICE OPERATIONS
Area offices reported a net increase of 442,387 housing registrations during April, May, and June of 1946, bringing the total number of housing registrations on file to 15,802,945. During the same period there was a net increase of 17,884 hotel and rooming-house registrations covering 109,324 rooms or dwelling units, bringing the number of hotel and rooming-house registrations to 522,396, covering 4,045,065 rooms. Over 40 percent of the .housing registrations received during the quarter covered accommodations rented for the first time after the maximum rent date, which brought the number of first-rent housing registrations to 3,421,197. Likewise, 66 percent of the hotel and rooming-house registrations filed during the quarter was for units rented for the first time since the maximum rent date, bringing the number of first-rent hotel rooms or rental units to 1,026,777.
A total of 97,620 landlords’ petitions for upward adjustment of
Rent Control • 65
rents was processed during the quarter, and 61,457 increases in rent were authorized; at the end of June, 45,294 actions were pending decision. Since the inception of rent control, 1,464,762 landlords’ petitions had been disposed of, with 842,341 upward adjustments granted.
Violations of the regulations are generally revealed by tenant complaint and administrative operations in the area offices. During the quarter 145,763 compliance actions were processed, and compliance was obtained in 97,309 of these actions. At the end of June, 89,991 docketed compliance actions were pending settlement or adjustment.
The area rent director may, on his own initiative, reduce maximum rents for housing accommodations rented for the first time after the maximum rent date to the rent for comparable accommodations in the area on the maximum rent date. He may also require restoration of services or order rent reductions commensurate with failure to maintain services and equipment. During the quarter 159,788 director’s initiative actions were disposed of, and 83,541 adjustments and orders were entered. There were 110,785 docketed director’s initiative actions pending decision at the end of June.
PROTESTS AND REVIEW PROCEEDINGS
Any landlord who is dissatisfied with an order issued by an area rent director may obtain administrative review on application to the regional office, and, in addition, he may request the Administrator to review such an order. From the institution of Federal rent control to June 30, 1946, landlords had filed a cumulative total of 38,415 applications with regional offices for review of orders issued by area rent directors. At the end of June 1946, disposal had been made of 35,538 cases, and 2,§77 were still pending decision. In addition, these landlords had applied to the Administrator for further administrative review in a total of 1,152 protests. Disposal of these cases resulted in the denial of 530, 16 of which were later reopened. Grants in whole or in part were made in 133 cases, one was remanded to the region, and 220 others were dismissed or withdrawn. At the end of June, 284 protests were still pending before the Administrator.
Requests for consideration by a board of review were received in 67 cases during the quarter. Hearings were held by boards of review and subcommittees in 11 cases, and recommendation for the disposition to the protests were submitted to the Administrator in 27 cases.
During the 3 months ending June 30, 1946, landlords filed 2 protests against maximum rent regulations. Since the inception of rent control a total of 255 such protests had been filed, 42 of which were directed against the hotel regulation, and the remaining 213 involved
66 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
the housing regulations. Protests had been received from a total of 64 areas. Seven protests were pending before the Administrator at the end of the quarter. A cumulative total of 169 protests had been denied, 53 dismissed (including 2 cases in which relief was granted), and 26 withdrawn.
Landlords dissatisfied with any of these decisions have the privilege under the Emergency Price Control Act of appealing to the Emergency Court of Appeals, a court set up for the purpose of hearing cases arising under the act. Cases affecting rent control which were decided upon by the court during the April-June quarter are discussed in the following chapter.10
10 See p. 70.
Emergency Court of Appeals • 67
.V.
EMERGENCY COURT OF APPEALS
The Emergency Court of Appeals was established by the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 to review regulations or orders under the act in considering complaints by persons whose protests against regulations or orders had been denied by the Administrator, or who had been granted leave by district courts to file complaints in enforcement proceedings.
From the effective date of the act through June 30, 1946, a total of 351 complaints was filed with the court, 250 of which involved price regulations or orders, and 101, rent regulations or orders. During this period, 273 cases were disposed of by decisions of the court or by agreement of the parties; 32 decisions were adverse in whole or in part to the Administrator.
In the second quarter of 1946, 33 complaints were filed with the Emergency Court of Appeals, 22 of which affected price control, and 11, rent control.
PRICE CONTROL CASES
Ten cases affecting maximum price regulations or orders were disposed of by the court during the second quarter, eight of them favorably to the Administrator. Eight cases were dismissed by agreement of the parties. The more important opinions rendered by the court during the quarter are described in the following pages.
Atlantic Meat Company Cases
A protest was filed by the Atlantic Meat Co. against Revised Maximum Price Regulation 169 based on the fact that Defense Supplies Corporation had ruled that the company was ineligible to receive the special subsidy for nonprocessing slaughterers because of its affiliation with a processor. Under the subsidy regulation issued by Defense Supplies Corporation anyone so affiliated was excluded from the definition of “nonprocessing slaughterer.” An amendment to the regulation was asked for so as to provide the complainant and those similarly situated with a fair and equitable margin. The complaint requested the court to set aside the regulation unless the Price Admin-strator procured the payment of subsidies to nonprocessing slaughterers although they might be affiliated with a hotel supply house.1
1 Atlantic Meal Company, Inc. v. Porter (No. 219, EGA, decided May 8, 1946) 165 F. (2d) 535.
68 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Since filing the complaint, however, the business of the complainant and of its parent corporation had been sold and its corporate entity preserved only for the purpose of liquidation. The court therefore held that the complainant no longer had any present interest in a prospective setting aside of the regulation and that a retroactive declaration was not called for because no enforcement proceedings were pending against complainant.2 Under these circumstances the court dismissed the complaint as moot.
The Atlantic Meat Co. also entered a complaint3 involving those sections of Supplementary Order 9 and Procedural Regulation 6. which provided that “any person who has entered into or proposes to enter into a contract with the United States or any agency thereof * * * who believes that a maximum price established by any price regulation * * * impedes or threatens to impede production of a commodity * * * which is essential to the war program and which is or will be the subject of such contract * * * may file an application for adjustment of such maximum price * * *.”
On May 17, 1943, the Administrator issued Revised Supplementary Order 9 which made this adjustment provision specifically inapplicable to Revised Maximum Price Regulation 169, Beef and Veal Carcasses and Wholesale Cuts. The complainant filed its protest against the revised order April 5< 1945, alleging that the order prevented it from receiving the fair value or even recovering its costs on that portion of its beef.which it was required to set aside for the Government by order of the War Food Administrator. The Price Administrator denied the protest September 28, 1945, on the ground that the issue had become moot by reason of the suspension, on August 18, 1945, of all set-aside orders previously issued by the War Food Administrator. In the subsequent complaint the court was asked to declare that Revised Supplementary Order 9 was unlawful so long as the set-aside orders were in effect.
The court dismissed the complaint on motion by the Administrator. Although set-aside orders had been reimposed December 12, 1945, the court held that, as a result of the sale of the complainant’s physical assets and business, complainant had no remaining litigable interest in obtaining prospective relief. The court also held that the complainant could not derive any advantage from a retroactive declaration that Revised Maximum Price Regulation 169 was invalid without the adjustment provision as set forth above. In this connection the court stated that even if it were assumed that that adjustment provision ought not to have been deleted with respect to sales of beef
2 The court also referred to Its decision in Atlantic Meat Company, Inc. v. Reconstruction Finance Corporation, (No, 248, E C A), where the court sustained the provisions of the subsidy regulation relating to affiliation.
3 Atlantic Meat Company, Inc. v, Porter (No. 268, EOA, decided May 8,1946) 155 F. (2d) 537.
Emergency Court of Appeals • 69
to the Government, it was nevertheless too late for complainant to obtain from the Government procurement agencies more than the contract price on transactions long since executed. In addition, the court referred to the last sentence of section 204 (e) (2) of the Price Control Act which provided that retroactive effect shall be given to the court’s judgments only in criminal and civil enforcement proceedings.
Reichel-Korfmann
In this case4 the Emergency Court of Appeals held invalid a volume limitation upon the availability of a special mark-up for sales of hops by brewer’s supply dealers on the ground that it did not effectuate any of the purposes of the Emergency Price Control Act. The special mark-up was made applicable by the regulation only to sales of hops purchased from hop dealers and a lower maximum price as applicable to sales of hops purchased from growers. The court therefore concluded that sales of hops purchased from growers could not be included in determining eligibility for the special mark-up, since expansion of this trade channel did not increase the amount of hops selling at the higher price.
Barbara P. Hendon
Complainant in this case 8 operated a parking lot in Birmingham, Ala. Under Revised Maximum Price Regulation 165, her rates for parking services were 10 cents for 1 hour or less, 15 cents for all-day or unlimited parking. She desired to discontinue the 1-hour-or-less parking service and to maintain only an all-day service at 15 cents. This was interpreted as a violation of Revised Maximum Price Regulation 165 and Revised Supplementary Service Regulation 18 as an improper increase in price by discontinuance of a lower-priced service and substitution of a higher-priced one. A protest against the regulation as thus interpreted was denied and complaint filed in the Emergency Court of Appeals.
The court dismissed the complaint stating that the decision in Buckeye Parking Co. v. Bowles (141 F. (2d) 692), controlled to the extent to which complainant desired to charge 15 cents to persons who parked in fact for 1 hour or less. At the argument complainant conceded the right of the OPA to prohibit a 15-cent charge for a shortterm service for which 10 cents formerly had been charged, but claimed that she wished in fact to discontinue the 1-hour-or-less service. The court held that there was nothing in the regulation which prohibited actual discontinuance of the 1-hour parking service, warning com
4 Relchel-Korfmann Company v. Porter (No. 295, ECA, decided May 23, 1946) 155 F. (2d) 730.
6 Barbara P. Hendon v. Porter (No. 297, ECA, decided May 24,1946) 155 F. (2d) 376.
70 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
plainant, however, that if, in fact, a customer actually received only the short-term parking service, he could not be lawfully charged the higher rate.
RENT CONTROL CASES
The court disposed of two cases involving rent regulations or orders. One case was dismissed by agreement of the parties.
George H. Talbot
The Talbot case 8 arose from the Administrator’s denial of a series of protests against orders issued by the rent director for the Charlotte, N. C., defense-rental area, which affected the maximum rents of eight apartments of the complainant. The orders of the rent director denied complainant’s petitions for rental increases for three of the units, and decreased the maximum rents for the remaining five under section 5 (c) (1) of the Housing Regulation. The issue raised by the complaint, therefore, was the propriety of the Administrator’s determinations concerning the levels at which the maximum rents for complainant’s units should be established. The court found that the Administrator’s determination in each case was amply supported by the evidence in the record and therefore ordered the complaint to be dismissed.
Park Management, Inc.
The sole issue involved in this proceeding was the propriety of the Administrator’s finding that thè complainant had failed to file timely registration statements for certain of its housing accommodations. Complainant urged that registration statements had been timely mailed to the area office, and that such mailing constituted “filing” within the contemplation of the Rent Regulation for Housing. The record indicated that even if mailed, such registration statements had not been received. The court held that mailing, in the absence of actual receipt by proper officials of the Office of Price Administration, does not constitute “filing” and accordingly dismissed the complaint.7
• George H. Talbot v. Porter (No. 293, EOA, decided May 24,1946) 155 F (2d) 375.
f Park Management, Inc., et al, v. Porter (No. 303, EOA, decided June 12, 1946).
Sugar Rationing • 71
■Vl •
SUGAR RATIONING
The civilian sugar allocation for the second quarter of 1946 was 1,385,000 short tons, raw value, with an original firm allocation of 1,753,000 short tons, raw value, established for the third quarter. Civilian distribution exceeded the 1,100,000-ton allocation for the first quarter by about 85,000 tons, largely as a result of early cashing of the first home-canning stamp, made available March 11, and to early purchases of sugar by industrial users in anticipation of second-quarter requirements. A substantial part of the overdelivery in the first quarter, however, .was expected to be recovered during the third quarter.
Tl^e original allocation for the third quarter was subsequently reduced by the Department of Agriculture to 1,728,000 tons after a revised estimate of third-quarter distribution. The difference of 25,000 tons was retained for future allocation in view of possible need during the final quarter to avoid lowering of ration levels, since reports on production and available supplies indicated probable difficulties in reaching former estimates. ’
The various Caribbean cane sugar crops were completed during the second quarter, with the actual outturn in Cuba and in Puerto Rico less than early estimates and only minor increases in other islands. Supplies to be made available to the United States were thus decreased approximately 150,000-short tons, raw value. This curtailment of raw cane sugar supplies necessitated a sharp reduction of deliveries by eastern refiners into Ohio, Indiana, and lower Michigan. Steps were therefore taken to reestablish specific deficit areas and to supply those areas by shipments of western beet and cane sugar on a reimbursement program to commence early in July. The plans followed closely the program in force during the last quarter of 1945 and early 1946, but it was not considered necessary to reinstate zoning limitations on deliveries by primary distributors.
Strike conditions in the northeastern area caused temporary shortages of supplies in this territory, but in the United States as a whole demand was met without undue delay during the second quarter.
72 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
CONSUMER AND INSTITUTIONAL RATIONS
The domestic consumer ration was continued during the quarter on the basis of an annual 15 pounds per person. A new stamp was validated May 1 for a 4-month period.
The Office also decided to issue the second home-canning stamp for 5 pounds of sugar on July 1, at the same time announcing that no additional sugar would be issued for home canning during 1946. A total of 10 pounds of home-canning sugar per capita was thus to be allowed during the 1946 season, as compared with about 7% pounds per capita issued in 1945.
Allotments for institutional users were increased by 10 percent beginning with the May-June period. Also, special provisions were made to include small logging camps as group IV users (on-the-job feeding group), in order to facilitate their obtaining supplies which hitherto had been purchased by the use of ration books.
INDUSTRIAL USER RATIONS
For the second quarter of 1946, bakers and manufacturers of allied products were allowed 70 percent of the 1941 base use; manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, 120 percent; preservers, 55 percent of their revised base (consisting of 50 percent of the sugar used for exempt agency business plus the total sugar used for civilian consumption during the base period) ; all others, 60 percent. Provisional users of sugar, such as canners of fruit and fruit juices, were allowed 90 percent of prewar sugar use per unit produced.
The allotments for industrial users during the third quarter were announced June 15. The only change from the above listing was the reduction for bakers and manufacturers of allied products from 70 percent to 60 percent because of the grain situation. Early in 1945, the Office established a 10-percent differential in sugar use between the industrial users of grains (industrial classes 1, 2, 3) and most other industrial users of sugar, since the Department of Agriculture had recommended increased consumption of cereal products because of the then relatively plentiful supply of grain. When restrictions were applied to flour milling and flour use to enable the United States to. meet its foreign relief obligations, however, the reason for this differential was no longer valid.
The Office removed the deadline for receiving petitions and continued to make adjustments in industrial-user bases on the premise of fire, strike, or flood during the base year or of prerationing investment in equipment.
The Office revised General Order 18 during the quarter to clarify and amplify the conditions under which veterans could establish new businesses.
Enforcement • 73
. VII.
ENFORCEMENT
Investigation and prosecution of violations were strengthened during the second quarter in the commodity fields where greatest pressures were felt, by additions of manpower, new programs, and increased use of the Office staff of trained criminal investigators in uncovering concealed price rackets. The Office shared with the Department of Agriculture responsibility for'enforcing the reestablished slaughtering controls. Together with the Justice Department, the Treasury Department, and the Office of the Housing Expediter, the Office made an intensive attack on illegal lumber and building materials transactions.
During the quarter the Office steadily expanded the scope and number of price violation cases of national significance assigned to its staff of trained criminal investigators.1 As a result of intensive investigation, a number of important criminal prosecutions were referred to the United States attorneys. For example, 31 persons were indicted in Detroit for conspiracy to violate the price regulation governing the purchase and sale of used cars, thus breaking up an operation covering a considerable geographic area and handling thousands of used cars at prices greatly exceeding the ceiling. This policy also led to the indictment in Miami, Fla., of five banana importers who had been selling bananas to wholesalers for distribution throughout the entire eastern seaboard at about 50 percent above ceiling price.
Investigational work was particularly intensive in the fields of textiles and lumber. In the latter field extremely valuable use was made of the purchase-of-evidence funds authorized by Congress for the development of uncontrovertible proof of flagrant overceiling price demands by lumber mills. At the close of the quarter, a number of cases in this field were pending with the appropriate United States attorneys for prosecution, each of which was concerned with an important company in the industry.
In the food field the most significant of the cases developed covered the extensive solicitation of corn in several northwestern States at overceiling prices for the purpose of converting such corn to sirup
1 See Sixteenth Quarterly Report, p. 107.
74 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
for use in soft drinks and candy. A request for prosecution of the principals on conspiracy charges was pending at the end of June.
In the field of litigation, the Office was successful in 96 percent of all cases handled.
ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY
Funds provided by Congress made it possible to reinforce the staffs investigating lumber and meat black markets, the two most threatening areas in the commodity, fields. The augumented lumber staff worked primarily on cash-on-the-side, upgrading, and similar flagrant violation practices in the interregional movement of lumber. The reinstitution of slaughter controls provided an effective means with which to prevent the diversion of meat into illicit channels.
The retail food program continued on a basis of selective investigation of serious violations, and the courts granted a substantial number of judgments suspending merchants’ licenses and imposed substantial fines in contempt proceedings. A retail apparel program, similar in scope to the retail food program, was instituted.
The Office was successful in several cases involving criminal conspiracies in the fields of used cars, bananas, textiles, lumber, and grain.
In the enforcement of rent control, the Office moved into the problem of cash bonuses, furniture tie-ins, and other racketeering devices.
Meat
Enforcement of the live cattle and hog regulations as well as of the regulations governing the sale of wholesale meat cuts was emphasized during the period under review. Slaughter controls were reinstituted, and during the last 2 months of the quarter primary emphasis was placed upon the enforcement of these controls. During the month of June more than 50 percent of all sanctions instituted involved violations of the slaughter control order. The system of sending warning telegrams to slaughterers who purchased five cattle at high prices indicative of noncompliance with the regulation was continued throughout the quarter.
Approximately 350 additional investigators were added to the meat enforcement staff during the quarter. ' This step was reflected in the increased number of sanctions instituted during the quarter. Sanctions instituted averaged approximately 120 per week at the beginning of the quarter and approximately 285 per week at the close, with an average of approximately 205 per week for the entire quarter.
Continued effective use was made of subsidy withholding as a compliance factor. Previously established procedures which were continued throughout this period resulted in the withholding of subsidies
Enforcement • 75
from slaughterers who were found by a court or hearing commissioner to have violated an OPA meat or livestock regulation. In addition, a new procedure was established at the direction of the Office of Economic Stabilization, which resulted in withholding part or all of their subsidies from slaughterers who violated the live cattle regulation or the slaughter control order, without the necessity of a determination of violation by a court or hearing commissioner. Withholding in such cases was based on the slaughterer’s compliance reports filed with the Office or with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
Groceries and Dairy Products
Because of the acute shortage of grains, especially corn and wheat, dealers intent on getting more than their fair share of the available supply resorted to many illegal practices in an effort to circumvent the regulations. Evasion through payment of unearned storage charges was effectively curbed when the Office obtained an injunction against the largest wet milling processor of corn in the country. As a result of this action, several large grain dealers’ associations and the Chicago Board of Trade adopted resolutions condemning the practice and calling upon their members to comply with OPA regulations. Above-ceiling purchases of corn by carbonated beverage and candy manufacturers was another practice which greatly disrupted the corn market. As a result of investigations during the quarter, a conspiracy case involving several defendants was submitted to a United States attorney for criminal prosecution. The Office anticipated that successful prosecution of this case would help greatly in wiping out the black market in grain.
During the quarter preliminary investigations were made of the degree of compliance with the Office’s regulations by mixed feed manufacturers. These investigations disclosed many instances of substantial noncompliance, and as a consequence, a broad investigation of mixed feed manufacturers was planned for the next quarter.
The Office’s vigorous sugar rationing enforcement program which utilized extensive assistance from the Alcohol Tax Unit of the Treasury Department was a significant factor in the continued success of the sugar rationing program. Sanctions for sugar rationing violations were imposed at the rate of approximately 1,000 per month. Investigation of sugar wholesalers continued, and during the quarter investigations were commenced of the sugar base and sugar use of many industrial users.
Retail Food Enforcement
In the field of retail food enforcement, there was continuing emphasis upon imposition of severe sanctions against persistent and sub
76 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
stantial violators in all parts of the country. Approximately 300 such sanctions were instituted, i. e., license suspensions, criminal contempt proceedings, and referrals for criminal prosècution. Actions were based upon comprehensive investigations employing purchase and checking of store prices and records in order to obtain a representative picture of the retailer’s state of compliance on sales of meat and other major food items. These sanctions included about 200 court proceedings to obtain suspension of retail seller’s licenses to deal in price-controlled commodities, and some 65 court proceedings to punish for contempt retail sellers who violated after court injunctions had been issued restraining them from violating retail food regulations. Reports from field offices indicated that the program was effective in reducing the number and scope of violations of retail food regulations.
Outstanding sanctions imposed by courts included the following: A $48,000 fine was assessed against a national retail food chain after a contempt proceeding heard in the United States district court at Chicago. In that case, numerous overceiling salés were found. Investigators making purchases were charged overceiling prices on a total of about 180 food items, mostly meat, purchased in over 30 outlets of the chain located in the Chicago area. In another contempt proceeding a $25,000 fine was imposed by a United States district court against a Cleveland, Ohio, retailer doing a very large business in meat and groceries. Many purchases by investigators showed substantial overceiling charges were being made on meat items.
Among license suspensions obtained against retail sellers because of overcharges, were suspensions ranging from 30 days to 6 months in duration.
Several hundred cases of violations were also prosecuted under local statutes and ordinances enacted in aid of maintaining compliance with OPA regulations. In addition, district offices took enforcement action on numerous cases of retail violations referred to them by the price control boards.
Lumber and Other Building Materials
A new sustained lumber enforcement program began in April, and by the end of the quarter was in full operation. With additional funds provided by Congress, the lumber enforcement staff throughout the country was increased manyfold. Specially heavy concentrations of manpower were assigned to the major producing areas of the west coast and the South. Extensive training programs were conducted for the recruits, and by May the program was well under way. The investigative and enforcement activity was taken under new or revised
Enforcement • 77
national programs which stressed interregional cooperation in developing cases against black market producers and distributors from investigations begun in both producing and consuming areas.
Investigation of the lumber black market, however, was complicated by the concealed nature of the violations (e. g., cash-on-the-side, upgrading) and by the interregional movement of lumber. Enforcement efforts were to be concentrated on these flagrant devices. Throughout the country, substantial criminal and treble damage cases had been developed or were being developed by the end of the quarter. A large number of the sanctions were brought during the quarter, and the groundwork was laid for many many more.
Both the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice pledged full cooperation in the drive. The Treasury had already conducted tax investigations of a list of firms supplied by the Office as being known or suspected in the black market. Preliminary reports on the tax investigations confirmed the theory that the black marketer engages in tax frauds. Tax investigations of firms referred by the Office were to be continued.
Violative conditions in other building materials and construction services were spotty. There were scattered indications of local black market in some items. Extensive enforcement activity was instituted under area pricing orders but no widespread noncompliance was disclosed.
Automobiles
Enforcement of the used-car regulation was considered of paramount importance, for too few new cars had been reaching consumers to make any material difference in the demand for automobiles. The Office adopted a policy of verifying a substantial number of sales made by an automobile dealer before taking action against him. If only a relatively small number of overceiling sales were found, the case was referred to the local price control board for assertion of the Administrator’s claim. When a large number of violations were un-covered the policy was to go into court for license suspensions or treble damages, or to recommend criminal prosecution to the Department of Justice.
Although few violations in the sales of new automobiles had been anticipated, Office investigations during the quarter disclosed a number of violations by franchised dealers. The National Automobile Dealers Association and many of the local automobile dealers associations were very helpful in getting compliance with the new car regulation. One of the principal problems encountered in enforcing the new car regulation was the depressed value of trade-ins.
78 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Durable Goods
During the quarter many consumer durable goods began to reach the shelves of the retailers, such as radios, washing machines, vacuum ■cleaners, refrigerators, and other appliances. While most of these items were pretagged and were covered by regulations which could he handled by the price control boards, a large number of cases were referred to the Office by the boards. A program was worked out for the reinvestigation of those establishments found by the price control boards to be charging over the ceiling. The price control boards also worked on securing compliance with MPR 580 covering furniture and bedding. A number of these cases were also referred to’the Office, and reinvestigations were made where the boards found overceiling sales.
In the past the Office devoted about 80 percent of the manpower assigned to durable goods enforcement to preretail investigations and only 20 percent to retail investigations. Since such a large number of durable goods items were being sold at retail during the quarter, however, it became necessary to devote a larger percentage of manpower to enforcement at the retail levels; a small number of well-trained investigators continued to work on investigations of large manufacturers and distributors of durable goods. By efficient use of a relatively small number of investigators and attorneys, violations of the durable goods regulations were held to a minimum.
Apparel and Textiles
A new major sanction retail program was launched during the quarter. A filing program was successfully completed under MPR 607, the new men’s tailored clothing program, preliminary to a price investigation program. Otherwise, activity continued under existing programs with particular emphasis on the piece-goods black market, men’s shirts and shorts, and women’s outerwear.
Services
A power laundry enforcement program was launched during the quarter, disclosing a large number of violations through unauthorized price rises for various laundry services. Innumerable complaints from the public for overcharges on automobile services led to a decision that a program of short duration would be needed for enforcing ceilings on such services.
Rent
By installing time-saving techniques for handling rent referrals, and by a closer supervision of the activities of the district offices,
Enforcement • 79
enforcement of the ordinary overcharges and registration violations was greatly improved.
One of the most serious problems in rent enforcement was illegal evictions by landlords. The United States Supreme Court, in Bowles yr. Lee, clearly upheld the right of the United States district court to enjoin a State proceeding which is not in keeping with the rent regulations. This case materially helped the enforcement of the rent regulations and went a long way toward reducing the number of wrongful evictions. Wrongful evictions, however, were still a major problem during the quarter, and plans were made for an aggressive rent enforcement program during the following quarter, calculated to reduce further the number of such evictions.
The Office tried out several techniques for apprehending the increasing evasive violations of the rent regulations. These violations included side payments, bonuses, furniture tie-in agreements, and so forth. In Boston, New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco a number of landlords who had been guilty of evasive practices were arrested. It was decided to place more emphasis on this phase of the rent enforcement work.
LITIGATION
Three important decisions in aid of effective price and rent control were handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States during the second quarter of 1946.
In Porter v. Lee2 and Porter v. Dicken3 the Supreme Court unanimously upheld attempts of the Administrator to obtain injunctions protecting the rights of tenants against the unlawful attempts of landlords to evict them. In Porter v. Lee the Court held that a Federal district court had power to enjoin eviction proceedings in a State court. The lower court had disclaimed such power on the ground that section 205 (c) of the Price Control Act conferred concurrent jurisdiction on State courts of noncriminal enforcement proceedings under section 205 of the act. The Supreme Court held, however, that eviction proceedings were not enforcement proceedings under section 205. The Court also ruled that the case was not rendered moot by the fact that the tenant had been forced to vacate the premises pending appeal.
In Porter v. Dicken the Supreme Court finally set at rest the question of whether section 265 of the Judicial Code |operates to bar injunction proceedings in Federal courts, under section 205 (a) of the Price Control Act, to restrain State court proceedings. Reaffirming and further clarifying its decision in Bowles v. Willingham* the Supreme Court made it plain that section 265 of the Judicial Code had been impliedly
2 66 8. Ct. 1096, decided May 27,1946.
• 66 S. Ot. 1094, decided May 27,1946.
4 321 U. 8. 503; see Ninth Quarterly Report, p. 78.
80 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
amended by the Price Control Act, so that the section did not prevent the Administrator from seeking injunctive relief in the Federal courts to restrain unlawful evictions in the State courts.
The third decision of the Supreme Court was Porter v. Warner Holding Company,5 which upheld the Administrator’s right in an enforcement action under section 205 (a) to compel a landlord to make restitution to the tenant of overcharges he had paid. Restitution was appropriate and necessary, the Court held, to enforce compliance with the act and to give effect to its purposes ; and as the Court said, future compliance also is more definitely assured “if one is compelled to restore one’s illegal gains.” Support for its decision was found by the Supreme Court in the language of the act, in the legislative history of section 205 (a), and in the traditional powers of a court of equity. The Court ruled that the right to obtain damages under section 205 (e) did not impair the Administrator’s right to compel restitution by proceeding under section 205 (a).
Appellate Cases
Significant victories were also obtained in the Circuit Courts of Appeals for the First,6 Seventh,7 and Ninth 8 Circuits and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia9 upholding the right of the Administrator to delegate to regional administrators and district directors the authority to sign and issue subpenas and inspection requirements in the exercise of the investigative functions under section 202 of the Price Control Act.
In the field of tie-in sales, considerable progress was made despite the unfavorable decision in Kraus v. United States.10 Shortly after that decision, the defendant in United States v. George F. Fish, Inc. et al., moved for a rehearing in the circuit court of appeals, which was granted, but the court adhered to its previous decision affirming the conviction of the defendant, who “tied in” sales of broccoli and other vegetables to sales of lettuce.11 In the Fish case, the evasion clause of the regulation contained the specific language lacking in the regulation involved in the Kraus case, namely, language expressly prohibiting “evasion * * * by tying agreement.” The lettuce was sold at ceiling price, and the other commodities (which were not under price control) at the market price. Since certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court in this case, it may safely be presumed that the latter Court agreed with the Office contention that the
• 66 S. Ct. 1086, decided June 3, 1946 (Justices Rutledge, Frankfurter, and Reed dissenting).
6 Porter v. Murray, d/b/a Victory Lumber Co., decided June 28,1946.
i Pinkus v. Porter, decided May 2, 1946.
s Porter v. Qantner-Mattern, decided June 24,1946.
’ Ralev v. Porter, decided June 17,1946.
» 66 S. Ct. 705; see Seventeenth Quarterly Report, p. 102.
11154 F. 2d 798 (C. C. A. 2d), certiorari denied June 10,1946.
Enforcement • 81
Kraus case is to be limited to those regulations which make no mention of, and carry no prohibition against, tie-in agreements.
A tie-in decision favorable to the Administrator was also upheld on appeal in an appellate case brought for injunctive relief.12 In one district court case, where wine was tied in with sales of beer, the court awarded as damages an amount equaLto the full purchase price of the wine involved in the tie-in sale.13
Certiorari was denied in a number of cases of broad import in which the Administrator’s contentions had been upheld below.14 The Supreme Court, however, granted certiorari in United States v. Bruno,15 decided adversely to the Administrator by the third circuit, where the problem raised was of importance in Office efforts to curb “upgrading.”
An important ruling was obtained in Porter v. Granite State Packing Company,™ wherein the Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit decided that injunctive relief may not be denied because hostilities have ceased and that the Price Control Act must continue to be enforced until Congress provides otherwise. In accord with this latter ruling were several other decisions-by district courts.17
A set-back was received in two cases in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,18 involving the application of retroactive price orders. Petition for rehearing was filed in these cases. Two other cases involving related issues were argued in other circuit Courts of appeal but were still undecided at the close of the quarter.19
There were several appellate court decisions which should greatly help in curbing evasive price and rent control practices. Criminal proceedings instigated by a landlord against a tenant for willful trespass were restrained by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on the ground that the landlord was using this device to evade the rent regulation provisions restricting evictions.20 The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that particular arrangements purporting to be a lease or contract of employment with respect to dealings in beef and veal were evasion of price control.21 The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected a meat dealer’s attempted defense that he had acted as an agent for retailer customers.22
u Coffin-Redington Co. v. Porter (C. C. A. 9th), May 22,1946.
13 Porter v. Sullivan (S. D. Fla.), May 15,1946; but see Bowles v. Thiel, (E. D. Wis.), January 8,1946.
14 Lentin v. Porter, April 22, 1946; Taylor v. Porter, April 22, 1946; United States v. George P. Fish, Inc. June 10,1946; Schreffler v. Bowles, June 10, 1946.
14 May 13, 1946.
16 (C. C. A. 1st) June 5, 1946.
w E. g_, Bowles v. Ormesher Bros. (D. O. Neb., Civil No. 63, May 1946); Bowles v. Soverinsky, (E. D| Mich., No. 5558).
l> Porter v. Block, May 23, 1946; Porter v. Sherwood Distilling Co., May 23, 1946.
10 Martini v. Porter (C. C. A. 9th; Porter v. Kramer (C. C. A. 8th).
20 Bowles v. Hayes, April 17,1946.
21 Porter v. James Henry Packing Co., June 5,1946.
22 Batson v. Bowles, April 8,1946.
82 • Eighteenth Quarterly Report
Of interest also was the decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that the Taft amendment (sec. 2 (j) of the act), preventing the Administrator from requiring grade labeling, is applicable only to regulations issued by the Administrator and not to regulations issued by the Stabilization Director under authority of the Stabilization Act of 1942.23 This case also held that the validity of such a regulation issued by the Stabilization Director, requiring the grade labeling of meat, may be challenged in an enforcement proceeding—i. e., the “exclusive jurisdiction” provisions of the Emergency Price Control Act were inapplicable—and the court went oh to sustain the validity of this regulation (OES Directive No. 1).
STATISTICAL SUMMARY
Slightly more than 40,000 investigations were coippleted and more than 33,000 violations established during the quarter.
Sanctions of various types were employed in the large majority of the violations disposed of. Court proceedings were instituted in
Statistical Summary of ^Enforcement Activity, April—June 1946
Type of action Number
Investigations and violations:
Investigations completed 40,053
Violations found with and without investigation 33i 177
Administrative enforcement:
Warning letters and informal adjustments 3,308
License warning notices 3,553
Suspension order proceedings instituted 2,934
Determination proceedings instituted 6 .
Monetary settlements:
Administrator's consumer damage claim 4,424
Administrator’s own damage claim ¿397
Litigation instituted:
Administrator’s consumer damage suit 3,758
Administrator’s own damage suit . 992
Injunction suit 8,427
License suspension suit i 256
Federal Criminal prosecution i 673
Local criminal prosecution L_ 562
Contempt proceedings 1 100
Proceedings completed:
Administrative proceedings closed ; 2,822
Proceedingscompleted . 2351
Order issued (won) 2,312
Order denied (lost) 139
Percent won.....! 94,3
Proceedings withdrawn 371
Court litigation closed:
Civil litigation closed 2 12,423
Proceedings completed 9,418
Won 9,074
Lost i __ 344
Percent won 96.3
Withdrawn 3,005
Criminal litigation closed3 1,461
Proceedings completed 1,198
Won 1,123
Lost 75
Percent won 93.7
Withdrawn 262
3 Number of cases.
3 Number of cases, except for number of defendants in contempt proceedings.
3 Number of defendants.
.33 Blalack v. United States, April 5, 1946.
Enforcement • 83
almost 15,000 treble damage suits, injunction suits, license suspension suits, Federal and local criminal prosecutions, and contempt proceedings. More than 2,900 suspension order proceedings were instituted. Monetary settlements were made in approximately 5,800 cases.
In addition, 3,300 cases were closed with a warning letter or informal adjustment, and approximately 3,550 cases were closed with the issuance of a Ecense warning notice.
The department completed 2,450 administrative proceedings, more than 9,000 civil court proceedings of all types, and nearly 1,200 Federal and local criminal prosecutions. Favorable decisions were obtained in 94.3 percent of the administrative proceedings completed, 96.3 percent of the civil proceedings, and 93.7 percent of the criminal prosecutions.
Settlements, judgments, and fines during the quarter amounted to $6,169,788.
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