MEASURES TO CURB U.S. INFLATION

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25364, 11 December 1947, Page 7

MEASURES TO CURB U.S. INFLATION

Mr Truman Submits Bill WIDE ECONOMIC POWERS SOUGHT

<N2. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 9. The first piece of legislation detailing President Truman's anti-inflation programme, in the form of a bill which would give the Government powers to ration food and buy entire crops, and broad priority and allocation powers over scarce industrial materials, was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee to-day by the Secretary of Commerce (Mr Averell Harriman).

Specific allocation powers are sought over iron and steel, bread grains, rice, dried beans and peas, fats, oils, margarine, soap, live stock, poultry, and milk.

The bill would also authorise Mr Truman, after public hearings, to allocate other materials if he found that shortages were affecting industrial production, the cost of living, national defence, and foreign policy.

The proposed powers would remain in force until March, 1950. Mr Harriman told the sub-committee, however, that the Administration did not intend to use the priority and allocation powers on a scale approaching war-time controls. The bill was drafted in response to continuous Republican requests to be told just what the Administration wanted, it appears certain, however, that Congress will not act on the measures this session. The, Republicans viewed it as a case of asking for “too much too late,” and proceeded with their own plans to enact legislation next week which would extend export controls as the only compulsory measure. The Republican programme, as tentatively outlined, would seek to halt the price spiral through other voluntary measures rattier than through the “stand-by authority” requested by Mr Truman.