U.S.A.’s BLACK MARKET

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1945, Page 6

U.S.A.’s BLACK MARKET

TYRE INSPECTORS INVOLVED As might bo expected th'e black market in America is both bold ami ingenious, and in some respects horribly shameful, as the American public has come to realise (reports A. If Rothman, “Sydney Morning Heraldcorrespondent in New York). The’most wretched incident to dale is the case of a well-known physician who one day was hailed as a public benefactor and the next was disclosed as particularly infamous-. | Ho devised a bandage of such , a '•co'i .tfuclion that it was adopted oy life military as the best suited lor wounds which hitherto did not reanhiv lend themselves to bandaging. He undertook to .manufacture this bandage for the Army and Navy, mu. v.-as accorded facilities. He was a-.su • iven carte blanche in requisitioning bandage materials. Government investigators have disclosed that the physician has been diverting the bandage material. m the manufacturers of handkerchiei c-c-m On over two million yards, he made a profit of 500,000 dollars. This ' mmplo of heartlessness, where the her-' lives of the fighting men pi ' mcrica and her Allies were put m ■ ■enm-d-.' stifflv jolted uublic opinion. ' Ple’-nans have been slow to realise i hat vou may begin with the almost : tpir. ’: en; practice of buying blackmarket steak for a dollar a pound, , "and take a road that leads to danI ge-ous abandonment of values. ■The ingenuity of the black marketer is only equalled by his play for large stakes. He prints and disi tHbutos counterfeit petrol ration c\ noons, by hundreds of millions, and 1 ho‘black-market diversion of petrol runs into anywhere from 200 mlhons to a bihion gallons a year. He hauls coal's from wild-cat mines by lorry, and, because this coal does not travel by the railway, it is difficult to trace. Hr- ccours the countryside buying live •siock and slaughters it in unlicensed abaitohs deep in the woods, and then distributes the meat _m a way which the authorities find is difficult to trocc* pfe does not maintain butcher '•■hoos. hut visits basements of large firn" and there meets cooks of families' living in these flats, and takes his orders lor meat. This occurs m ....on-m of the largest and most exclusive'houses in the principal cities. ’ ’ Th---' black marketer is ollcn pro-•x'H-cd IO Jose money on one .item m e-vf.'f-" to make much more on another Th’v ■ ho himself pays black-market nricos for Scotch whisky, and resells •i, to o i‘ot.?i!cr at a listed price—but for each case of Scotch the purchaser m' I '-.! also take five cases ol some doubtful brand cf rum or wine. Government inspectors recently have become suspicious of large ■stock-; of virtually unsaleable liquoi in many shops. They have tried to work back into the black market with this evidence. Eut liquor retailers are getting “wise. They are dumping in sewers the bad rums and wine's they are compelled to buy m lhe "iie-in” sales. A fertile source of corruption is the v ery source that is supposed to or force'rationing and price laws. Thus, recently it was disclosed that ’ Government tyre inspectors have -nnripmned as unusable tyres which still have plenty of road wear potential. The same inspectors have ti-Zeafffir sent around their hench-m-?n to buy these tyres at hxeu ir’ces for waste rubber, and have •hen resold them on the black mar- ' ket for high prices.

RACKET IN CANDY Just because candy brings a higher nr ; co than cake, sugar, butter, and bp which housewives find irnpos--.ibJe to obtain at the shops, although Ihc'V ore essentials of diet, can no ,-btained in the form of candy at 10 limes the price. Bakers, who have had their suear, butter, and fats allowances reduced or fixed, all on the basis of their pre-war production output, find it more profitable to covert a large part of their supplies to ihc black market. Sugar for which thc-y pay four cents a pound sells toiywhere for from 15 to 25 cents on brio black market, in barrel lots. Ctvßdy-rncikcvs con affoid to p<. J meh prices for additional sugar thev need bdcau.se their confections, sold oven on the legitimate market, are much higher-priced merchanise than CU Used cars are to-day America’s greatest racket. The resale price ol automobiles is fixed, and the number of used cars available is small. But profits are unimaginable. A car which sold for a thousano dollars new may have a fixed resaie price of GOO dollars. But if it has radio in it, the prospective purchaser buvs the radio separately, for 1,-J'W dollars, although its original value may have been only 25 dollars. 1a? radio transaction, naturally, docs no. annear on paper. . , Black, markets, of course , exist everywhere. Where there are money and ' limited civilian supplies, there yot." have them. In America, however, they offer the grandest example of. civic complacency and danger.