PRICE FIXING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 252, 21 September 1933, Page 7

PRICE FIXING

CONTROLLED INFLATION SCHEME. POSITION IN AMERICA. AGRICULTURE SECRETARY’S STATEMENT. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 21, 9.35 a.m. CHICAGO, Sept. 20. Mr Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, to-day told the United States Grain Dealers’ Association that he still favoured controlled inflation. At the same time, he criticised the United States’s high tariff psychology and issued the warning that attempts to fix prices without control of production were doomed to failure. He added: “Most . price-fixers are also inflationists and if the purchasing power of farm products docs not improve within three months price-fixers and inflationists will have great power in Congress during the coming winter and there will bo passed legislation which will make the Agricultural Adjustment Act seem extraordinarily conservative.” He concluded: “We are merely tiding over a difficult situation instead of retiring completely from the world market. Our people will soon come to their senses sufficiently to be willing to make rational adjustments in the tariff and eventually even in the policy of lending money abroad.” AVOIDING A STATEMENT. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S FEARS. Received September 21, 10.45 a.m. WASHINGTON, Sept. 20. Senator Thomas asserted to-day that President Roosevelt is gradually bringing about the inflation of currency, but that “ho will not even dare admit it.” Senator Thomas added: “My opinion is that President Roosevelt does not want to make a statement on inflation, because if he even hinted at it commodity prices would jump too fast and too high before money is distributed among the people. When all these codes are signed under the N.R.A. and millions of persons are returned to work the President will be free openly to concede inflation. That time is now approaching rapidly.” Tlie New York Evening Post’s Washington correspondent says that while President Roosevelt has been avoiding definite currency inflation moves, the opinion prevails in Washington that partial devaluation of the gold value of the dollar to a lower level than prevailed when the gold standard was dropped is inevitable when the United States again stabilises its currency. PRESIDENT ACQUIESCES. RECEPTION OF DEPUTATION. Received September 21, 8.50 a.m. WASHINGTON, Sept. 20. President Roosevelt announced today that he would receive the Southern delegation urging United States currency inflation. Meanwhile, he has maintained a strict silence regarding his views on the subject. CURRENCY STABILISATION. PEGGING ADVOCATED. Received September 21, 9.0 a.m. WASHINGTON, Sept. 20. Reliable information received tonight indicates that a committee of monetary experts secretly appointed by President Roosevelt to advise him on inflation is opposed to radical inflation, but recommends the immediate stabilisation of American, British, French and German currencies by pegging them to each other. PRESIDENT’S TASKS. DEMANDS FOR INFLATION. CONTROVERSIES CONTINUE. WASHINGTON, Sept. 19. Keeping pace with renewed demands for inflation to aid United States agriculture, the Administration to-day disclosed plans for spreading 400,000,000 dollars over farm States within six months to ease the mortgage burdens of farmers. Concurrently with this announcement by the Farm Credit Administration, spokesmen for cotton and silver pressed upon White House demands for currency expansion immediately as part of the recovery campaign. A gigantic march on Washington next month is proposed by Senator Thomas as a pro-inflation demonstration. Unless the President acts meanwhile, he proposes to have a million farmers, industrial workers and war veterans from all parts of the nation parade the streets of the capital. Controversies over price-fixing and functions of the various Labour arbitration boards have attracted major interest in the National Recovery Act to-day. At a hearing of the pivotal retailers’ code, the so-called planning division of the National Recovery Act, -whose membership includes a group of noted economists, declared that pricefixing would wreck the whole recovery programme. They said it would decrease consumption, cause widespread business failures, and make “indefinite monetary inflation” necessary. The strike situation has apparently heavily taxed the patience of the arbitration officials. Senator Wagner, chairman of the Central Board, threatened to resign over alleged interference by General Hugh Johnson’s subordinates. However, the situation was smoothed over by General Johnson’s orders to local boards not to supersede the Central Board in strike negotiations. CODE VIOLATED. CONTRACTOR PROSECUTED. NEWARK (New Jersey), Sept. 19. In what is believed to be the first court trial for violation of the N.R.A. code, a local clothing contractor was found guilty for violating the State N.R.A. Enforcement Act in failing to pay his employees back pay owed under the code. Sentence was deferred. There is no intimation as to the probable nature of the sentence. ASSISTANT-SECRETARY APPOINTED. WASHINGTON, Sept. 19. . A former Congressman, M. R. Walton Moore, has been appointed by President Roosevelt to succeed Professor Moloy as Assistant-Secretary of State. It is understood Mr Moore will assume charge of the debt negotiations opening next month.