Ottawa, Apr. 10.
Y starting early and holding a firm rein on the four-horse team of the manufacturer, the merchant, the worker and the public, the Canadian Government has from the outset of the war maintained prices at a level which has saved the consumer and the taxpayer an incalculable number of millions of dollars. Although the country has now been at war for eighteen months, the cost of living has risen only about 7.3 per cent and the prices of these essentials for war industry—steel, timber, oil, base metals and machine tools—have all been kept at such levels that the delicate balance of the national economy has been less disturbed than it used to be by relatively small booms or depressions, says Mr. P. J. Philip in the "New York Times."
Such a result has not, of course addi al supplies from been obtained by any happy acci-were arranged and not a single mil-dent. Nor has it been obtained by itary order was delayed for lack of any "strong-arm" measures on the part of the government, There have. los price problem was chiefly been no swinging of heavy clubs and concerned with cross-bred wool no acute struggles. Both "capital" which is essential for army cloth, and labour have been kept in line by Taking the probable landed price of fair treatment more than by threats, new clip New Zealand wool as a and perhaps most of all by the realiza-basis. a price was fixed which was tion that whichever of them first tried 45 per cent above the immediate to break ranks would run into trouble pre-war price but considerably bewith the government representing the low the then prevailing preies in the community as a whole and that the United States. Canadian growers community, being at war, would not were given the paid down price of tolerate the trouble-makers, New Zealand wool and the use of Canadian wools was so encouraged.
Hoarding Checked Cod Liver Oil The public itself and, of course. the intermediary merchant between the producer and the consumer have also hed to be kept in line, but that too has been done without at any time more than a slight pressure on the reins and the merest suggestion of a crack of the whip. What attempts there were by the public at the outbreak to bolt and upset the economic balance by hoarding were outmanceured and checked, and whenever the merchant thinks the time has come for a rise in profits he finds himself being held in line almost instantaneously by the public acting through the men in the driving seat, Bles lity of Plan Stressed AN this has not. of course, Ibeen done without careful planning and. what was perhaps even more im~ portant, almost immediate application of the plan. it has also not been done without carefully studied variations in the plan, for each of the four members of the team must be managed differently and each of them has different moods and momentary needs, The mechanism by which both the system of price structure and price level has been so carefully maintained was by the immediate setting up on the outbreak of war of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board. which deals with all necessities. and the institution shortly afterward by the Miniter of Munitions ofa number of special controllers. The latters' broad powers included that of fixing prices, if that should be necessary. but their real strength y in their knowledge business and labour conditions and the r spect in which they wer held personally by the corporation; and men with whom they had to deal, Persuasion and explanation have Cod liver oil provides another excellent example of how the board has worked. The normal peacetime Consumption was about 300.000 gal-lens annually. half of which went for Fimen cersunption erd Have for poultry and other livestock. Before the war, three-quarters of this amount was imported. but the Switch of the British fishing fleets to war purposes brought an immediate reduction in the imports and notice that no shipments could be guaranteed beyond the Spring of 1940. When Norway was invaded all supplies from that source ended.
The first action of the board was to prevent export of the oil except under licence. It then set about trying to increase production, leaving prices free so as to reduce concnmption end to encourage the individual fisherman to save fist/ livers, handle them carefully and deliver them to the extracting plants in good condition. Although Canada was short of refining equivment. good progress has been made in producing medicinal oil. and the output of good grade crude oils has been nearly tripled. At the same time the price of medicinal oil has been increased to only a trifling extent. This case of control is cited as an example of how and when "no control" is the better policy if the aim is to increase supplies.
In cases such as cross-bred wool, wheat flour and bread where max! mum prices have been fixed. careful examination of stocks and of books was carried out before the action was taken.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.