"PRICE SQUEEZING”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 December 1942, Page 3

"PRICE SQUEEZING”

CONDEMNED BY AMERICAN COMMITTEE DEMAND FOR AMENDED POLICY. ADMINISTRATOR RESIGNS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) WASHINGTON, December 18. The preliminary report by a House of Representatives committee, after a year’s investigation of small business problems, blamed the Office of Price Administration policies for a threatened breakdown on the home front. The report asserted that the consumer goods distribution system had been seriously undermined and weakened, and that: “A collapse gravely imperilling the entire war effort appears to be inevitable unless these policies are speedily corrected. Two factors—price squeezing and inequitable distribution —must be adjusted in order to prevent the closing of thousands of business doors.” The report characterised the entire system as “bureaucracy run riot.” ' The Price Administrator (Mr L. Henderson) has resigned. Asked whether Mr Henderson’s-re-signation might lead to voluntary rationing control replacing drastic compulsion, President Roosevelt . replied that the rationing machinery was constantly being overhauled and revised He did not know what further rationing changes might be forthcoming .