SENATE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA, Roundup, Mont., May 14, 1951. Washington, D. C. Hon. WESLEY A. D'EWART, Congressman, DEAR WESLEY: I have endeavored to study and understand something about OPS regulations affecting retail merchants and find it very difficult to understand fully the explanation, to say nothing of the regulations themselves. It seems to me the merchants, especially the smaller ones, are faced with what is actually an impossible situation. They are expected to get their price credit list all completed, mailed in, and acknowledged before May 31. They are required to locate and list from every invoice, no matter how old. I do not believe that we actually have inflationary conditions, at least in this locality. For instance, take the hardware and appliance people. Their shelves are loaded with goods and what they need above everything else is salesmen and bill collectors. If there were a shortage, there might be a reason for some type of price regulation. The OPS system, however, goes far and away beyond anything that was ever devised by a Government agency. Their staff does not seem to pretend to explain these regulations. They simply tell the merchants to comply or else. This situation reminds me of 1920 and I would not be surprised if we were about to enter a period of lower prices stemming from bad accounts and large inventories. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that we would be a lot better off without the OPS. DEAR MR. D'EWART: The recent price roll-back of beef by Price Controller DiSalle is in effect not "price control" but confiscation of millions of dollars worth of beef cattle. Freedom is getting pretty bottled when the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen can wreck an agricultural enterprise overnight. If the ranchers' operating costs were rolled back similarly then there would be some sense to it but the roll-back represents what profit there was in the business. Personally I'm not going to attempt to make ends meet under such a penalty. Mine are going to market, and I'm going fishing as apparently the Government knows how to raise them cheaper. Would be glad to get your views and is there a possibility of a repeal. A. R. BUCHLI. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, Hon. WESLEY ABNER D'EWART, House of Representatives Office Building, Washington 25, D. C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN D'EWART: The United Mine Workers' district 27 of the State of Montana, request that you lend your support in opposition to the extension of the Defense Production Act of 1950 which will expire on June 30, 1951. District 27 joins with the international executive board of the United Mine Workers in deploring the original passage of this ill-conceived, restrictive and prejudicial legislation. We denounce its present confused and confounded administration and condemn it as absolutely inoperative. We further consider the abortive attempts to stabilize prices and wages as a direct violation of your manifesto to protect the American way of life. Sincerely yours, W. E. BOYLE, President, District 27, UMWA. Congressman D'EWART, Washington, D. C. THE FROID DRUG CO., DEAR MR. D'EWART: This man DiSalle looks like a third rate bartender. However, judging from his orders, etc., I doubt very much if he can qualify as a good third rate bartender. I am 68 years old-operate a small drug store-my wife and myself operate this store. I would not live long enough to comply with the damn orders that DiSalle has sent out for drug stores. His order CPR 7 demands price date, records, and tabulations which go far beyond the physical ability of most retail druggists to meet. In the next town north of here is a store operated by Clint Poe and his son and they have about the same sized stock as myself. Poe told me yesterday that he and his son spent 8 hours making the required list of vitamins only and then was unable to supply the information required. Vitamins would not amount to even 1 percent of our stock. Demands of DiSalle are unreasonable and unwarranted, in fact, they are impossible to comply with. And to make this worse, they threaten us with FBI investigators. They are well trained we are told. are told we will have our store closed-be jailed-be fined, etc. We With a few like DiSalle making threats I ask, "Why should we fear communism?" Those kind of guys will make Communists. I think it is up to Congress immediately to stop this kind of business before it has a chance to do any more damage—damage to business and damage to our citizenship. These orders must have been complied with before May 31 or many penalities apply. An extension is no good. As I said, I would not live long enough to comply with this damn order. Kick DiSalle out-replace him with a more sensible and reasonable manand see that orders are such that any well-meaning small-business man can comply with without spending the rest of his life doing it. Congress must get busy on this. Yours truly, F. L. DARLAND, M. D. MISSOULA COUNTY CENTRAL TRADES AND LABOR COUNCIL, Representative WESLEY D'EWART, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: The local unions of Missoula, Mont., through this body, have expressed their dissatisfaction with the unfair treatment meted out to the working people of America, organized and unorganized alike, by the officials of the Wage Stabilization Board and price-fixing agencies. The workers of America stand ready and willing to assume their fair share of the responsibility in the mobilization of our country for its protection. Our people fully realize the gravity of the present state of affairs, and wish to cooperate wholeheartedly with our Government, but we feel that we have been discriminated against, and have not been given a fair opportunity to fulfill our obligations as American citizens. We therefore humbly request your able assistance in bringing about a fair and equitable adjustment of the unfair and glaring apparent hostility toward Labor of the officials responsible for wage and price fixing. We feel certain you will do everything in your power to restore peace and harmony among the people of America for the common good. We know this is a job for all the people, and we must have harmony to achieve our common objective. Thanking you for your attention, I am, Yours truly, JAMES S. UMBER, Secretary. Hon. WESLEY D'EWART, Washington, D. C.: GLENDIVE MEAT MARKET, Last month I received a flock of regulations for the small slaughterers which I thought were a lot of nonsense. This morning I received a worse mess from the OPS on retail food ceilings. No sane man could have written so many pages and say nothing. Practically all of our prices will not have to be changed according to the mark-ups but the reading and work and regulations are enough to drive a merchant nuts. And today after hearing of the MacArthur deal I am more than ever in favor of ousting our President and all of his henchmen and "Stabilouser's." If Truman couldn't even run a shirt shop, how can be run a country? Sincerely, NICK MEISSNER. MAY 12, 1951 Whereas we, the Custer County Farm Bureau of the State of Montana, assembled here at Bolborg, Mont., in regular meeting this 11th day of May 1951, do recognize our duty and privilege to consider any and all things for the betterment of agricultural and the economy of the state and Nation; and Whereas we fully realize the emergency now facing our people, both nationally and internationally, and pledge ourselves, wholeheartedly, to exert every effort in the production of more agricultural products; and Whereas we are ever cognizant that beef prices are high but that any and all articles, we must of necessity purchase are equally high, such as, farm machinery, automobiles, trucks, and transportation charges; and Whereas it is our firm conviction that price controls and roll-backs on beef or any agricultural product tends to depreciate the individual initiative to produce more; and Whereas it is our earnest belief that increased production is the real solution to inflation: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Custer County Farm Bureau go on record as being unalterably opposed to the reenactment of article IV of the Defense Production Act; and be it further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be sent to each of the following persons: Senator James E. Murray, Senator Zales N. Ecton, Congressman Mike Mansfield, Congressman Wesley A. D'Ewart, and OPS Administrator Michael DiSalle. Hon. Representative WESLEY D'EWART, CUSTER COUNTY FARM BUREAU, PETERSON Co. HARDWARE, Plentywood, Mont., May 15, 1951. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR REPRESENTATIVE D'EWART: We would like to urge you to do something about this OPS CPR amendment 2. We have a hard enough time trying to run our business, pay taxes, and meet the plentiful competition there is nowadays without this senseless mass of complicated detail being shoved upon us. It's absolutely ridiculous as far as we are concerned and if the OPS gets away with it, even in a modified form, they will probably have more regulations to pile on it. You know our country here and how through the years the merchants have had to take whatever Mother Nature offered us and it was damn slim pickings at times too. And now we are supposed to buck competition, crop conditions, pay-tillit-hurts taxes, and with it all the Government hoists on this mess of regulations to make it just as disagreeable as possible. The incentive system is sure taking an awful beating. Are we to turn into another Great Britain with its somethingfor-everybody free program and nobody-actually-gets-nothing system? If there's a big scarcity a lot of us merchants with big overstocks wish they'd notify someone down some place to come up and take this merchandise off our hands. We might even give them a good discount way under OPS margins. Well, you have an idea how we feel about OPS, and I've yet to find a merchant who thought it was worth a good * * *. Whatever you can do to take it and throw the whole mess on Joe Stalin will be appreciated. It would cause a bigger eruption than the atomic bomb we're sure. Very truly yours, DONALD D. PETERSON. Volume 1, series 1-this is the first of a series until this damn thing is thrown at DeSoto or DiSalle or whatever his name is. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, WESLEY D'EWART, United States Representative, Washington, D. C. DEAR REPRESENTATIVE D'EWART: At our last regular meeting of local No. 2301, U. M. W. of A., Stockett, Mont., the membership urged you oppose the extension of the Defense Production Act of 1950, which expires on June 30, 1951. Sincerely yours, JOHN MATEL, Recording Secretary. STATEMENT FROM THE FARMERS UNION HERALD, JUNE 4, 1951 Both the administration of price control and hearings on the Defense Production Act are proving to be a farce. DiSalle's crack-down on meat prices and other commodities have cost housewives and farmers millions of dollars. The result of price ceilings here in Washington have upped the price of meat by about 10 percent. DiSalle's controls on prices of things the farmer buys have also been increased. DiSalle has shown a tender solicitude for businessmen at the same time that he was talking loudly about cracking down on them. The Price Administrator was confronted by a Farmers Union spokesman at a recent conference about this situation. The spokesman for FU asked DiSalle bluntly what he was going to do about the daily rising costs of everything the farmer buys, particularly those commodities and materials necessary for farm production. DiSalle lamely replied that he would not do anything to penalize efficiency, adding, however, that when profits in an industry were unduly high he would turn down applications for price increases. Many here believe that DiSalle is conducting his campaign for the Senate from his office in Washington. There is a persistent rumor that DiSalle wants to get into politics. STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD H. REES, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KANSAS Mr. REES. Mr. Chairman, I am submitting for the record a letter I have received from Mr. E. T. Anderson, of Emporia, Kans., one of the successful cattle feeders and livestock operators in my part of the country. Mr. Anderson has had a lifelong experience in the livestock business. He understands the problem from all angles. Mr. Anderson and his son, who own the Anderson Cattle Co., have produced hundreds of thousands of tons of beef for the market during the past few years. I feel his statement is entitled to consideration from the membership of this committee and from the country. Hon. EDWARD H. REES, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. MAY 24, 1951. DEAR MR. REES: In order to make it more clear how the recent roll-back order on beef and cattle has affected us, I wish to present the following facts. We do not raise any cattle but buy what is known as feeder cattle, mostly steers (occasionally some feeder heifers). These feeding cattle are raised and grown by ranchers and vary a great deal in quality and price but usually are 2 to 3 years old when we buy them. These feeding cattle are not fleshy enough to be desirable for slaughter, so we place them on a ration of all the grain that they will consume for a period of 40 to 120 days or until they are good killing cattle. We continue this operation throughout the whole year. In order to do this we buy cattle constantly and also have cattle ready for the market all the time throughout the year. Owing to the high prices prevailing on feeding cattle from the middle of January and the high price of grain our net profits on cattle purchased after January 15 has been below 2 percent, even up to the time this roll-back order was announced. When this order was announced we had some over 1,400 steers in our feed lots. It should be very plain that if we had a margin of profit in those cattle of 2 percent and the packers are ordered to reduce the price 10 percent that we must take a loss of 8 percent on our holdings or some over $25 per head. According to Michael DiSalle this 10 percent referred to above is to be turned over to the packers and retailers, who have made him believe that they were in a squeeze. This might apply to some small inefficient packer but as to the big packers, it is out-and-out silly. The big packers can reduce the price on live cattle any time they see fit to do so. They always have been able to do so and can do so now. The best evidence is what they did to the market the first 2 weeks of this month, commencing May 1 when $3 per hundred were taken off the price on some classes of steers. Last January, when the OPS placed a ceiling on the various grades of beef, the packers were fully informed and without any floor under the price of live animals it does not make sense that the packers would continue to buy live cattle at a price where they would lose money. There was nothing to keep them from making their purchases in line with the market. An ordinary junk dealer would use better judgment than that. This roll-back order with all of its inconsistencies and unworkable features is the most vicious as well as unprecedented order ever forced upon any group of American citizens. We fail to grasp any appreciable difference between taking 10 percent off the value of a bunch of cattle or to take 10 percent out of the bank account after the cattle have been sold and the money placed in the bank. The effect on the owner would be identical. Other provisions in this order are also very dangerous. The setting of quotas, so that at times the packers are prohibited from buying, even though the livestock is available, could prove disastrous to the producer. Only yesterday the headlines of the Kansas City Star read as follows, I quote: "Quota hits hogs, prices dip 50 to 75 cents as supply exceeds OPS slaughter limit." This needs no explanation. Livestock is produced by so many people over such large areas that no coordination exists as to time or numbers to be marketed through out any period, therefore more than natural numbers come to these public markets certain periods. Weather conditions also play a big part as to the time cattle are forced to the markets. These and various reasons make it impracticable to enforce quotas without bad results. Without producing a pound of beef we are adding to our tax burden an untold sum of money to pay for thousands of people who will be needed to carry out this order, besides the millions of dollars it will cost the people who are to carry on their business. Most every manufacturer or producer of manufactured goods put the price tag on for which the article must sell for, not so the farmer and livestock man. He is in a class by himself, who produces the most vital products to sustain life and when he gets that done he lays it on the counter and invites the buyer to help himself and pay for it what he, the buyer, thinks it is worth and still DiSalle now feels obliged to come to the rescue of the poor and innocent packer, and those in the meat trade, who according to DiSalle was being robbed by the farmers and livestock men. |