How A Black Market Was Crushed
MUNRO, DAVID A.
How A Black Market Was Crushed By DAVID A. MUNRO | OS ANGELES.—This ii a story about OPA, the citrua farmera on the West Coast and the crushing af a huga Black Market But it ia more than...
...The State Department has released a document to • show that Hirohito wanted peace before Pearl Harbor...
...Now then," continued Voorhis...
...On the one hand there were disputed jurisdictions between the Office of Facts and Figures, the Office of Government Reports and the several small offices that were absorbed in the huge grabbag that became OWI...
...For a while Davis hesitated at saying yea to the President's proposal, for he realised the headaches involved...
...The proper attitude to take, Crew said, is a "helpful, cooperative spirit, devoid of vim'ictiveness . . ." as noon as Japan is purged of her fanatical militarism...
...The other was a thing known as the "buy-sell" program, the mystery of whose origin, coupled with the passion of its advocacy, indicated to observers strong Administration support...
...Now, to answer the last question of Congressman Voorhia, according to the estimates we have made, under the present regulation on all •ranges, on the average, the whole* sale and jobbing margin would be about $1.73 per box...
...J. F. Gismond, was identified as a buyer for the Atlantic Commission Co., the A&P subsidiary recently indicted for illegally forcimj down prices to potato producers in the Southeast...
...In other words," put in Voorhis, "it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of six times, at a conservative estimate five times, whst it haa historically been...
...Upon cross-examination, they were unable to tell how or where the Government would take possession of the fruit, or how much of a "subsidy" such purchase and sale represented, etc...
...Crew's idea that Shintoism which involves Emperor-worship may be utilized to establish a peaceful Japanese government suggests that Hirohito might become the Badoglio of Japan...
...Secondly, there was the stiff-necked, close-mouthed attitude of the Army and* Navy public relations services which refused to cooperate in the disclosures of news...
...Over the past year, the result has been that in many cases ,our propaganda has been confused and contradictory...
...That problem <has persisted until today...
...Cullen B. Gosnell as its leaders, the League >• steadily gaining influence...
...The new citrus order, affecting oranges and lemons, of which Voorhis boasted, became operative January 10...
...Jerry Voorhia enlarged the question by stating "that historically there was an incentive to have as few middlemen handlers as possible . . . (but) under the present regulation, there is every reason to have at last two handlers...
...isn't it true that the fact the wholesalers have that much more money has been the direct cause for black market operations in oranges, and has given them a tremendous amount of money, the effect of which has been to break down the structure of the cooperative marketing associations...
...The minute the epic battle of the farmers against OPA, in the matter of the citrua order, was over, Congreas, man Jerry Voorhia went on the air in a special broadcast to the California farmers to tell them what he thought...
...Food Administration, showed the amazing price increase received by the handlers, as a whole, as a result of OPA orders...
...And yet it is ludicrous that several years after he took over Mr...
...Policy Toward Post War Japan . . . J.iseph C. Grew, former Ambassador to Japan, declared that it is folly to regard Japan as.a permanent outcast from the family of nations...
...With evident pride, the League members point to the repudiation of the Talmadge Administration, the great strides that have been made in education, the recent reform in prison administration and the extension of the suffrage to men and women between the ages of 18 and 21...
...This is common sense, but Mr...
...Congressmen continually questioned the OPA officials to find out where in OI'A the producers were represented...
...For in this case the OPA was on the side of the forces tending towards a black market while the hero waa fighting Congressman Jerry Voorhis...
...Those are the gentlemen who have been getting this wide spread of profits," blurted Congressman Orville Ziminer-" man of Missouri...
...Under "buy-sell" the government was to buy the entire farm crop and sell it to consumers, thus making a subsidy painless...
...Phillips asked: "Isn't it also a fact that it permits more handlers to come into the picture...
...At the end of the year there were two strong politico-commercial currents running counter to the efforts of Jerry Voorhis and the citrus industry to clean up the mess...
...Under questioning by Voorhis, Economist Smith testified that "for the past six or seven years the jobber's margin, or what we call the wholesale margin, has varied in California navel oranges between 25 and 40 cents a box...
...In carrying on its csmpaign ths League emphasizes the amazing political progress made by the state under the administration of the present governor, Ellis Arnall...
...Another, a Mr...
...In a last-ditch effort Elmer Davis has sought to assert his authority and bring some coherence out of the rambling OWI structure...
...President THE current squabble in the Office of War Information, which has now been * dumped ipto the lap of the President, illustrates in tiresome fashion the Administration policy of creating an office, and then tying the hands of the man who directs that office...
...The new regulation," he reported, "reduces prices to the consumers as much as twenty per cent, yet it increases the amounts paid to the farmer-producers...
...Either he can back Mr...
...Hardly a democratic prospect An Editorial— Against Poll Tax In Georgia THE Georgia Electoral Reform * League is carrying on a vigorous campaign for the abolition of the poll tax aa a prerequisite for voting...
...Altogether, the citrusfruit industry was in chaos in 1943...
...AN EDITORIAL Make Up Your Mind, Mr...
...Davis still did not have the real power'to fire a subordinate or revamp a division without putting the matter up to the President...
...Each sub-director had his own private pull with the White House or with some powerful government backer...
...Neither from Democrat nor Republican was there any aid or encouragement for the hidden subsidy feature...
...The new elements ran the black market in oranges and lemons, threatened the life of the cooperative marketing associations, and began, through mysterious political channels, building wide influence in OPA...
...Testimony, extracted piecemeal from OPA representatives themselves, also showed that, before advancing' their own plan, the OPA deferred to "the distributive trade, with whom we have had quite a bit of contact and consultation on margins...
...The effect of this error was to increase the spread between producer and consumer to the point where a whole new xtratum of commercial freebooters were let in to the wholesale and jobbing end of the trade...
...Subsidy bf Indirection JF Jerry Voorhis, whose devotion to the better aspects of the late lamented New Desl cannot be questioned, could call the War Food Administration citrus order a model for the food industry of the future, he certainly could only deplore the odd patchwork quilt the OPA brought in...
...How A Black Market Was Crushed By DAVID A. MUNRO | OS ANGELES.—This ii a story about OPA, the citrua farmera on the West Coast and the crushing af a huga Black Market But it ia more than a story of "cops and robbers" with the brave OPA rushing in to wipe %nt the commercial freebooters and protecting the little farmer and the little consumer...
...One of the currents was the effort to protect commission-men in their high commissions, thus increasing the retaif .price...
...But, faithful to the laat to the lost cause, the OPA had written into their tentative buy-sell plan a schedule of lowered prices to producers, a re-affirmation of the spread for distributors...
...On the other hand, OPA's friends in the distributive trade were slated to be amply protected in the OPA plan—and thereby hangs another tale...
...What had happened was that someone in t)PA made an error in the original drafting of the orders applying to citrus...
...The sorespot in the OWI picture is the Overseas division...
...But the tight to put it over, carried on by hardbitten farmers and Voorhis, was fought bitterly—and strangely so—by OPA...
...But Mr...
...Davis is a very conlpetent journalist, a liberal, and a good executive...
...For California Valencia oranges, Voorhis Exposed OPA Aid to Middlemen in Orange Trade daring the past five years, it haa varied between 25 and 56 cents a box...
...OPA's Frank Gindick stated that "the distributive trade would object very violently to the plan proposed by the War Food Administration...
...It is, significant to remember that when Elmer Davis, the present director of the Office of War Information, took over the job, the appointment was widely hailed...
...But the general enthusiasm convinced Davis that lie should take the job...
...The witness assented...
...to the treasurer, Mrs...
...The Htrald-Tribun* carried a story headlined: "Allies may let Hirohito remain on throne...
...Then they insisted on attributing its origin to Judge Vinson'a office, or to have come from there on the basis of a directive from WFA...
...And it seemed that in the citrus business the closest to a producer was a Mr...
...The situation has now erupted...
...Testimony further showed that, while the easy money was handed out to wholesalers, relentless pressure was put on producers to reduce their per cent, laws requiring parity payments to farmers were virtually rewritten by OPA, and that growers and growers' representatives who continued to plead their case before OPA during the last half of 1943 regularly got the "runaround...
...diamond's connection even with citrus jobbing remained unproved...
...The moral of the story is an old one— the need of courageous spokesmen, like Voorhis, who will battle every step against the plundering attempt* of the "wise guys" and for the interests of the little guy...
...To try to imprison that country in a cordon sanitaire would "create a festering sore...
...New Margins for Old 'TESTIMONY presented by S. R. Smith, former University of California professor, now Deputy Director of the Food Distribution Administration of the War...
...With such outstanding citizens as Judge Edgar Watkins and Dr...
...From the first there were two knots that balled up the situation...
...That is right," said the witness...
...Now it is up to the President...
...And what he thought was considerable...
...Davis and give him the necessary authoiity to do his job, and then test the results fairly, or he can make another of his half-hearted compromises which sweeps one man out of the job, puts anew name to the set-up and simply piles up another office on an already tottering structure...
...Congressmen Voorhis and John Phillipa, both of California, then pursued this questioning almost to the doorstep of OPA...
...Jean Carroll, a former citrus buyer for the Kroger Grocery and Baking Co...
...Persons interested in promoting the campaign being conducted by tna League are asked to send contribution...
...and this, rather than subaidiea, is the snawer to the food problem...
...In many instances Communists and fellow-travelers have wormed their way into important posts, while small cliques at the top of the division have prevented any real effort to sweep them out...
...The amount of the subsidy, the OPA men kept insisting, depended upon how much they had to pay the growers for their produce...
...But this waa merely an attempt to reduce prices through subsidy, and ultimately taxation on the Consumers' pocketbooks rather than any real effort to squeeze/ the middleman spread...
...The snswer, ss Voorhis points out, is to put the squeeze on the uneconomic middleman who extorts an exorbitant toll on agricultural products, forcing a terrific spread between I hi price received by the farmer and in price paid by the consumer...
...The entire campaign, in fact, is based on the notion that under such a progressive administratioVi the poll tax is out of line with the way-things are going...
...Japan must have normal commercial relations with the rest of the world...
...Mary Raoul Millis, 212 Palmer Building, Atlanta, Georgia...
...Elmer Davis has tried time and again to clean up this mess, and time and again he has been balked by subordinates who have been able to exercise wire-pulling influence to stymie Davis...
...Facing bitter and angry Congressmen, the OPA representatives insisted on calling their plan the WFA plan...
...The OPA men came fresh from their conferences with ' their "distributive trade" friends, but the Congressmen were ready for them...
Vol. 27 • February 1944 • No. 6
