THE OPA BY-PASSES THE BIG CANNERS
Sheridan, Mary
Your Money's Worth The OPA By-Passes The Big Canners By MARY SHERIDAN WHEN I wrote several weeks ago about the slick trick of the canning interests—exempting the 1944 pack of canned fruits and...
...Buyers Will Benefit On technical legal grounds the canners' lobby may be able to make an impressive fuss...
...Then it was tacked onto the money bill a few hours before the time set for recess and went through without notice or debate...
...After its investigation of the standards privately used by commercial canners, the OPA concluded that Federal standards "are not, as sometimes has been supposed, a separate system of grades distinct from so-called commercial grades...
...Many reputable canners use Government standards —which determine the A-B-C grades of quality—for their own grading (not passed on to the public) of the quality of their canning packs...
...Buyers and sellers are thereby afforded guidance in determining disputes as to conformity and a definite measure is provided in the determination of maximum prices...
...with one exception," the OPA continued, "the only available written statement of the elements of . . . the established commercial grades...
...Donald Montgomery, consumer counsel of the United Automobile Workers, has pointed out that Congress "did not pass on the merits" of the Taber amendment...
...The Canners Are Displeased This is a smart move on OPA's part...
...If the OPA finding is not upset, you and I and the rest of the buying public will not be gouged when buying canned goods...
...Thus, they provide an objective means for testing canned fruits and vegetables and berries for grade of the finished product...
...But it has...
...Why they have and are not willing to have their goods so publicly labeled, for their own as well as buyers' protection against inferior products, is short-sightedness on their part...
...And, says the OPA, the most accurate description of commercial grades are Federal standards...
...The United States Standards are...
...Congress, it's true, did pass the Taber amendment in the closing rush to get the OPA appropriation measure passed before the deadline, but it did not have the time to debate the hastily added amendment...
...If Congress deliberately will vote this swindle on behalf of the canners' lobby, it would be surprising...
...OPA has outsmarted the big canners, and if the OPA has its way the canners will fail in their move to exempt the 1944 canning pack from price control in line with quality...
...Your Money's Worth The OPA By-Passes The Big Canners By MARY SHERIDAN WHEN I wrote several weeks ago about the slick trick of the canning interests—exempting the 1944 pack of canned fruits and vegetables from OPA price grading according to Government A-B-C quality standards by tacking a rider to the OPA legislation in its hectic rush through Congress—the chances seemed unlikely that OPA could find a way to enforce its former price and quality standards on the new canning pack...
...Naturally, the canning interests aren't pleased with OPA's by-passing of their sneak maneuver in the Taber amendment...
...They are rather written specifications for the commercial grades...
...That's step number two...
...That's step number one...
...Two can play at the game of being foxy, and for the moment OPA has outwitted the big commercial canners...
...It was considered once on the Senate floor and voted down flat," Montgomery said...
...The Office of Price Administration has announced that the 1944 canned fruit and vegetable pack will be priced on the basis of commercial grades...
...One canner, quoted in the Journal of Commerce, probably summed up the ire of many of his colleagues with his remark, "We have won a legislative victory which has been turned, into a defeat by administrative action...
...On any other grounds the canners will have little to support their case...
...Federal standards determine the Agricultural Marketing Administration's A-B-C grades...
...Instead of stalling, or bickering with the canning interests over the intent of the Taber amendment (the rider pushed through by the big canning interests), OPA has acted quickly and decisively in the interest of the buying public...
...Canners' prices must line up with these standards, the OPA now declares...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 34
