WHERE ARE THOSE CIVILIAN GOODS?
Sheridan, Mary
Your Money's Worth Where Are Those Civilian Goods? By MARY SHERIDAN THOSE enticing stories about materials released for the civilian market continue to pop up in the newspapers, but there has...
...By MARY SHERIDAN THOSE enticing stories about materials released for the civilian market continue to pop up in the newspapers, but there has been little delivery on the promises as yet...
...Retailers explain that cotton, and wool too, are available for manufacturers, but manpower is not...
...Where Are Those New Girdles...
...This is an irritating deprivation to the slim gals who want something to smoothe their front or rear projections but mainly want something to hold their stockings up with the comfort and efficiency that garter belts simply don't supply...
...Clerks groan when you ask them where the new girdles are...
...In the July 31 issue, I wrote that the big canners had pulled a fast one on the OPA and the country's grocery buyers by tacking the Taber amendment on the OPA appropriation measure in its hurried rush through Congress, thereby giving canners a loophole that would eliminate OPA price grading of 1944 canned goods according to Department of Agriculture A-B-C grades...
...The Comptroller General interprets the Taber amendment to mean that Congress intended to ban the use of Department of Agriculture grades in fixing ceiling prices on canned fruit and vegetables...
...His remark is a candidate for the understatement of the month, since the big canners have shown little intention to assume responsibility for fair prices based on fair quality...
...During the past four months there have been assurances that supplies would be available to put some stretch back in girdles, but there have been no evidences of the finished products in this particular part of the country...
...In the Aug...
...it is more than an irritating deprivation to the women who for years have considered "foundation garments" among life's staples...
...The canning industry has a heavy responsibility to see to it that upgrading does not take place...
...delivery was promised in 60 to 90 days, but I haven't seen the rug...
...Bread & Butter, the consumers' news letter, gloomily predicts: "Now, the door is left wide open for wholesale upgrading by canners, which will probably cost consumers about $100,000,000 extra for the 1944 pack of canned fruits and vegetables...
...Chester Bowles, OPA administrator, has announced, "The prevention of hidden price increases through upgrading is more difficult...
...Thus the Office of Price Administration won't use Federal grades...
...Price ceilings on canned goods will be based, says the OPA, on so-called grades as "commercially understood...
...Six months ago I ordered a cotton rug in the standard nine by 12 size...
...The Taber amendment eliminated the use of grades and specifications for ceiling prices unless they have been in current use...
...Nothing so optimistic can be said about girdles...
...The meaning of this is not clear, but it is clear that the canners are free to charge higher prices for upgraded goods...
...SOS, my own favorite brand of kitchen steel wool, is on grocery shelves again from time to time, and there are plenty of umbrellas (somewhat over-priced) on sale in department stores, so it looks as if the WPB is delivering on this announcement to buyers...
...This closed the door on grade labeling and opened the door to upgrading of the canners for higher prices...
...No Canned Goods Grades This is becoming embarrassing...
...21 issue, I reported on OPA's by-passing of the canners' Taber amendment by its "finding" that Department of Agriculture grades were "written specifications for commercial grades" and were therefore the best index for pricing new canned goods...
...There have been a few new girdles with zippers, which look like a return to civilization after the current crop's bulging hooks...
...So I have a hunch that while increased supplies of neoprene and anything else that makes girdles stretch have been released for civilian production, production has been delayed by the labor shortage...
...As a result of the War Production Board's relaxing some of its restrictions on iron and steel, small supplies have been made available for steel wool, umbrella shafts and handles, mechanical book binders, and thermometer cases...
...They themselves have assumed that new supplies would be on their shelves...
...But even the zippered numbers, few and far between as they have been, to date have little or no stretch...
...Here I go again...
...The canning lobby is going to win this battle after all, and consumers will pay the toll...
Vol. 8 • September 1944 • No. 37
