LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
AMERICAN PRICE CONTROL
Snt,—In your editorial note on American inflation in The Spectator of June 28th, you issued a pointed warning of die dangers of a runaway rise in American prices and of an ultimate slump. You characterised the attitude of the House of Representatives and the Senate as one of " incredible irresponsibility." As it happened, I had just received from a friend in the United States a report entitled " Should Price and Rent Control be Continued? " prepared in the spring under the auspices of the National Opinion Research Centre of ,the University of Denver. This lends abundant justification to your phrase, besides helping one to understand the possible source of the trouble. Thus this survey shows that 85 per cent. favoured continued rent control, while 82 per cent. favoured continued price control. Broadly speaking, half those whose views were canvassed were also in favour of control in both cases being extended beyond June 30th, 1947. Clearly the American public, if this survey is at all representative, is in a much more responsible mood than its elected representatives.
Perhaps, however, some clue to the difference lies in the fact that there is a significant fall in the proportion of wealthy and prosperous business men who favoured continued control. Thus, the proportion drops to between 5o and 6o per cent. None, the less, even this suggests that wealthy and prosperous business men, are by no means unanimous in their view. In the light of these figures, the irresponsibility of the House of Representatives and the Senate seems all the more " incredible." Since your note was written, the week-ena has brought news that the President has vetoed the Bill to extend price control, and consequently the future of prices rests upon the self-discipline of the American people. We shall watch developments with anxious interest, especially having regard to the way in which there may be repercussions on this side under
the Bretton Woods agreement.—Yours faithfully, HAROLD BELLMAN. Abbey House, Baker Street, N.W. r.
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