Leveling Off?

No fortune teller ever worked harder at squinting into the future. Since OPA died, businessmen and consumers alike have had their eyes glued to the clouded crystal ball. Last week, it seemed to be clearing a little.

Dun & Bradstreet’s daily wholesale price index of basic commodities, which had jack-rabbited up for three weeks, finally leveled off at 229.67, then dropped a few points. One of the reasons was the price drop in meat.

Stockmen, fearful that OPA ceilings might come back, poured cattle and pigs into Midwest packing plants. At one time trucks were backed up four miles at Omaha waiting to unload; drivers had to turn hoses on their stock to keep it from dying in the hot sun. As wholesale meat stocks rose to 80% of the wartime average, packers shied away from high prices. Result: 4,000 high-priced hogs remained unsold one day at Chicago’s Union Stockyards and wholesale meat prices started down, though they were still well above OPA ceilings. Retail prices, which had generally been in the black-market stratosphere, started down too. By week’s end, they were beginning to level under June’s black-market price in Manhattan and other big cities—but they, too, were still well above former ceilings.

Wheat, corn and oats also dropped, along with butter. But old king cotton just kept rolling up. At 35¢ a pound, cotton futures were up 25% in six weeks to a 23-year peak. Textile men expected some of the increase to be passed on to consumers before long.

Despite all the hullabaloo, organized buyers’ strikes had little effect except in sales of perishable commodities. The U.S. consumer was still short of too many things to make buyers’ strikes effective.