Up a Little

The safety valve on the prices of two important commodities was opened a notch last week. The long-awaited ceiling on live cattle prices was finally set. It turned out to be a fat $18 a hundred pounds, will drop to $17.50 in July. At the same time, steelmakers got temporary boosts of $2 to $5 a ton on five basic steel products--the first industrywide price increase since 1939.

In both cases the producers were unsatisfied. To the average citizen the cattle ceiling seemed like a sensible move. It was set high enough to give the cattlemen room to turn a profit, yet it still blocked runaway prices. But the cattlemen, unalterably opposed to livestock ceilings of any kind, argued that since the spread between livestock prices and retail beef prices remained unchanged, black markets would continue to flourish, and thus consumers would benefit little from the price control. Likewise the steelmen, who had hoped for more, cried that higher prices were long overdue on other types of steel products.

OPA, trying to keep a firm hand on the valve, stuck to its new ceilings, and hoped. Steel and meat prices are potent components in the cost of living; if they get out of hand, the whole price structure totters.

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