Haste Makes Confusion

Fighting for the return of the $2 shirt and the 98-c- cotton housedress, Chester Bowles last week led his Office of Price Administration into another skirmish. He ordered some 309,000 retailers' mark-up of clothing and some household furnishings prices frozen at March 19 levels.

The order had merit, and no fair-minded merchant sniped at its objective. Bowles wanted to be sure that the strong-armed rollback of textile manufacturers' prices (TIME, Dec. 4, March 5) is passed on to consumers instead of swelling retailers' profits.

But, to be fair, OPA may still have to admit that it had moved in too abruptly on the retailers. One alert merchant lost no time in giving OPA an example to prove it.

Raphael B. Malsin, president of the Lane Bryant, Inc. chain (stylish stouts & maternity clothes) patiently explained to Advertising Man Bowles that a store might have bought 1,000 sun suits at $2 each to sell at $3. But on March 19 twenty of the least desirable suits might have been marked down to $2 each; a few to $1, just to get them off the shelves. Result: the composite average of these three prices would be $2. Then on reorders the merchant's selling price would be frozen at cost.

Clearly, said worried Mr. Malsin, under these circumstances no merchant could afford to rebuild inventories. Mr. Bowles, worried too, said he would think it over.

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