In One Direction Only

While most Washington politicos were loudly talking of holding the line on prices, the Senate's Small Business Committee last week was looking in another direction. It found something too cheap. At 5-c- a bottle Coca-Cola was underpriced; it should, said the committee, be raised to 10-c- because small bottlers were being squeezed out of business. (Coca Cola Co. headquarters in Atlanta said it planned no price increase for the syrup it sells to bottlers, thus implied it was doing nothing to cause any retail increase.)

But many another businessman needed no urging to boost prices:

P: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. raised prices 7 1/2 to 10% ($1.40 on popular-sized tires), the fifth increase this year. Other tire companies were expected to follow.

P: All of the big copper producers except Kennecott Copper Corp. upped prices 2-c- to 24 1/2-c- a lb. (In the grey market the price shot up to 46-c-.)

P: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported its index for all commodities other than farm products and food rose 0.1%, or 8.1% above pre-Korea.

Despite the new rise in metals some metals men thought the worst of the increases about over. Said C. Donald Dallas, board chairman of Revere Copper and Brass Inc.: "There is actually enough metal to support the 1949 level of civilian output, the present high rate of stockpiling and military demands as now forecast." Hoarding and abnormal conditions, he said, have caused "the illusion of tremendous shortages of copper which in fact do not exist."

In any case, many of the price rises in raw materials seemed as unjustified to businessmen as retail increases seemed to consumers, in the light of corporate profits. When five Canadian paper mills raised newsprint prices $10 a ton, Editor & Publisher took a hard look at their profits. They were running from 11% to 79% greater than last year. Demanded E. & P.: "How greedy can you get?"

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