THE ECONOMY: Money Is Cheaper

A homeward-bound Wall Streeter stopped at Manhattan's Washington Market one afternoon last week to pick up an order of filet mignon. When he found it was $2.25 a pound, up from $1.90 the week before, he canceled the order. Said he valiantly: "I'll eat money. It's cheaper!"

All over the U.S., consumers snared the Wall Streeter's eloquent indignation. Scare-buying and hoarding had slackened off but still prices crept up. Since Korea, meat had jumped 10% and 15%, butter and eggs were up at least a few pennies. Coffee, which had been riding high even before Korea, had managed to jump another 6¢ or 9¢. "Sugar, soap, flour—things you never bother to price before buying—have gone up," complained a West Los Angeles housewife.

Radio and television makers, who had been cutting prices only two months ago, were now energetically raising them; Emerson Radio & Phonograph, for example, boosted prices of TV sets by $10 to $30, its second price boost in 30 days. The Seiberling Rubber Co. jacked up tire prices 5% to 7½% for a total of 17% to 25% rise in the past four months. Johnson & Johnson announced an average 6½% boost in wholesale prices for much of its medical supply line, meaning that consumers soon would be paying 55¢ for a 49¢ box of Band-Aids, 55¢ for a 50¢ package of absorbent cotton. One big company (E.R. Squibb & Sons) raised toothpaste prices 10% to 25%, presumably others would fall into line. The jump in prices of cotton textiles had reached about 25% by last week and some retail merchants accused big textile manufacturers of withdrawing their sheets and pillowcases from the market in order to sell them later at higher prices. Automobile dealers were getting $100 to $400 above list for new cars, and selling used cars for husky prices.

So far, organized labor, chafing under the price rises, had largely confined itself to demanding federal price controls. Last week's strikes (mostly small ones) were largely the result of demands and disputes which predated Korea. Example: the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and Order of Railway Conductors pulled a five-day "token" strike in the big Louisville, Cleveland and Minneapolis-St. Paul railroad terminals to win 17-month-old pay demands. Big mass-production unions, however, were now getting together charts and statistics to support their claims to lusty wage boosts. Phil Murray's 1,000,000 United Steelworkers were ready to demand a generous increase from the steel industry on Nov. 1; the rubber and textile unions had similar plans. The big (60,000 members) Local 600 of the United Automobile Workers was already talking about striking the Ford Motor Co. unless it comes through with more pay Jan. 1.