National Affairs: Hold the Line, Please

The U.S. continued to inch uneasily but steadily toward a controlled wartime economy. Handicapped by lack of a staff to enforce blanket controls, Economic Stabilizer Alan Valentine was trying to achieve the same effect by hints, pleas, threats, and by crackdowns in specific cases.

He won a shaky victory over General Motors Corp. (see BUSINESS), and followed it by slapping on the first wage ceiling since World War II—on automobile workers' wages, which he ordered held at present levels until March 1, 1951.

The order looked more dramatic as a headline than it did as a fact. Most of the nation's 1,000,000 auto workers had recently received substantial pay increases, and would not be eligible for another wage adjustment until the March 1 deadline, anyway. Stabilizer Valentine ducked the most controversial question: what, if anything, to do about "escalator" clauses in the auto workers' contracts. Such clauses would prove troublesome if ESA finally imposed a wage freeze.

In the meantime, Valentine asked businessmen and labor to hold the line voluntarily on prices and wages. One of Valentine's aides described the policy as "Let your conscience be your guide"—a course which was bound to get nowhere until Valentine got himself a stick and used it.