Going Up

While the U.S. fought the fever of inflation (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), Canada took its price-control pills and kept its economic temperature down. But the Dominion, afraid that controls, like drugs, might be habit-forming, recently took controls off a long list of consumer goods, from candy bars to Cadillacs. Last week it authorized a 10% boost in rents. The economic temperature rose. This week Canada was running a low fever.

Nickel candy bars (which have been 6-c-, including tax) are now 8-c-; "dollar specials" in candy are $1.25. Meats, bananas, soap, canned goods, bakery products, are up.

Men's clothing is higher in many places. Gas ranges and refrigerators are up sharply. The used-car market shows that customers will pay through the nose if they are choosy. Light cars dating from the early '40s are $200 to $350 above the former ceilings--at what had been black-market prices. But vintage models of the early '30s rust in the lots, and heavy cars of any age are at a heavy discount.

Wait More, Make More. The Dominion's overall rent bill will not go up 10%, after all. Landlords are dissatisfied because they must offer a two-year lease to gain the extra revenue. Believing that all controls will be off in less than two years, many landlords are gambling on no increase now, bigger returns later.

Many retailers are determinedly selling old stock at ceiling prices, and a few are refusing to pay more for new stock. But no organized buyers' strike is evident. For the Dominion's wage earners, price increases already effective or foreseen mean another squeeze. Labor is restless because corporate profits are at an alltime high, taxes are still near the wartime level, and rising prices have offset the wage increases labor got last year.

The Ottawa Journal editorialized last week: "In this country there have been no important wage changes within the last six months. If, therefore, our corporations have been doing well within those six months, what is their justification for boosting prices in order to do better? Don't they realize that by trying to get more, they are merely inviting demands for further wage increases? . . ."

Some demands for wage boosts would have been made anyway, but now they will be higher, and pressed with more insistence. The International Woodworkers of America (C.I.O.-C.C.L.) are out for a minimum of $1.01 an hour (a 20-c- increase) and a 40-hour week, and getting set to strike for it. Other unions are sharpening their demands. The recent hope that 1947 might pass with no more major strikes is fading.

Canada's fever chart will show more ups before it shows many downs.

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