How to Bring Prices Down

"The American taxpayer is weary of being gouged," said Senator Lyndon B. Johnson last week. Texas' Johnson was talking about the price of tin. Since Korea, tin had jumped 140% on New York's commodity markets, from 76 3/8-c- to $1.84 a lb., highest in history. Even in World War II, the U.S. kept a 52-c- ceiling on tin. This time, with much of the U.S. imports of 108,000 tons last year going into the stockpile or armaments production, the taxpayer has been footing the bill for the difference.

In an angry 56-page report, Senator Johnson pinpointed the main reason for the gouge: tin has been kept off the world market by an international cartel composed of Great Britain, Belgium, The Netherlands and Bolivia. Fearing overproduction (and low prices), the cartel held tin output to 165,000 tons last year, 49% less than in 1941. Inept buying by the Munitions Board, which tried to fill up the U.S. stockpile all at once, gave speculators their big chance. Stormed Johnson: "The tin price gouging by some of our oldest international friends is entirely devoid of morality." He urged the Government to get out of the market, especially since it has more tin on hand than before Pearl Harbor (151,941 tons).

Last week the Government got out of the market, stopped buying for the stockpile. Prices settled back to $1.34 a Ib. To keep U.S. industry from bidding the price up again, the National Production Authority this week took control of all tin imports, announced it will allocate tin to industrial users. There seemed no reason why the same tactic could not be employed to bring down the price of other commodities, such as lead, wool, zinc and tungsten.

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