Caveat Emptor

Tough guy inflation has had his grizzled mug transformed behind that oh, so gentle screen, the sieve-like measures which have taken the place of O.P.A. Even when the laws now on the books take full effect on August 20, their effectiveness will be measured not by their phraseology, not even by their three-man administration, but only by the willingness of the buying public to back up a bill that was designed for its protection. With or without government price control, the fuse on inflation is sputtering behind the customer's back, ready to lead up to a boom which will very literally leave the public "bust" unless it turns around and takes preventive action.

On the opposite page is an advertisement by a merchant in the Square ostensibly calling the Crimson to task for its stand on foreign prices down. Actually, in crying out against the high prices of the basic food commodities, he is echoing the Crimson's original warning--that retailers who did not join in a common effort to hold prices down would find their own living costs raised just as tangibly as those of the students who find themselves in no position to take advantage of higher wages or profits. That publishers, too, have raised the ante only reflects the don't-care attitude which is most popular among middlemen.

Less solid still are the underpinnings of the correspondent on this page. His resources, apparently, are sufficient to cover all whims of the national economy. An idealist, he ignores his own self-interest, finding a knightly virtue in the act of suppressing evil, the evil of being a "have not." It is hardly necessary to point out the naivete of the economic reasoning of the writer, nor even the latent danger of such a social philosophy. However, he gives voice to one of the most common popular fallacies, that "scarcity is caused by under-production." Scarcity may be caused just as effectively by increasing inventories. In a spiraling of prices, when the grower or wholesaler finds it "sound business" to hold out for the top dollar, this artificial scarcity is no mere theory.

O.P.A. or no O.P.A., the consumer will be doing the right thing by himself and his fellows by out waiting those who stop the flood of production from irrigating the country's dry economy. If you wait long enough the dam will have to overflow. If you have a choice, do not buy. More and better will be had for less within a year. Even the N.A.M. says so.