They include wheat, lard, steel scrap, print cloth, copper, zinc, and Charts 6 and 7 show wholesale prices of the 28 basic commodities.

gether [indicating]. rise of all commodities, manufactured and agricultural, taken to

such elements as that. Chart 6 reports the experience on these raw industrial commodities during the first months after the outbreak of the war, and shows the familiar tilt upward, a leveling off, and then a decline. Beginning in February 1941, there is an elevation (chart 7) and, as I said before, this particularly sensitive group of prices on which we kept a record every day, has gone up 50 percent as against 20 percent for the whole wholesale price index. Let me put it this way: If the whole wholesale price index comprising some 900 commodities had gone up at the same rate as the sensitive index, we would be standing now not at 90, but at 112.5. In other words, here is a vital group of commodities, some of which have been brought within a measure of control, and yet there has been an increase of 50 percent. I should like to present some of the individual items, and I have selected these because they have some special significance. Other individuals appearing before your committee might easily have chosen others. I have chosen two of the lumber prices-Southern pine (chart 8) and Douglas fir (chart 9)-because they represent what happened to lumber prices following the scramble for cantonment lumber and building materials generally last year when the Government's program began.

Along in December, after there had been a rise of 60 percent in Southern pine and of about 26 percent in Douglas fir, we made representations to the industry indicating we thought their prices were entirely out of line. Measures were taken by the individual producers to correct those prices, and the Government, through the director of procurement, made arrangements to stagger its buying so that the whole impact of its demand would not fall upon a foreshortened market. As a result, there was, as you can see, à decline in prices.

Now, why do I bring this to your attention? Because within the last few weeks, since the time these charts were constructed, the prices of both of those very essential items, both to the Government and to the civilian population, have started in another spiral and we have been compelled to go into the usual consultations with the industry and to take thought to see what can be done about putting a ceiling on those prices. I have indicated a question mark on the chart because I believe, if we took the prices as they stand today in those markets, they would be back to the very alarming point they reached about the end of 1940.

Chart 10 shows the wholesale price of copper. Copper is one of the most acutely needed materials in any defense or war program. I was familiar with the experience of the last war, familiar with the difficulty that Baruch and Governor Myers had in getting copper at a price that they felt was reasonable. And so very early in my work as Price Stabilization Commissioner I met with the copper producers and asked them to observe a fair level of prices. By the time we had concluded our negotiations, the level had attained something like 12 cents and that even line since October 1940 [indicating] represents the conformity of the industry to the suggestion of the Government that it keep prices in line. Now, those prices have enabled the major copper producers to obtain a fair rate of profit for what they have been supplying.