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advent of OP A, the government also commenced firing. Re- 

 tail price ceilings were imposed by the "big freeze" of 1942. 

 Retailers protested the difficulty of maintaining the ceilings 

 when wholesale prices continued to rise, thereby reducing 

 their margins. They aptly referred to the situation as a 

 squeeze and were told by OPA that their solution was to 

 "roll back the squeeze" by reducing their costs of doing busi- 

 ness. This blithe advice indicated an attitude which is quite 

 generally held: that the food industry takes a rather wide 

 margin, which it can easily reduce if it is so minded. On the 

 contrary, the food industry is highly competitive. It has been 

 forced to pay high wages, and for this reason men in the 

 trade have been constantly on the watch to see where they 

 could save a dime. 



Efficiency of Labor Will Decline 



We are told that the costs of distribution can be lowered 

 in three ways: labor can be made more efficient, wages can 

 be reduced, or services can be eliminated. 



With many of the experienced food handlers in the Army, 

 with rising red tape, with increasing transportation diffi- 

 culties, and with rationing, efficiency is likely to go down 

 despite efforts to improve it. 



Wages cannot be reduced in wartime ; in fact, the practice 

 has been to endorse wage increases. 



Only through the elimination of unneeded services can 

 manpower be saved. The number of unneeded services is 

 fewer than is widely assumed. A few frills irk the food con- 

 trollers, but they are so small a part of the total job of dis- 

 tributing food that to eliminate them would save but little 

 manpower and would not cut down costs. 



