Now, as to the fixing of prices, Mr. Baruch is much more positive. In answer to a question by Mr. Garrett, Mr. Baruch said:
- “We fixed the prices in co-operation with the industries, but when we fixed a price we fixed it for the total production, not alone for the army and the navy, but for the Allies and the civilian population.”
The minutes of one of the meetings of Mr. Baruch’s board show this:
- “Commissioner Baruch directed that the minutes show that the commission had consumed the entire afternoon in a discussion of price-fixing, particularly with reference to the control of the food supply, grain, cotton, wool, and raw materials generally.”
- Mr. Graham—“Tell me something else: How much personal attention did you give to the matter of price-fixing?”
- Mr. Baruch—“In the beginning, considerable * * *”
At another time, Mr. Baruch said—“There was no law at all in the land to fix prices.”
- Mr. Jefferis—“We grant that, but you did it.”
- Mr. Baruch—“Yes, we did it, and we did a great many things in the stress of the times.”
Here was one man, having supreme dictatorial power, at both ends of the common people’s affairs.
He admits that of the 351 or 357 lines of essential industry which he controlled, he fixed the prices at which the commodities should be sold to the government and to civilians. In fixing the prices, however, he made wage stipulations. The matter of wages came first—it entered into Mr. Baruch’s computation of the cost, on which, to a certain extent, he based the price. Then, having decided what the producer was to receive in wages, he decided next what the producer should pay for living. The producer himself may answer the question as to how it all turned out! Wages were “high,” but not quite so high as “living”; and the answer to both is in the testimony of Barney Baruch.
That is not the whole story by any means. It is inserted here merely to find its place in the list of authorities conferred on Mr. Baruch.
How completely Baruch felt himself to be the “
