FROM THE ARCHIVES:Public sector wage freezes and price controls which actually contributed to inflation during the second World War left many people worse off, this contemporary article by an anonymous accountant claimed. – JOE JOYCE
CONSTANT PRESSURE, not only from within the Civil Service, but also from responsible quarters outside, is, I understand, being brought to bear upon the Government to induce them to alleviate in some measure the financial hardships which State employees are enduring as a result of the bonus stabilisation order of 1940.
This pressure is not confined to the lower-paid classes, but is, I believe, being exerted also by the higher officials and, in some cases, by departmental chiefs. The great concern of the Civil Service – as, indeed, it is the great concern of every person on a fixed salary – is not so much with the stabilisation order as with the complete failure of the Government to keep down the cost of living. In this matter the Government have a very grave responsibility, and cannot but he aware of the feelings of anxiety, of mental worry and of bitter resentment entertained by all their employees today.
It is common knowledge that in many cases where the Government have intervened to control prices they have fixed them at absurdly high levels. Evidence of this is clear in the shop windows today, where goods are now being retailed at prices 10 to 20 per cent below the controlled price. Evidence is also to hand in the many articles recently controlled, the prices of which have been fixed at amounts in excess of those prevailing before control was applied.
The ordinary citizen is naturally enough asking the question: “What is wrong with the controlling authority; is somebody bamboozling them or throwing dust in their eyes; or is it the case, as has been widely asserted by people who profess to know, that the dust has been welcomed, so that the eyes of the exchequer may laugh at the consequences? Since the war started, millions of pounds of extra taxation on war (the word “emergency” is no longer applicable) profits have poured in, but they are only a small fraction of the millions left in the hands of the profiteers.
Accountants are only too familiar with the abnormal profits which manufacturers and traders are making, and this, too, notwithstanding the rationing of goods and the considerably reduced turnover. Drapers have increased their average pre-war annual profits by an average of 400-600 per cent, sweet shops by 300-500 per cent, clothing manufacturers by 300-400 per cent, hardware merchants by some 400 per cent. [...]
These are mentioned because their prices affect the individual’s pocket more seriously than most other businesses, and because their percentage profits’ increase transcends by a big margin that of any other business. [...]
Why should the Government, be so concerned with the effects of withholding £1.5 million a year from their employees when a Government blind eye is turned on profiteering, which unjustly absorbs several million pounds a year from citizens?