Mr. CAREY. Yes; and a great number in OPA, because of an enactment of a piece of legislation by Congress, have to be businessmen, at least have a business background, and it has been conducted that way and they receive requests on the part of employers for price relief in a very sympathetic manner.

Senator TOBEY. I have tried to hold up their hands pretty consistently. The thing that has impressed me, in all fairness, has been the fact that they have been called down here to Washington and put in key positions, and they have been primarily businessmen who have been successful, men of character and probity, and they have come down and taken positions here. Some have testified that they came down here with a deep-seated prejudice against OPA, but they have gone to the job and have sat around the counsel tables and conferred and looked into this picture in the interest of the Nation as a whole, and they have become confirmed believers in OPA as the remedial agency necessary to protect the public in these trying times. I know many of those men down there who have been good businessmen-and God knows we need good businessmen; you will agree to that. They have taken hold of this job in the conviction that this is the way to handle the matter. They have not come down here to stick a knife under the fifth rib of the OPA. They have been sold on it as the best method to protect the public. So, when you throw bricks at the OPA in a blanket indictment, I do not think it will hold water, because the key men are men who have been businessmen themselves and have paid taxes. That is a part of the evidence in this picture of the need for continuation of the OPA. Do you not agree?

Mr. CAREY. Yes; I do not think they should be held responsible for what has happened. I think they have been harassed, denounced, criticized, and called bureaucrats as if they are not making just as much of a contribution as any other representative of the Government representing the people. I think they need some sympathy and a lot of support. I think most of the criticisms are directed without looking back at the whole picture to see what is really responsible for their action.

Senator TOBEY. We are sitting here as a jury, and this is a very important matter which comes before us, and the main requirement of men on these committees is that they consider these matters on the facts and without prejudice. The most tragic thing that could happen on any piece of legislation is for men to be motivated by prejudice. I think there is a good deal of prejudice against OPA. I do not think it is all justified. OPA has made mistakes. There have been incongruities, abnormalities, and inconsistencies. It could not be otherwise with men like you and me handling these things.

Mr. CAREY. The only prejudice that I object to is the prejudice that grows out of OPA doing an effective job when they carry out their responsibilities. They should not be criticized for doing just that. Senator TOBEY. I quite agree.

Mr. CAREY. That is part of the opposition, and I think it is certainly unconstructive. I think they deserve tremendous support, but I am a little afraid that they have become demoralized by the action of the

House of Representatives. They would have to be something other than human if they were not demoralized in the face of that action.

Mr. NIXON. Mr. Chairman, my name is Russ Nixon. I am chairman of the legislative subcommittee of the CIO on economic stabilization, and I want to introduce to you the people we have asked to come here, out of our shops, feeling that you would be interested in hearing other than professional testimony, such as some of us might give.

I would like you to hear the testimony of the men and women whom we represent, workers out of the shops. The people that we introduce to you now are not experts. They are just workers out of the plants.

The first group I want to introduce is a group representing the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, General Electric Co., Local No. 301, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Saccocio, and their two children, one 11 years of age and the other 2 years of age.

(The following letter and telegram were later received for the record:)

STATEMENT OF JOHN C. SACCOCIO, MEMBER OF LOCAL 301, UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO, AND MACHINE WORKERS, GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., SCHENECTADY, N. Y., ACCOMPANIED BY MRS. JOHN C. SACCOCIO

The CHAIRMAN. What work do you do?

Mr. SACCOCIO. I am a welder, Mr. Chairman. Wages are high; they are not low. I am down here pleading for OPA.

It is true we received a wage increase of 1812 percent in Schenectady, but my take-home pay, since VJ-day, has come down $15 per week, on the average.

There are certain conditions existing in Schenectady which I think you people should know about; for instance, certain commodities, household commodities, that we use. At one time my wife bought tomato paste which she paid 411⁄2 cents a can for. Today that same tomato paste costs 15 cents a can. That is all through OPA liftings, and what not.

She used to buy tomatoes for 15 cents a can, and today she is paying 35 or 40 cents.

The CHAIRMAN. Because tomatoes are not under OPA now?
Mr. SACCOCIO. OPA is supposed to have controls.

The CHAIRMAN. But the canners have raised the price?
Mr. SACCOCIO. The prices have gone up so.

Senator MITCHELL. You just know they cost you that much more? Mr. SACCOCIO. Yes. That is why I say the OPA law must stay, not with amendments, but I think it should have more teeth in it, not just by fining a merchant or manufacturer a small fine and letting him get away with it. I think he should serve a jail sentence plus his fine. The CHAIRMAN. How many workers have you got up there? Mr. SACCOCIO. We have approximately 15,000 to 16,000 workers in our unit.

The CHAIRMAN. Do they all believe as you do about it? Mr. SACCOCIO. I believe so. Every working man and woman wants to see price control.

Senator TAYLOR. What kind of product do you make in that factory? Mr. SACCOCIO. We make all kinds of products, such as turbines, refrigerators, and so on.

Senator TAYLOR. Do you know about these charges that have been made, that there are inventories being held back and they are not putting goods on the market, but rather holding out in the hope of higher prices? Do you know whether or not there is any truth in that charge?

Mr. SACCOCIO. I cannot answer that, because I am not in the manufacturing end of it. I am just a buyer, and that is all.

I might say there is one item in particular in Schenectady which we use a lot of that is, people of Italian extraction. According to OPA ceilings we should get cottonseed oil at $2.50 a gallon. But today you cannot buy it at that. You have to pay $4.50 a gallon, and they are asking as high as $10. I have stopped in one market where I have done a lot of trading, and previously I had been paying $2.50 ceiling price for that oil.

Senator BUCK. Is that still the ceiling price?

Mr. SACCOCIO. No, sir.

Senator BUCK. And you cannot buy it for that?

1

Mr. SACCOCIO. You cannot buy it unless you want to patronize the black market.

Senator BUCK. Over what period of time have these prices been asked?

Mr. SACCOCIO. This $5 to $10 a gallon has been within the last 2 months.

Senator BUCK. How about the canned goods you spoke of, going up in price from 15 cents to 40 cents?

Mr. SACCOCIO. That has been from 1940 up until today.

Senator BUCK. Then OPA has not been holding the ceiling down, has it?

Mr. SACCOCIO. Because it has no power, as I see it.

Senator Buck. It has had all the powers it asked for, for over 3 (

years.

Mr. SACCOCIO. What happens is this, as I understand it: If a merchant is caught selling goods at over ceiling price he is brought before a judge and fined $5. That is too easy. It pays him to get caught once. As long as he makes probably a thousand dollars or $500 he would be glad to pay $5. But if he had to go to jail, I don't think he would try it.

I have here a budget that I have brought down that I have worked out with my wife.

Senator MITCHELL. Is your wife here?

Mr. SACCOCIO. Yes.

Senator MITCHELL. Then she had better come up' to the table.

Mr. NIXON. She said that if she remains he gets nervous. The baby is crying in the next room, and the older child is taking care of the baby.

Senator MITCHELL. Just take a seat, lady.

Mr. SACCOCIO. My rent averages $10 per week. My food bill is

$25 a week, gentlemen-believe it or not.

Senator MITCHELL. How many in the family?

Mr. SACCOCIO. Four. On clothing we average $8 per week.

Senator BUCK. Can you find all the clothing you need?
Mr. SACCOCIO. She can answer that better than I can.

Mrs. SACCOCIO. It is in the stores if you look for it.

Mr. SACCOCIO. Insurance is $3.29 per week. Medical expense aver

ages about $2.50 a week.

The CHAIRMAN. You ought to have health insurance.

Mr. SACCOCIO. We should. I think the Senate and the House of

Representatives should do something about that, too.

The CHAIRMAN. I have got a bill, if the Senate will pass it.
Senator TOBEY. Do you belong to the Blue Cross?
Mr. SACCOCIO. I don't belong to any organization.

Senator TOBEY. It is a medical and hospitalization organization. Mr. SACCOCIO. I belong to a mutual-benefit association which is affiliated with the General Electric Co., but they pay no doctor bills. All they pay is lost time from work, which amounts to approximately $12 per week.

Senator TOBEY. In New England they have a Blue Cross and Blue Shield which supply hospital and medical costs.

Mr. SACCOCIO. We have never heard of it in Schenectady. If it is there, it has been a secret. We have this hospitalization plan. They pay a certain portion of my hospital bill, but I have to pay the rest. But in Schenectady, as I say, if you are a member of a mutual-benefit association, and go to one particular hospital-we have only oneand if they know you are a member of that organization, the price of your room automatically goes up 50 cents a day. This actually happened. I had my oldest boy there for an operation for tonsils, and at the time there was a person in front of me who did not work for General Electric. His wife was there, and my wife was with me. He asked the price of a room, and it was $3.50 per day. They happened to talk a little too loud, and I heard them.

After they got through interviewing those people and made arrangements for the room, the first thing they asked me was if I was a member of this hospital plan in General Electric, and I said, "Yes," and my room was $4; it wasn't $3.50. It was the same type of room.

Senator TAYLOR. They charged you for participating in the medical plan and then took it away when you got to the hospital?

Mr. SACCOCIO. That is absolutely right.

I had a dental bill this past year, from last August to the present time. I had my teeth fixed, pulled, and bridge work made, which I can't wear, and so forth. It amounted to approximately $2 a week so far, up until today.

Then my income-tax deductions are $6.30 a week; social-security deductions 66 cents a week; my telephone bill amounts to about $1 a week. My light and gas amount to approximately $1.50 per week, which makes a total of $60.25.

The CHAIRMAN. What are your wages?

Mr. SACCOCIO. I am a pieceworker. I never made the same wages each week, but my average is about $66 per week.

The CHAIRMAN. And you use it all up on your family?

Mr. SACCOCIO. That is right. I can't save a cent, no matter how hard we try.

I might get along on this myself, because I am a high-wage earner, but we in Schenectady are not all high-wage earners. We have workers there getting as low as $40 per week, and their wives have been forced to go to work in order to maintain their families. In a democracy such as we have in these United States, for the life of me I can't understand why a wife has to go to work to help her husband make both ends meet. Why can't the husband alone take care of his family properly?

The CHAIRMAN. Your expenses would be reduced somewhat if we were able to pass the health-insurance bill that is now before the Senate committee.

Mr. SACCOCIO. I am not arguing on medical expenses; I am arguing on OPA.

The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to hear that. You want to hold on to OPA?

Mr. SACCOCIO. That is right; I do, by all means. God help us if OPA goes out of existence or they pass certain amendments. I have no high-school or college education where I can interpret the laws as they make them. I say, give OPA full power to act. Put teeth in their laws. As I said previously, send these merchants and manu