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At any rate, we had not foreseen quite early enough how rapidly these changes would begin to affect the pocket-books of the working people—not only the working people, but the Senators and Congressmen wanted to know why the cost of living was going up so rapidly. They tended to exaggerate it. As a matter of fact, the whole cost of living didn't go up so rapidly in the early years of the war, but some items went up very rapidly. The price of cauliflower and a head of cabbage was what made people very mad. Some Congressman's wife had to pay twenty-five cents in the Washington market, and the whole Labor Department was on the spot to know why a head of cabbage cost twenty-five cents when it was worth five cents. What was making the cost of living go up so? Of course, the Congressmen usually had it figured out that it was the cost of labor in the transportation of the particular head of cabbage.

I cite to show that during that period certain food items showed a very shocking increase in price, shocking to any of us. This was in 1940 and '41. At the same time rents weren't going up due to state and municipal rent control acts. Public utilities didn't go up. That is, gas, electricity and water rates didn't go up. Transportation