Therefore, I have asked the Congress to pass legislation under
which the President would be specifically authorized to stabilize
the cost of living, including the price of all farm commodities.
The purpose should be to hold farm prices at parity, or at levels
of a recent date, whichever is higher. The purpose should also be
to keep wages at a point stabilized with today's cost of living.
Both must be regulated at the same time; and neither one of them
can or should be regulated without the other.
At the same time that farm prices are stabilized, I will stabilize
wages.
That is plain justice--and plain common sense.
And so I have asked the Congress to take this action by the first
of October. We must now act with the dispatch which the stern
necessities of war require.
I have told the Congress that inaction on their part by that date
will leave me with an inescapable responsibility, a responsibility
to the people of this country to see to it that the war effort is
no longer imperiled by the threat of economic chaos.
As I said in my message to the Congress:
In the event that the Congress should fail to act, and act
adequately, I shall accept the responsibility, and I will act.
The President has the powers, under the Constitution and under
Congressional Acts, to take measures necessary to avert a disaster
which would interfere with the winning of the war.
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