Honolulu Record, August 19, 1948, vol. 1 no. 2, p. 3
By Federated Press
Buyers' strikes, sparked by rebellious housewives, were spreading like brushfire across the nation.
In Chicago, home of the slaughterhouses, consumers declared Aug. 5 "meatless Thursday" in answer to a food bill now up 221.5 per cent over the prewar level. Housewives picked up the national crusade against high food prices with a series of demonstrations and radio broadcasts.
With hogs at the record price of $31.10 a hundredweight in the Chicago stockyards, Women for Wallace led the 1-day boycott, choosing key sections of the city for a concentrated campaign.
Spreading the Word
Mrs. Mildred Treffman, one of the leaders of the organization, reported that the drive was organized by chain telephone calls among housewives and by the distribution of leaflets.
She pointed out that the cost of living in Chicago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, had risen 172.6 per cent above the prewar level. And prices are up 45.3 per cent since price controls were destroyed.
Key demand of the Chicago demonstrators was for passage of Sen. Glen H. Taylor's price control and rollback bill. In Los Angeles, where one butcher shop gave meat the rare-jewel treatment by displaying steaks and chops on velvet trays, an organized telephone campaign against buying meat was also successfully under way.
Manager Calls Cop
The Independent Progressive party there gathered 75,000 signatures in one week on petitions demanding immediate price control. In Glendale five people got 2,000 signatures in two hours at two supermarkets. Customers at one Safeway market were so anxious to sign the petitions that the manager called a cop. But the policeman, after talking to the signature-collectors, signed the petition himself, declaring high prices were playing havoc with his fixed salary. Resistance to high prices was highest at Dallas, Tex., where the buyers' strike was originated by the women's auxiliary of the Chamber of Commerce. Women's committees at Corpus Christi, Orange, Fort Worth, Austin and other Texas towns were joining the boycott.
Milk Boycott
At New Orleans, the United Women to Combat Inflation—organized when price controls were first dropped—called on its 150,000 members to stop buying meat until prices came down. Meat markets in Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City reported that customers were boycotting higher priced cuts. In Cincinnati, the Retail Grocers & Meat Dealers Assn. said meat consumption had plunged 25 per cent in recent weeks.