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and were rising all the time. There was not a universal wage, but that was certainly dropped as an idea, even the universal minimum. There was a universal minimum wage. What was it raised to during the War--48? It was after the War, you know, that it went to 75. I guess it got up to 60 during the end. But you see, that could be raised by Congress. That could be raised by act of Congress.

Of course, the cost of living was the great battle, you remember, in all these years. Inflation had begun, and statistics show this. This was of course my battle, the cost of living, merely because the Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics had to collect and analyze and issue the cost of living figures, and I would say, “The figures show that the cost of living has not gone up.”

Well, everybody would just scream at me: “Why, my wife paid 25 for a head of cabbage!”

And that 25 head of cabbage was regarded as the key to the total cost of living, although rents were controlled, which are a very large part of the family budget. Rents were controlled and had not gone up. Electric current had not gone up. Telephone had not gone up. All the services had not gone up. All these other things, including rent, had not gone up, and many food prices had not gone up. There were some startling food increases, of course, but they were offset by the very