The Office of Price Administration had suspended price controls on a variety of items. Since this was a suspension rather than a cancellation it was seen as an experiment to see if lifting controls would lead to an increase in supplies, as business insisted it would, or would simply lead to an upward spiral of inflation. Business leaders argued they could fight inflation by raising prices but holding wages steady, which, of course, would lead in the short-run to a lower standard of living for the average American and increased profits, bonuses and dividends for businessmen. Unconfirmed reports said that Chester Bowles , the former ad man (Benton & Bowles) who headed the Office of Economic Stablization and previously had been OPA head, did not support the agency's action.
According to the news report, about 85 percent of all food was still subject to ceilings as was 80% of machinery and capital goods and between 95 and 98% of consumer goods (depending on whether autos were included in the category). Ceiling prices were being increased on clothing, lumber and building materials. The article noted that vacuum cleaners and refrigerators were among the durable goods that were hard or impossible to get.
The first boatload of European refugees to be formally admitted to the US under immigration quotas was expected to sail from Bremerhaven around May 1. Officials expected some 75,000 to 100,000 European refugees to arrive over the next 12 months. A presidential directive gave immigration priority to displaced persons. Many of them would become wards at least temporarily of the Committee for the Care of European Children of which Chicago publisher and department store heir Marshall Field was principal sponsor. Efforts to resettle refugees in the United States was hampered by the existing quota restrictions. Under these statutes the immigration quota for 1946 was set at 157.774 and no more than ten percent of that number could arrive in any single month. The article noted that these restrictions would stand unless Congress took action to change the law.