174  WAR  BORROWING
resort  to  payment  by  credit  after  August,  1917,
would  accordingly  be  reflected  in  a  continuous  rise
of  prices.
As  to  the  Government’s  price-fixing  activity;  In
the  first  five  months  of  1918  the  list  of  price  controlled ­
  commodities  was  steadily  extended.  The
price  of  zinc  was  fixed  in  February;  aluminum  in
March;  rubber,  hides  and  skin,  and  wool  in  May.
Up  to  June,  1918,  little  attempt  had  been  made  to
regulate  the  prices  of  goods  in  higher  stages  of  fabrication, ­
  control  being  exercised  primarily  over  the
prices  of  raw  materials  or  of  materials  in  the  early
stages  of  fabrication.  On  June  25,  1918,  however,
the  price  of  harness  leather  was  fixed,  followed  by
the  control  of  the  prices  of  a  large  number  of  classes
of  cotton  goods,  beginning  on  July  1,  1918;  and  later
by  a  form  of  control  of  the  retail  prices  of  shoes.
This  shift  in  the  character  of  price  control  in  June,
1918,  is  apparently  indicative  of  a  feeling  in  the
Price-Fixing  Committee  of  the  War  Industries
Board  that  the  regulation  of  the  prices  of  raw  materials ­
  was  not  in  itself  sufficient  to  retard  advances
in  the  prices  of  fabricated  goods.
The  actual  effect  of  the  public  control  of  prices  on
the  level  of  prices  in  this  country  is,  of  course,  difficult ­
  to  evaluate  because  of  the  large  number  of  factors ­
  operating  on  the  prices  of  particular  commodities. ­
  With  respect  to  raw  materials  and  of  materials ­
  in  the  early  stages  of  fabrication  regulation
seems  in  the  main  to  have  been  successful  in  checking ­
  any  further  upward  tendency  in  prices.  The  effect ­
  of  control  of  the  prices  of  raw  materials  on  the