Little Brothers Are Watching

If the wage and price freeze has done anything for the American character, it has unleashed a streak of latent vigilantism. Righteous consumers are scouring supermarkets, restaurants and even football stadiums for evidence of violations of the freeze.

In Washington, D.C., the Consumer Federation of America is setting up a "retail employees price watch" to encourage reticent clerks, buyers and checkers to blow the whistle--anonymously--on companies that surreptitiously boost prices. Mark Frederiksen, one of Ralph Nader's consumer watch-birds, is feeding the pre-and post-freeze price lists of 77 Washington-area stores into a computer. The print-outs will be turned over to consumer groups and labor unions. In New York City, 1,000 shop stewards of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees descended on local supermarkets last week to monitor prices. Self-styled gumshoes working individually have so far reported 12,209 possible violations to local offices of the Internal Revenue Service and the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. Nearly all of the firms caught flagrante delicto have quickly agreed to comply with the freeze.

Cross Kissers. Sixty-two apparent offenders are undergoing various phases of administrative action initiated by the Office of Emergency Preparedness. General George A. Lincoln, OEP director, is confident that the cases will be settled without recourse to the $5,000 fines provided by law. "If a violator comes into church and kisses the cross," he told TIME's Bonnie Angelo, "it's never too late to be saved."

As the nation's eagle-eyed price watchers continued their sentry duty last week, the following cases came to light:

> A drugstore in Torrance, Calif., raised the price for a six-pack of cigars from 39-c- to 45-c-. Within 48 hours, the local IRS had received several complaints. A day after the IRS contacted the chain store's headquarters, the price came back down.

> The Atlanta Falcons professional football team was clotheslined by a class-action suit brought by an irate fan who found that most tickets for the team's six home games to be played during the freeze had gone up from $6 last year to $7.50. The Falcons stand to lose $400,000 if the complaint is sustained.

> A Beverly Hills woman, who pleaded that she was strapped for cash, asked to have a $25-a-month rent increase deferred. The IRS concurred, and her landlord was instructed to hold the rent on her two-bedroom apartment down to the old level: $575.

> The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, noting that stud fees often rise dramatically with the success of previous offspring in important races, asked the Cost of Living Council to make an exception in its case. The COLC said neigh. The ruling: stud fees are levied for services rendered, and therefore must remain frozen at mid-August magnitude.

> "When do I get my $5,000 reward?" a Los Angeles woman asked the IRS after she ratted on her rent-raising landlord. Staffers informed her that the sum was a fine for violators, not a reward for informers.

> Virginia Knauer, the President's Consumer Affairs Adviser and herself a member of the Cost of Living Council, last month dispatched a letter to subscribers of her office's Consumer Legislative Monthly Report. The publication, heretofore provided free, would cost $5 a year beginning Oct. 1, she said. Benny L. Kass, a Washington lawyer, reported her to the IRS. The case is before the Cost of Living Council, and Mrs. Knauer expects that she will have to postpone the fee until after the freeze.

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