In older versions, you can use the CHMOD command in WS_FTP Pro to change your remote files' permissions (if you are uploading to a UNIX host, and provided you have file-access permission).
Select the file.
Right-click the file, scroll down to FTP Commands then select CHMOD (unix) from the pop-out menu.
Select any of the options and click the OK button.
This change to the file's permissions will occur on the remote machine, not on your PC.
Note that the CHMOD function does not show you the current permissions on a selected file. It actually shows you (depending on the version of WS_FTP Pro you're using) the permission settings you last used. This is by design.
The proper permission settings for your purpose depend on exactly what you want to do and who normally can read files by default. Please contact your server's administrator for an answer to this.