The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1917-07-14

imperIs legitimate INDUSTRY. ut nos bardsbtns on every aresde The
condition is on that is causing man mall industries. OF counting levies
from other quarters. to ace closing from the fuel price menace itself.
As for iron and steel those commodities have entered into what is
virtually a drunken revelry Of prices, undreamed of and entirely unAmercan
1t is ever hard to adequately comprehend how unwhoesome the price
lnmS 1aoups l ue eeFmasters are. lot only anect raw iron me
steel but they burden ever phase of industry as we'll At the very basis
tmn in som localities ctuanr st nnrs q a e .eh Tax ra" On 1mIt y scscttv
OIL homes is felt in higher rentals for workmen. They tax everything from
the automobile plant ito the grocery store particularly the latter by laying
a IA o n tin cans and hence o. food. They strike at railroads by making
charges which keep man lines IN h verge Of bankruptcy. for transpora
ton utilities nus get governmental consent before they raise rates. They
create necessary imitation in thu whole fabric of American costs Not
only this. ut they demand and ct excessive prices on val materials sold
paying h bill they are not. for it back ista as much at Is and eats
up the Liberty Loan as much as it does he va loans of France and Eng
In defense of this system of high prices here are the statements that
labor and ray materials. especially COX and ferromanganese have gon up
They have. but if wages wen up in the san proportion that iron and steel
have they would be 200 to 400 per cent higher. which they re not Ad
hitting all the claims Of higher cost o production, the best proofs of present
uncalledfor prices are found in the swollen profits of certain steel concerns
We do not have to point. out hat o that sold a year g for s2195
then a high price rose to 1920 in April INC at the beginning Of this month
was $57s5. or that open-hearth binets that we're highly profitable at $40 last
normal earnings IN n 1916 n give everv indication Of having done better or
Corporation. for instance. ceared s28 O34s62 last yea as compared with
$50 90 900. a good mark for average years, and 1t the present basis Of profits
if IS said that this huge concern NAV realize between $500 600 1000 and
s5OOoOoooO for 1917. Other companies have made in proportion and while
n N is begrudging prosperity to the steel industry yet it is time that the
American people realize the situation.
america nus sacrfce dollars n comforts or III must make the
sacrifice in men-and then ultimately he sacrifice in material things a
WE'LL The necessity for legislation is found in n Steel Corporation. Before
of 1916 its contracts to shipbuidins concerns was s425e a ton, and recently
it asked the government SOS a ton" said Senator Hiram Johnson of Call
fornia in the United States Senate the other day.
Not long ago certain steel companies ut quotations to tbs government
and a few days slater while in tn full glow of their patriotism they rewarded
themselves by boosting prices to industries and the public generally Now,
just as President said, "There is something nor that We must add to or
thinking. The public is nov as much part Of the government as are thu army
and navy themselves He also added hat it is just as much our duty to
on industries Is it is to sustain tn forces in the field n on the
sea. We must make prices to the public thu anne al prices to thu govern
'ment"
Tactics of the directors of coal companies and many other big cuisines
concerns in America are believed by man to be far from patriotic, and if
these gentlemen do lot wish to DON deal with a n impatient government
and, what is more, an outraged public. they had better mend their methods
before h history of these times embalns them in IN unsavory light
Mr.. Wilson's earnest if not mandatory. plea to anuacturer to fore
go excessive profits as a patriotic duty has caused the se producers 10
promise new concessions TO the government, but il the reduction is going
to be OF the order of that made by the coal mn furthe rsteps may be neces-
The president desires like the rest of US to be fair to industry, to
il fair prices and profits. and not to tai it to death. u like the
rest Of US he demands that profits be equable, OF blood profits.
The President has given his warning; thu people ire beginning to
viii abnormal profits at The expense of those who will shed their
blood be kept up? We expect u government to % its duty