Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1918-07-12
CRIMINAL ACTION OF PROFI-
TIERS EXPOSED

Washington.-In a sensational re-
port submitted to the president of the
senate the federal trade commission
charged that unfair and extortionate
profits were being made by many of
the great industries vital to the ma
tons war program, and recommended
that congress take steps to right the
situation, as far as possible, by i'm
The commission, in taking the latter
position stated that all of its findings
supported the utterances Of President
Wilson, who in his address to con-
gress on May 27 said:
"The profteering that cannot be
got at by the restraints Of conscience
and love of country can be got at by
taxation. There is such profteering
now, and the information in regard to
it is available and indisputable."
In backing up this assertion by the
president, the trade commission, in its
report, says:
"The commission has reason to
know that profiteering exists. Much
of it is due to advantages taken of
the necessities of the times, as evil
denced in the war pressure for heavy
production. Some of it is attributable
to inordinate greed and barefaced
fraud"
The report declares unprecedent
profits are shown in a survey of the
packing industry. In this connection
it is said:
Give meat packers, Armour, Swift,
Morris, Wilson and Cudahy, and their
subsidiary and affiliated companies,
have monopolistic control of the meat
industry and are reaching out for like
domination in other products. Their
manipulations of the market embrace
every device that is useful to them
without regard to law.
"Their reward, expressed in terms
of profit, reveals that four of these
concerns have pocketed in 1915-1916-
1917 $140,000,000. However delicate
de..nition is framed for 'profiteer-
ing these packers have preyed upon
the people unconsciousably."
Armour & Co., it is pointed out,
raised it's $20,0OO,O00 capital stock to
I$100,000,000 in 1916 without receiving
dollar for cash.
Armour and Companys profits on
its subsidiary leather business are
shown by two checks to ]. Ogden Ar
mour-one for $915,787, the other for
S2O2, 2,14562 = representing dividends
on his investments in leather COM
panies.
Illustrating again the profits of the
packers, the report shows that while
their business increased only $50 per
cent in the "war time" period, their
profits increased to 400 per cent, or
two and one-half time the sales.
In its investigation of the zinc in
dustry the commission found that Of
ficers of the American Metal COM
pany, limited, of New York, probably
take the prize for high salaries. Fol
lowing are the salaries and "eXtras"
paid the leading officials of that cor
poration:
B. Hochschild, chairman board Of
directors, $179,663.36. C. M. Loeb,
president, $364,326.73. Otto Suss-
man, vice president, 1921 ,596.O4. ].
Loeb, vice president, STAT, 7,93039. Sol
Roos, manager, st. Louis office, $148,-
5000. Mr.. Schott, manager, Denver
office, $136,55312.
These salaries and extras" aggre-
eating more than $1,000,000, were
charged to the Expense account" the
report states.
The report also takes whack at
certain features Of the governments
price-fxing policies. With regard to
steel, it says that while the market
was "prevented from running away"
by price fixing, still the stronger fac
tors in the industry were enriched by
profits which are without precedent.
The net income Of the United States
Steel corporation in 1912 was ST.
075,217, while in 1917 it reached the
unheard-of figures of ,343.
The same is true, the report says,
with regard to the -four trade. For
the years 1913-14-15 and '16, the mil
lers earned II per cent on their in
vestment as compared to SO per cent
for the year ending June 80, 1917.
1t is a noticeable fact that all the
firms charged by the federal trade
commission as being excessive prof.
teers are and have been bitterly op-
posed to trade unions and collective
bargaining.
One special duty we owe ourselves
is, to see that the union liable is on