New-York tribune., 1918-07-05

YOU lay "A tax of ST and upon the mine
whose profits are 10 cents n ton no tax
at all you have left both with the same
profit, and the governments income is
enormously increased. Excess profits in
that way are appropriated for war.
This the government has not yet done.
On the other hand, it has proceeded
with price fixing on the theory that pro-
duction is of first Importance, and, on
the other hand it has neglected to re-
capture the profits thereby accruing to
the low cost properties by scientific
and systematic war profits tax levy.
The result, as the commission says, is
that the Glow cost concern" makes very
high profits. 1t calls this 'protiteering.'
The commission does not call atten-
ton to the fact that the government is
responsible for an enormous currency
imitation, which causes prices to rise, the
price of labor along with everything else.
It does not call attention to the fact
that the profits are calculated in terms
of inflated money.
1t does not call attention to such facts
as that when we entered the war indus
try was already on war profit basis,
owing to the enormous business we had
been doing with the Allies in exchange
for gold; that a choice had to be made
between conducting our own war in
dustry on that basis Of high profits or
forcing such drastic rcadjustments as
might easily have produced panic,
and that the government adopted the
practical course.
It does not call attention to the COM
plex fact that when you divide war
profits into concerns capital invest
ment to get the percentage of profit
you are dividing inflated money into old
capital, with misleading result; where
as, it would be only fair to revalue tho
capital investment in terms of current
money values in order to determine the
rate of profit.
The commission has money phobia
and lacks either the power or the ir-
clination to make intelligent distinctions
1t attacks the five leading meat packers
as monopolists who have "preyed upon
the people unconscionably" evidence be-
ing that they have pocketed in three
years $140,000,000. We do not know
anything about the merits of this feud
between the packers and the Trade Com
mission, but we think it would be only
fair to analyze how the profit of $140,-
100000 was derived and how it affected
the price of meat per pound-that is,
vnp hoY f1xo
concerns" deriving their profits from
efficiency and the intelligent use of by
products-in which case they are prop
erly subject only to a stiff excess war
profits tax, or whether they are "proft-
eers" in fact, in which case they should
be subject to moral and legal penalties
without limit
The commission hates their monopo-
listic tendency. That is all right Mo-
nopolies are repugnant. But we note
that the commission absolves the New
Jersey Zinc Company of the charge Of
profiteering, on the ground that the
explanation of it's large profits is that
"it possesses a natural monopoly Of a
certain high grade ore"
In a number of instances the commits
sion alleges illegal acts which, If they
can be proved, are such as it has the
power to deal with under the Clayton
law It's business is to suppress illegal
practices, now as in peace time, instead
Of exhibiting them as evidence in
wholesale charge of war time profteer-
ing
And yet, having said all of these
things against the Trade Commissions
report, we are obliged to say, on the
other side, that every decent minded
person will share it's Indignation toward
2roiteering. One who deliberately and
from greed enriches himself out of the
proceeds of Liberty bonds is an enemy
within and deserves to be treated AS
such The trouble lies here: That profit
making, wherein it is typical, is partly
illusory, and is largely owing to eco-
nomic conditions over which the indvid-
ual has little or no control, while the
profiteering, properly so called, though,
as we believe, exceptional, is too easily
confused with that indifference to the
cost of war, that thoughtless reaching
out for ones share Of abundant money
because every one else is doing it, of
which all of us are in some degree guilty
1t is this unacknowledged sense of gen
eral guilt which causes US to denounce
each other as profiteers-to magnify the
others sin and to minimize our own.