The producers news., 1918-07-12
WAR PROFITS SHOWN
BY FEDERAL REPORT
Packers, Millers, Steel
Companies and 9th
ers Scored for Greed
and Dishonesty.

and Dishonesty.
All doubt as to the existence q
vicious and widespread profteerin.
ny special interests in the Unite.
States has been swept aside by tn,
Federal Trade Commissions repor
20 congress on June %. This com
mission reports as follows:
That profteering by American
business exists, in some instances t,
an alarming degree.
That leather profits increased as
nigh as five times over pre-wat
years.
That % typical bituminous coal
mines in Central Pennsylvania aver
aged a margin of 90 cents a ton In
1917 against 20 cents a ton in1916.
STEEL PROFITS
EXCESSIVE
That in 1917 the steel companies
made abnormal profits in the period
20 the government price fixing, and
that a number have continued to
make unusually heavy profits since
that policy was inaugurated. Their
profits IN some instances have rang
ed from 100 to 319 per cent.
That the average profits in the
copper industry have been more than
doubled over those of normal years.
That milk and salmon Gamers and
other food product companies have
made exorbitant profits in the war
years. Salmon Gamers profits, for
instance, Were approximately 52.s per
cent on net investment in 1917.
The Helvetia Milk Condensing Com
pany made 65 per cent on it's in
vestment.
PACKERS PREY
ON PEOPLE
1.-The outstanding fact in the in
dustrial surveys which the commits
sion has recently made" declares
the commission, ''is the heavy profit
made by the meat packers and by
those allied with them, and by the
-four millers."
"Their (the packers) manipulations
IF the market embrace every de-
vice that is useful to them without |
regard to law.
However delicate a definition is
framed for "profiteering," these
packers have preyed upon the peo-
ole unconscionably."
''In the three war years from, 1915
% 1917 their total profits (Armour,
Swift, Morris and Cudahy) have
cached the astounding figure of
of which $121 100000
epresents excess over their pre-war
Profits.
BIG PROFITS
IN FLOUR
Flour millers made unequal pro-
it's, with average earnings up to June
o, 1917, of nearly 38 per cent. In
ace of the regulation of 25 cents
er barrel maximum, the average
rofit per barrel on this -four "a A.
100000 barrel output investigated)
7as about 45 cents barrel, or over
hree times the normal profit. The
rofts of jobbers in 1917 were over
vice the normal.
These conclusions carefully arrived
t by the Federal Trade commits
ion are sufficiently serious condem-
alton of the attitude of our mono
ly interests toward the nation IN
me of war, but the real facts are
tronger. The commission had to /
ely on reports sent to it by the cor {
orations. The means and the temp ,
ltion for concealment in these re- {
orts are almost without limit, and
hat doctoring of figures the COM I
lission has discovered, as in the
use of the mlllers, must be only a Y
nall part of what has been going
1. Inventories have been juggled, I
epreciation increased beyond reason, q
nd officers salaries padded. One y
,ncern, for instance, the American 6
[etal Company, Ltd, of New York, 6
as found to have charged to ex- t
enses nearly $2,OO0,000 of salaries v
nd commissions. 10
NEW WAVE OF h
TRUST PROPAGANDA t