The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-30
POINTS OUT EVILS
Senator BriStOW TOaStS Govern
ment Officials Here.
Speaks to Two Good Crowds in
Topeka Last Night.
REAL REPUBLICAN SPEECH
Salina Editor Trains Guns on
Democratic Actions.
"Failure To Fix Substitute
Prices Permits Grabbing"

government Officials IN charge pl
the big war contracts were given
two-hour toasting Monday night in
two Topeka speeches by Joseph L.
Bristow of Salina, Republican sena-
torial candidate. Bristow's speeches
were largely confined to a discussion
of the method of contract letting and
condemnation of official action which
permitted excessive and abnormal
profits.
For several months Bristow has
been speaking in the state. His
speeches Monday evening in Ripley
park and Chesney park were his first
talks before Topeka crowd. In his
campaign for the Republican sena-
torial nomination. BriAtow is giving
little thought or attention to other
candidates or factional affairs. In
stead he is training his guns on the
Democrats with a speech which he
told Topeka friends would need but
little revision to become the official
Republican gospel of the prediction
campaign.
Severe criticism of the "cost plus
or percentage system of contract let
utilities commission chairman. He
was also bitter in his denunciation of
the price fixing program of the gov
eminent and declared the fixing of
flour prices without the regulation of
substitute prices had permitted the
grabbing of millions of dollars in
profits.
Reckless Waste Public Funds.
Bristow's speech in part follows:
THE evil he said, lis in the sys-
tenn of paying the contractor a per
cent of the he SnendS and fIIr-
nishing him all the money he wants
to spend. 1t has resulted in the most
reckless and indefensible waste of
public funds in the history of the
United States or any other nation. 1
protest against it. 1t is not a proper
method for the expenditure of the
government funds. It invites waste
and extravaganza. and we are going to
need all the money we have before
this war is over
In place of the percentage system,
Mr.. Bristow said it would have been
much wiser to have followed the plan
used in the construction of the Pan
anna canal, where an incentive was
given to those in charge to require
honesty, economy and efficiency.
Secretary Baker, tho an honest
and well-meaning man, he said was
not equipped mentally nor by expert
ence to handle the tremendous re-
sponsibilities of the war department
and should give way to some one who
is
Wheat Price Fixing.
1--WE are confronted with a strange
situation. The price of wheat is fixed
by an arbitrary decree of the govern
ment, while every article of food that
completes with it in the market can
soar in price to the skies.
When the citizen goes to his local
grocer to buy a sack of flour, the
grocer is required by command of the
government to compel the citizen to
buy an equal amount of substitutes of
an inferior grade of food. If it were
not inferior, it would not be necessary
to compel him to buy it.
Now there is no limit fixedsto the
price of the inferior grade of food and
the price is higher than that for wheat
products. So we have the astounding
situation that permits the manufac-
turer of Inferior grades of food, which
the citizen is compelled to buy, to
charge the most extortionate prices.
Grab for Substitute Makers.
Manufacturers of substitutes are
making hundreds of millions of dol
lars thru this order of the food ad-
ministration, and this is done in the
name of liberty and democracy. If
the price of wheat is to be fixed, the
price of substitutes ought also to be
regulated in fairness to the consuming
public. I call upon the student of
political history to point out anywhere
in the history of great civilized ma
tions an order more suverSive to lib
erty or justice.
81 have had compiled the net profits
of certain great Industrial concerns for
a period of five years before the war
and for the years 1915 and 1917. 1
have taken the years 1911, 1912, 1913,
1914 and 1915 and averaged them and
put the result in one column, the net
profits for the year 1916 in another
and 1917 in another.
81 am going to give you some Of the
figures. These figures are taken from
the monthly, quarterly and annual re-
ports of the concerns whose names I
will mention. They may be found in
Moodys Industrials, a standard au-
thority on industrial corporations.
Take the Armour Packing COM
pany. You all know what its business
is Its average net profits for the five
years referred to were, in round num-
bers. Sos 900 per annum: for 1915.
S20.100,000, and for 1917 $50, 900.
Take Morris & Company, packers.
Their average net profits for the five
years referred to were. 81. S5S.0OO. for
1916, $3.50. 900, for 1917, $40. 35S. 900.
Take Swift & Company--the larg-
est packing concern we have. This
company's average net profits for the
five years before the war were So
1876. 900 per annum; for 1916, $40, 49,
600; and for 1917, s34,650.000.
Packers Increase Profits.
These packers have increased their
net profits after deducting all war
taxes and excess profits taxes, by from
800 to 500 per cent since the war be-
gan, and they have done it by charg-
ing the American people excessive
prices for the meats they eat.
81 was told when I was in Wash
ing last winter that if the amendment
offered by Senator Johnson of Cali
fornia to the revenue bill to tax war
profits so per cent-as is one in Eng
land and France-had become a law
it would have turned into the treasury
of the United States three billion dol
lars more than was collected.
But / would not assess them so
per cent because if these concerns are
to get one-fifth of the profits from the
extortionate prices they charge the
s erica Iaannle It would he a in.