The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-09-24
WART|ME .iOF|TS
Of b. PACKERS
Rate of Two to Three Times
What It Was During
Years of
Peace.
REPORT MADE PUBLIC
Was Held Back During War for Fear
1t Would Interfere with
Food Pro-
gram.
REPORT MADE PUBLIC

| United Press Leased Wire Sc. e.vice.1
WASHINGTON, Sept 24.-Disclos-
ures concerning the packers wartime
profits and the attempt to have Presi-
dent Wilson change food administra-
tion regulations under which the
packers operated. were made today
in a report submitted to the senate by
the federal trade commission.
The report, which was in response
to resolution by Senator Norris, Ne
braska, made public confidential cor
respondence which showed that the
commission told the president the
packers profits were funreasonably
high" and that the food administra-
tion regulations should be changed to
safeguard the public interest"
The commission informed President
Wilson in a report dated June 2S,
1918, that packers war profits were
at rate of two and one-quarter to
three times earnings in pre-war
years.
The commission recommended that
the whole food administration scheme
Of packer regulation be put on diff
ferent basis and that classification OF
the business into meat products and
ii,by.products. on which a higher profit
was permissible, be wiped out and the
entire packer output be placed on
basis that would allow eight per cent
profit.
Excess profits, 1t urged, should De
turned over to the federal treasury.
The report is said to have been
withheld from publication during the
war at the request OF President viii
son. who feared it might tnJure the
food saving campaign Of the food ad-
mInistration. Herbert Hoover, IN
letter to the president at the time,
also opposed publicity
81 realize fully that in the discus
sion of this matter any sentence Ut
tered can be interpreted as in support
of profits to the packing industry SUD
iects one to the charge of corrupt IN
fluence and on the other hand l rec
ognize equally the easy road to pop
ularity through denunciauon OF these
profits" Hoover wrote. :,
''The possible profits under the food
administration regulation are less
than one cent pound and the reduc-
tion proposed by the trade commission
will amount to about one-third OF
cent a pound.
Hoover expressed fear of further
expansion of the big packers, how
ever.
at is our belief that one OF the
greatest dangers to the whole lcou
trades Of the United States Is the
further expansion Of these Dig pack,
ing industries and the ellmlnauoh OIL
smaller business and 1ndivldual en-
terprise," Hoover wrote. 1T Is not
sound wartime efficiency to enable
monstrous growth of this kind to de-
United States ON the mere hope that
regulation Of industry will continue
after the war. By that time the com
petitors will all be dead,
Excess profits legislation would
he "nuch the more satisfactory rem
edy" Hoover advised. He declared
his regulations had ACCOMPLISHED sta
bilitv of the market. stimulated pro
ducfion and eliminated speculation,
and that ''inordinate earnings shoulo
he restored to the public through eH-
cess profits taxes. Regulation or pro
Ats in advance operates to curb IN
centive, he argued.
The federal trade commission, in
m memorandum signed by Chairman w
Colyer. but not sent to the presl-
dent dissented from this view.
eve dissent from the theory of tax
ing back thirty cents, fifty cents. six
~ cents or eighty cents from dollar
improperly taken from the people as
consumers or from the government"
the commission replied "1t Is at
tempting to lift ones self by his booS
straps and losing sixty or fifty or
forty or twenty per cent of the energy
employed. A price structure built
upon such q theory as this cannot and
should not be tolerated by the people
Of the country.
at has a vicious effect upon bust
ness itself. in inviting and encouras-
ing wasteful and extravagant bust
ness operations.
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