The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-24
Trade Commission Submits Old
Packer Report to Senate.
Was Withheld From Public at
Presidents Insistence.
URGED 8 PER CENT LIMIT
Wilson Was Afraid 1t Might In
jure Food Administration.
tempted To Have Him
Change HOOver's Regulations.

W aHnllEtons sept. Z4.-DiSclOsureS
,oncerniig the packers wartime prof.
Is and the attempt to have President
Wilson change food administration
equations under which the packers
operated were made today in a report
submitted TO the senate by the fed
-ral trade commission.
Tho report. which was in response
10 a resolution by Senator Norris, Ne
nraska. made public confidential cor
rcspondence which showed that the
commission told the president the
packers profits were "unreasonab bly,
high" that the food administration
regulations should be changed to safe
guard the public interest.
The commission informed President
Wilson in n report dated June rs,
SIS, that packers war profits were
. a rate two and one-quarter to three
mes their earnings In pre-war years.
Ur-,d Fixed Profit.
The commission recommended the
hole food administration scheme of
cker regulation be put on a differ
rlt basis and that classifcations of
lie business into meat products and
'y-products, on which a higher profit
las permissible. be wiped out ard
re entlr' packer output be placed on
basis that would allow per cent
rott.
Excess profits, Il urged. should be
trned over to the United States
7asury.
The report is said to have been
ithheld from publication during the
ar AT the request of President Will
Iu. who feared II might injure the
fOd saving campaign of the food ad-
iniStration Herbert Hoover. in a
ter to the president at the time. also
osed publicity.
Feared Packer Expansion.
Il realize fully that sin the discus
n Of this matter any sentence ut
ID can be interpreted as in support
profits to the packing industry sub
IT'S or to the charge of corrupt in
hence and on the other hand 1 rec
nize equally the easy road to popu-
rtN thru denunciatiOn of these pro-
g." Hoover wrote.
The possible profits under the food
'ministrntion regulation are less than
'' cent n pound and the reduction
posed by the trade commission will
cunt 10 about one-third of cent
~und."
tooter expressed fear of further
tnsfon Of the big packers, however.
Il is our belief that one of the
Attest dangers to the whole of the
al trade of the United States is the
Their expansion of these big packing
ustrics and the elimination of
lller business and individual enter
Sc" Hoover wrote. 1T is not sound
rhine efficiency to enable a mon
.uuS growth OF this kind to destroy
dividunl enterprise of the United
-1tcs on the mere hope that regula-
IN Of the industry will continue after
10 war BY that time the competi-
RS Will all be dead"
Urged Excess Profits law.
Excess profits legislation would be
much more the satisfactory remedy"
cover advised. He declared his reg
ulatious had accomplished stability of
the market. stimulated production and
eliminated speculation, and that I'm
ordinate earnings" should be restored
To the public thru excess profits taxes.
Regulation Of profits in advance
operates to curb incentive, he argued.
The Federal Trade Commission. in
"A memorandum signed by Chairman
W. h. Colver. but not sent to the
president, dissented from this view.
1--WE dissent from the theory of TAX
ing back thirty cents, fifty cents, sixty
cents or eighty cents from a dollar
improperly taken from the people as
consumers OK from the government"
the commission replied "It is at
tempting to lift ones self by his boot
straps and losing sixty or fifty, or
forty or twenty per cent Of energy
employed. A price structure built
upon such theory as this cannot and
should not be tolerated by the people
OF the country.
1T has a vicious effect upon BUSH
ness itself. in inviting and encour-
aging wasteful and extravagant busi-
ness operations"