The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-06-14
FEARS DARK DAYS ARE AHEAD
UNLESS LABOR Gets: JUSTICE

fEhkS UAkk Uk1S AIT hnEaD
/ UNLESS LABOR GETS JUSTICE
:. Continued From: Page H.
the earnings of 80 representative AM
erican corporations, a record Of whose
profits is available for each year from
1911 through 1918. This is not a
list selected either because the profits
were large or because the profits
were small. It is list Of all the
corporations whose earnings covering
/ this entire period were available to
me. A com ilation OF these figures
shows that the same 80 corporations
which, in the pre-war years., had an
average net income of 325 million
dollars had net incomes in 1916 am
ounting to more than billion dol
lars in 1917 to CTS million u in 1918
to 1876 million. This is after the de-
! duction Of every conceivable charge
which those companies could devise
for reducing and concealing their ap-
parent profits.
| I am convinced as a result of my
study that the actual profits even
after the payment Of taxes in 1917
aid 1918 were just as great as in
1915, the difference being accounted
for by the fact that in 1917 and 1913
these corporations set up: all kinds
! of excessive reserves for depreciation.
amortization, and other unspecified
and fanciful contingencies for the
purpose of evading taxation and con-
cealing their excessive earnings from
the public and the tax COLLECTOR.
Their Big Earnings.
But even taking the figures as they
stand we find that these 81 corpora
lions earned net $500 in 1916 and
1917 for every dollar which they
earned in tht pre-war period and over
$1,000 in 1918 for every dollar earned
in the pre-war period. This is pro-
fiteering with vengeance and the
profiteers may we'll tremble lest the
people may avenge themselves for
! the shameless exploitation during a
period of the nations greatest neces-
( sity.
And yet, with the people and
particularly the workers in this state
of evaporation is result of their
| daily struggle with an unjustly in
flated cost of living, attempts are al
ready being made by selfish and fool
ish employers to reduce wages. Some
times these attempts to reduce wages
are made directly, but far more often
by the device of shutting down the
plants for a short period to repair
the ravages of high speed war pro-
duction and then employing new men
at reduced rates, and the burning
shame of it is that in many instances
these new men who are being hired
! at reduced wages are our soldiers, the
gold striped veterans Of the great
war. who return to America ignorant
| made the dupes Of INSCRIPTIONS and
unpatriotic employers.
Would Redeem Wages.
There were indications at the re-
cent convention of the National AS
ISOLATION Of Manufacturers that a
concerted movement to reduce wages
would be made by large group of
American manufacturers. These
people who banqueted so sumptuously
CIV SAAS w d1oO14 <A0IOI4d W114lc l16y
concocted their plans for widespread
reductions in wages were playing with
dynamite, and dynamite Intimately
more dangerous, both to the capital
lists and to the public, than all the
May day bombs Of the anarchists.
American labor, whether organized,
will bitterly and effectively resist any
such attempt to reduce wages until
the price level has dropped far lower
than it is today. Labor knows it's
advantages and it knows now, as it
has never known before, it's stipend
GUS power. All intelligent labor lead
ers know, even if the manufa cturers
appear not to know, that for the
next generation there is to be world
wide labor shortage and that this
shortage is almost ctrtain to be great
est in America. They know that more
than seven million men were killed
in the war and that even a greater
number vert incapacitated. They
know that there has been virtually
no immigration to the United States
since July, 1914, and that there is
likely to be little in the years to
come. They know that emigrants are
leaving the United States in such
great numbers that the American
Bankers association has passed reso-
lutions directing national attention to
this phenomenon.
Labor Movement Strong.
Wise men know also that the labor
movement has greatly increased it's
strength in recent, years. At least
two million men have been added to
the ranks of organized labor in Am
erica during the war. A million have
been organized on the railroads alone
and more than a million have been
added to the unions affiliated with
the American Federation Of Labor in
other branches Of Industry.
American labor is more conscious
than ever before of its power and Of
it's rights. It will demand the aboH-
ton of age old injustices: Labor has
been in the harness for untold CEN
turtles. The harness has become
heavy and CALLING; but labor does
not now ask that the harness be
lightened or that the share Of oats
! and hay be enlarged. Labor now
demands the right to climb into the
drivers seat and help control the
numbering chariot of modern in
dustry.