The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1920-09-23

WASHINGTON, D. C.-Both farm
implement manufacturers and dealers,
according to the federal trade com.
mission, have entered into illegal
agreements to boost prices far beyond
the increased cost Of production.
Prosecutions to compel more seri-
GUS dissolution than that ordered by
the courts in 1918 is the plan pro-
posed as a remedy.
"The dominating position of the In
ternational Harvester company is
chiefly with respect to the harvester
machine lines and particularly with
respect to grain binders" says the
commission.
The commission believes that the
combination of the Mccormick and
Deering plants under the Interna-
tional Harvester company is what
primarily makes the monopoly pos
sible, and recommends the separation
of these two great industries. 1t finds
that the large increase In the prices
and profits of manufacturers in 1917
and 1918 was due in. part to price un-
derstandings and agreements among
manufacturers, and that to a more
limited extent the increase in the
profits of dealers seems to have been
due to similar activities.
It finds that nearly all important
manufacturers are members of tho Ma
tional Implement and Vehicle assccia-
ton, with 10 departments representing
different lines.
METHODS USED
The following methods are noted by
the commission in maintaining the al
legged unfair prices:
price comparison meetings at
which advances in prices recently
made or intended to be made are dis
cussed.
Cost comparison meetings at which
inflated costs are compared.
"Terms meetings at which agree
ments were made respecting uniform
terms, thus making the prices Of the
different members more comparable.
Frequent exchange by letters Of
what advances had been made recent
ly and asking for other members re-
cent price advances.
f'Complaints of price cutting, the
complaints frequently show that the
price cutting member was held as not
keeping faith in maintaining the prices
agreed upon."
The commission finds that the net
profit of IS farm machinery manu-
facturers was 105 per cent larger than
in 1916, and that the net profits of
over 200 jobbing firms in this line in
creased 81 per cent between 1915 and
1918.
The chief value of the report will
probably be in educating more Of the
public to realizing that there is har-
vester trust, although most farmers
have been aware of the fact for sew
eral years. The remedy proposed,
namely, unscrambling the scrambling
Mccormick and Deering companies,
certainly can not be expected to pro-
duce any better results than the un-
scrambling of the Standard Oil mo-
nopoly or the tobacco monopoly.
WAR MAKERS BUSY
Poland is not taking the Wilson
Colby note to Italy with respect to
maintaining Russia's territorial in
tegrity seriously, and Secretary of
State Colby has been assuring the
press correspondents of Having hope"
that Poland will abandon imperialist
policies.
Perhaps the Poles can not reconcile
the policy of destroying the Russian
government, announced through the
Italian ambassador, and this other Of
preserving Russian integrity. What
ever may have been communicated
abroad by code, even this published
note IS considered as demand for
new war. It has given the great horde
of editors and publicists the material
for preparing the mind of America"
The war for democracy is over and the
democracy forgotten; we are now pre-
pairing for "the war for civilization"
because America is best able to stand
the expense Those who think that
the public is too disillusioned on war,
should remember that the war makers
have learned lot about publicity and
have acquired powers above the Con-
stitution as we'll as great wealth.
Doctor Frank Crane, minister and
feature writer, voiced the attitude
which pussyfooting liberals are going
to take when he said the other day
in regard to the Russian government:
Sooner or later, unless it falls to
pieces from its own rottenness, it must
be faced and fought by the civilized
nations. We can keep out of this
row no more than we could keep out
of the war with Germany"
Will civilization fare any better in
war than did democracy?
Z
HOMELESS MILLIONS
The prospect of making America
homeless grows apace under present
conditions Mayor Hylan of New York
reports that the number of families
without a place to live is approximate
=. m nm ,,,I,;1o ri d nou1o eoc-