The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1920-05-15
K|GH WAGES ARE RESULT,
# NOT CAUSE OF HIGH COSTS

(Continued Prom l'n:e L.,
two-fifths Of the price which he was
forced to pay. During the war years
the shoe manufacturers earned ap-
proximately IS per cent per year on
their invested capital, as shown by a
study Of 23T shoe manufacturers.
Coal M>n Got Il. !.
with respect to coal, increase in
the retail price of the bituminous pro-
duct have been four times as great
as the increases in labor cost. The
proportion of the proceeds of the in
dustry received by the coal operator
has increased from rs to 400 per cent.
Out of 392 bituminous coal companies
whose income tax state ments were
computed by treasury department Of
ficials for the senate, 334 showed net
profits, after every possible deduction.
of over rs per cent per year, 218
showed earnings of over so per cent
on capital stock, while 118, or nearly
one-third, showed net profits Of over
100 per cent.
According to the statements Of
these corporations in the financial
manuals, clear profit Of more than
81 900, OOO,0 900 was made during the
four years, 1916-17-1S-19, the profit
margin to the operator showing u
larger proportional increase than any
other item in the price of coal paid
by the consumer. These illustrations
can be repeated in almost every in
dustry in the country. -.
"Viewed as a pure economic pro"
position in the light of economics
history, no sane man can fail to re-
alize that the present situation in
the union was threatened in 1860;
and in the light of the easily obtain
able evidence no unprecedented citizen
can fail::to place the burden of the
responsibility upon the groups Of cap
italists and financiers who have seized
upon the sufferings and sacrifices of
a nation'at war as. the means Of ae"
grandizement such as the world be.
fore has never known. '-..-'
Probably the most aggravatins
factor in the situation, from the labor
standpoint, is that the same powerful
interests which have been. and are
so manifestly exploiting the needs Of
the public and the toll of the work.
CHS dIC Tie SdAlS t4ukcA0SLS "AA1NAA
have embarked upon deliberate
campaign Of propaganda and misrep-
rcsentation to fasten upon labor the
responsibility for high prices; in other
words to play off the two sets Of VIC
Tins, the public and the workers.
against. each other. 1t cannot be de-
MED that this effort, plain to thu
worker whose struggle to maintain
his family in decency is daily beco1n
ing more precarious, is tanning the
flames of discomfort and making the
United States a fertile field for this
propagandists of violent economic
revolution.
1T is our purpose with cold facts
to expose the Misrepresentation
heaped upon railroad employees and
other classes of American workers.
Not only to protect our own economic:
interests jim this case but also as patr-
otto American citizens, we believe 1t
our duty~to tndtct this vast and pow
erful body Of wartime and postwar
opinion, to repudiate the stigma of
dishonor which they have attempted
to place. upon railroad and other
workers during and since the war,
and to- fix the guilt of high prices,
the increased cost of living and pro-
fteerins-upon them-where it rightly
belongs. =
1T cannot be denied in the light
of the incontrovertible facts here rep
resented, that, while millions of our
fellow workers offered athe supreme
sacrifice in France or Were suffering
loss in their pre-war status in as
sisting in production of munitions and
necessities Of war in mines, mills,
factories, organized capital was TAX
ing advantage of the critical national
emergency to pile up what President
Wilson has described as 'unconsti-