The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-07
LABOR IN DENIAL
Excess Profits Not Benefiting
Workers, Says BrOtherhOods.
Report Prepared by Secretary OF
War Labor Board.
LABOR GETS ONLY IS Per CENT
Half of Retail Prices Charged Is
Profit, Is Charge.
Huge Fortunes Are Being Piled
Up by PrOfiteeFs.
LABOR GETS ONLY IS Per CENT

Washington, May IA study of
profiteering in american industry
made under the auspices of the rail-
way brotherhoeds, was presented to
the railroad labor board today in sup
port of the railway workers demands
for higher pay and to refute the
charge that increased labor costs are
responsible for the high cost of living.
Prepared by w. j. Lauck, former sec
rotary of the war labor board, the
study seeks to show that profiteering
In industry is the fundamental cause
for high prices in practically all COM
modities. 1t gives many statistics to
support that. contention.
Calling attention to the many war
made millionaires, the. study contends
that a three-fold relationship exists
between high prices, profiteering and
aires" and that the Increase in the
wealth of the wealthy is an "unan-
swerable" refutation to all attempts
to charge labor with profiteering, and
to all attempts to hold labor RESPONSE
BILE for the high cost of living
Small Share TO Labor.
For. if invested wealth gets
larger return" says the study. "a
larger proportion of the national in
come than formerly, the man who
gives personal service or labor is
bound to get smaller proportion.
The menace of the future lies in the
probability that the vast profits which
are still held in reserve will be capt.
talized in order that under the pre-
text of a fair return on capital those
who own them may continue to take
| larger proportion of national income
| even at the expense of very gTeat suf-
fering on the part of the workers
when the over-stimulatio of war has
passed away
| OF the extra ordinary increase in the
price of sugar now amounting to 800
| per cent the study says, the increase
1 in labor cost paid by the consumer
was less than 8 per cent. The result
! of advanced prices, according to the
quoted reports of twelve companies
/ producing over half of the sugar con-
sumed in the United States was pic
! tured in the net profits of these con-
| Germs which it was said rose from an
| average of S11.0O0000 during the
years 1912-1914 to $34.0O0,oO for the
years 19161S. In the meat packing
Industry where profits were said to
have increased between 500 and 400
per cent, the labor item was shown so
small that a wage increase of 100 per
cent would add less than per cent
to the total cost of the meat the in
crease in price between 1914 and 1913
was shown as eight times the total
| labor cost and the 1918 price repre-
sented twenty five times the total la
Dor item.
Half Price Is Profit
Profits absorb approximately one
half the retail price of certain kinds
of cloth, the report declared, while the
labor item amounts to from ne-fouP-
tenth to one-tWentieth of the price.
Similar relations were pictured in the
manufacture of mems garments
Shoes, according to the study, fur
nished a splendid opportunity for the
profiteer." The profit items in 1914
it was charged, absorbed nearly one
half the price paid by the consumer or
nearly three times the total labor cost,
while in 1917 the profit items amount
ed to approximately ree-fifths of the
total price and over five times the to-
tai labor cost.
Increases in the retail price of BIZ
! luminous coal were shown at four
times the increase in labor costs, while
the proportion of the proceeds of the
industry received by the coal operators
was shown as increased from rs te
400 per cent. Profiteering did moi
stop with the armistice, the report de-
clared, presenting figures to show that
corporation profits in 1919 were liz
per cent over the pre-war average
which means the study added. thai
1919 profits were more than double
the average for the years 1912-1s14.
An average of $1,000 per family Of
five during the years 1916-191S wa:
declared to be probably a highly con
i sentative estimate of the actual cos
of corporate profiteering to the con
| suu1Ar