Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1920-01-23

Revelations of profteering on
tremendous scale by the leading in
dustries during the war were made
last week by Basil M. Manly, former
joint chairman of the War Labor
Board, at the Brownsville Labor Ly-
ceum, 219 Sackman street, Brooklyn.
The statement made by former
Secretary of the Treasurer McAdoo
that coal operators were making earn
ings as high as 1000 per cent "was
pikers' profit" Manly stated.
"He should have told them that the
profits ranged as high as 1856 pei
cent. And in the steel mills, one con-
ccnr's profits as submitted to the
Treasury Department, was the tre-
mendous one of 290,999 per cent.
Senate Tries to Suppress Reports
"When a move was made to publish
the 1917 income tax report submitted
to the Treasury Department efforts
were made to kill the motion, and
after hard fight it was agreed that
only two copies for each senator were
to be printed. l managed to obtain
one of these reports and the figures
given there are such as will astound
the American people"
"Attolmey General Palmer says
that there is great difficulty in Sc
curing evidence Of profteering. Why
doesn't he go across the street to the
Treasury Department and start his
investigation with the virtual confes-
sions of profteering contained in the
income and excess profits tax re-
turns? One of the reasons is that
Attorney General Palmer is so bus
hunting evidence on which to deport
reds and near reds that he has no
time for the profiteers."
Some of Basil Manly's startling re-
velations contained in his speech
follow
"When the coal controversy was at
it's height former SECRETARY of the
Treasury McAdoo startled the nation
by declaring that in 1917 the opera
tors made shocking and indefensible
profits on bituminous coal. He stated
that their income tax reurns revealed
that they were making earnings on
their capital stock ranging from Is
per cent to 1000 per cent and that
earnings of from 100 per cent to 800
per cent on capital stock were not
uncommon.
"In the publication Of this report
every effort was made to conceal from
the reader all facts which would re-
veal the criminal profiteering of the
great corporations and trusts.
InsidiOus Suppression
"This report contains 1913 pages,
but in the first $50 pages you will not
find a single corporation with more
than $1O,OOO,OOO capitalization and
very few with more than a few hum
dred thousand. Was it an accident
that all the big corporations were
held back while the data on more
than 10000 small companies was COM
piled and sent to the printer?
"Some question might also be raised
why this report does not include a
single one of the big copper COM
panies which in 1916 and 1917 made
such stupendous profits, and why
other notorious profteers were
omitted
"But, putting all this aside, an ex-
animation of the report shows that
some of the coal operators made as
high as 1856 per cent. profit. The
fact is that nearly half of the coal
companies, 1876 out of 404, actually
earned profits on their capital stock
ranging from 100 per cent to 1856
per cent. The prices paid by the
American people for their coal in
1917 were so high that nearly half
of the mines reported were paid
profits equal to their entire capital
stock, and at least one of the mines
was paid profits equal to 78 times its
capitalization!
'In 1917 the net income of the 404
coal companies reported was $78,000,-
900, or nearly half of their total cap
ital stock of $175,000, 900.