The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1920-08-05
WHY CLOTHES
COST so MUCH
.-
Wool Trust Profits Show Folly
of aImer Crusade Against
Retailers. ....

One of the thinnest and most absurd
pretenses of big business and of At
torney General Palmer is the pretense
that the high prices of food and clothes
are due largely to excessive profits Of
retail merchants, and can be remedied
by sending a few grocers to Jail for
charging one cent a pound profit on
graduated sugar. Or by compelling
clothing dealers to- mark In plain fig
Hres the cost price Of every garment
they sell.
" OF course as we often do not know
just who is to be blamed for excessive
prices, and IS W. cannot very well get
at manufacturers we like to take it out
on the retailer.
Must Go After Trusts.
But there was published a few days
ago some facts about the profits of
textiel manufacturers which show very
plainly that ~profiteering where it ex-
lists, is not to be laid solely with the
retail merchants. If we could reach
such trusts as the American Wooden
Co. we would get somewhere in the
fight against profteers.
Here follows an abstract from a re
cent press dispatch from New York
city:
The American Wooden Co., is com
monty known as the "Woolen trust"
In many respects it is to the wooden
trade what the Standard Oil Co. is to
the oil business. 1t owns so mills,
which cover more than 700 acres of
land and have owe 100000 feet of
floor space. No figures on the com
pany's annual output of WOODEN goods
are obtainable.
Secrecy has been one of the watch
words of the company's policy. Stock.
holders cannot learn from annual re-
ports the volume of business handled
annually measured in terms of dollars,
and unlike most other big corporations
of the present time, the company does
not make any statement to stockhold-
ers of expense Of operation.
Sensational Profits
At any rate, the sk%eletonized state
ment of earnings as furnished by the
American Wooden Co. gives convincing
evidence that it has not established
record high prices for wooden goods
simply for the purpose of meeting in
creased tax payments or higher pro.
duction costs and at the same time to
give owners and stockholders a fair
return on their investment.
During the war period and more re-
Gently, while the cost of living and in
%cidentally of wooden goods has been
soaring, the company has been piling
up profits that are nothing short of
sensational.
342 Per Cent Jump.
In 1914, operating income after de.
dusting expenses amounted to 50, 1885,.
6O2. BY 1916. it had jumped to $S,.
21O, 761, an increase of 1914 per cent
and operating income for 1913 tota,ed
$12,324,QS4, an increase of $685. ,4S2
or $40 per cent over 1914.
But that is not all. Before arriving
at the operating profit for 1918, tho
company not only took care of wage
increases and production costs, but
also took care Of federal income anC
excess profit taxes for the year.
In 1915 the company earned S6.4O for
each share of common stock. after pay.
ing I per cent in dividends on the
preferred stock. In 1916. common
share earnings jumped TO 1882 pei
share in 1917. to s4O.42 per share, und
in 1918 they amounted to S21.36 pei
share It appears that the only reason
the share earnings in 1918 were not as
large or not larger than in 1917 is that
1921. 900 was charged against depre.
citation AND in other ways surplus Fl.
nancial fat was stored away before
arriving at the dividend balance.
Where Your Money Goes.
In 1916, in addition to the usual Z
per cent dividend on the preferred
stock, the company paid 81 per cent
on the common. In 1917 and 1918. Fl
per cent was paid, and in 1919 the
company began to distribute a part OF
its huge surplus earnings by giving t"
common stockholders extra dividends
in Liberty bonds equal to Is per cent
of their olnsnc share holdings. Later
in the same year the rate Of annual
cash dividends was increased tot per
cent.
This by no mean tells the whole
story. Among other things, 1t might
be pointed out that from 1914 to 1915
the company increased its net working
capital from s21, S433 900 to s52,S .OOC
and increased it's accumulated surplus
earnings after deducting larger divis
dnnd payments from $S,O24,OOO to So
724,0O0.
1t certainly appears that the com
pany a easily and substantially re,
duce the prices Of its products and at
the same time give the stockholders a
handsome return on their Investment.
Wisconsin Capital Times.