The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-05-14
REPORT ABSOLVES. LABOR
OF BLAME FOR PRICES
M|LLI0NAIRES HIT
Show the Consumer
Pays Exorbitant Rate For
His Foodstuffs
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch

Washington, May IA study Of
~profteering in American industry.
made under the auspices of the rail-
way brotherhood was presented to the
railroad labor board today in support
of the railway workers demands for
higher pay and to refute the charge
that increased labor costs are re-
sponsible for the high cost Of living.
Prepared by w. j. Lauck, former
secretary of the war labor board, the
study seeks to show that ~profteering
in industry is the Fundamental
cause for high prices in practically all
commodities. II gives many statistics
to support that contention.
Calling attentions to the many war
made millionaires, the study CON
tends that a three fold relationship
exists between high prices, p%rofiteer-
millionaires," and that the increase IN
the wealth Of the wealthy S an "un-
answerable" refutation to all attempts
to charge labor with pr%onteering, and
to all attempts to hold labor respons-
ible for the high cost of living.
Raps Sugar Prices.
OF the extraordinary increase in the
price OF sugar now amounting to 800
per CEN the study says, the Increase
in labor cost paid by the consumer
was less than Is per cent. The result
of advanced prices according to the
reports of twelve companies producing
half of the sugar consumed in
the United States was pictured in the
net profits of these concerns which
1t was said rose from an average OF
Sill, 000, 900 during the years, 1924
to $4,000, 900 for the years 1916
1918.
In the meat packing industry where
profits were said to have increased
between 900 and 400 per cent, the Ia
Dor item was shown so small that a
wage increase of 100 per cent would
add less than 5 per Gent to the total
price between 1914 and 1918 was
shown as eight times the total labor
cost and the 1918 price represented
twenty five times the total labor
item.
Profits On Cloth.
Profits absorb approximately one-
half the retail price Of certain kinds
of cloth, the report declared, while
the labor item amounts to from one
to one twentieth of the
price. Similar relations were pictured
III Tie ludLuldCluTc VI LlSu 3 garments.
did not stop with the ar
mistice the report declared presenting
figures to show that corporation pro-
fits in 1919 were 10 per cent over
the pre-war average which means, the
study added, that 1919 profits were
more than double the average for the
years 1912-14.
An average of $1,000 per ramily- of
five during the years 1916 1918 was
declared to be probably a highly con-
sentative estimate of the actual cost
of corporate ~profiteering to the con-
sumers.
Outlines The Demands.
Concluding his study, Mr.. Lauck sub
the following demands in the
of the railroad workers:
/. Labor in general, n railroad
labor in particular, must have wage in
creases proportionate to advances in
living costs.
2. I'm the present crisis, and for all
time to come, producers and middle
men must be restrained from advancing
prices in excess of increases in labor
and material costs.
3. Producers and middlemen must
refrain from including income and ex-
cess profit taxes in their costs and pass
ing them on to the consumer with an
added profit.
4. 1.-The principle of a living wage
be accepted and established in or
that normal production may be re-
stored and increased production hoped
for in all friends Of industry"