The Fayette falcon. (Somerville, Tenn.) 190?-current, 1920-05-14
PRESENTS STUDY
IN PR0F|TEER|NG
DECLARES PRoFITEERlNG IN IN.
DUsTRY is FUNDAMENTAL
CAUSE OF HIGH PRICES.
PREPARED. BY W. J. LAUCK
Former Secretary of War Labor Board
Makes Some Startling Revelations
Anent Huge Profits Made In
Necessities of Life.

Washington.-A study of profiteer
ing in American industry, made un
der the auspices of the railway broth
erhoods, was presented to the railroad
labor board in support Of the railway
workers demands for higher wages
and to refute the charge that increased
labor costs are responsible for the
kigh cost of living.
PreTa AIRED by w. ]. Lauck, former
secretary 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, profiteeriny and
the addition to the quota of million
aires" and that the increase in the
wealth Of the. wealthy is an "un-
answerable" refutation to all attempts
to charge labor with profiteering and
to all attempts to hold labor responsi.
BILE for the high cost of living.
OF the extraordinary increase in the
price of sugar now amounting to 300
per cent, the study says the increase
In labor cost paid by the consumer
was less than 10 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 pict-
ured in the net profits of these con-
Germs which, 1t was said, rose from an
average of $11 100000 during the years
1912-1914 to s34,O0O,OO0 for the years
1916-191S.
In the meat packing industry where
profits were said to have increased be-
tween 800 and 400 per cent, the Ia
Dor 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 increase in the
price between 1914 and 1918 was
shown as eight times the total labor
cost, and the 1918 price represented
rs times the total labor item.
Profits absorb approximately one
half the retail price, of certain kinds of
cloth, the report declared, while the
labor item amounts 10 from one-four-
teenth to onestwentieth of the price.
Shoes, according to the study fur
n'shed 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
amounted to approximately three-fifths
of the total price and over five times
the total labor cost
Increases in the retail price OF
bituminous 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 to 400 per cent.
Profiteering did not stop with the
.armistice, the report declared. present.
lag figures to show that corporation
profits in 1919 were 10 per cent over
the pre-war average, which means, the
study added. that 1919 profits we're
more than double the average for the
wears l912-1914.