Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-08-23
j. S. HUNTING COFFIN
PROF|TEER|NG HEADS
Trust Charges $500 for $50
Burial Boxes. Government
Investigators Learn.

Washington. ID. c.. Aug. 2s,--Cotfin
makers and distributors, who have
reared millions OF dollars in extor-
tionate profits from the bereaved, are
facing Imprisonment.
The Government has uncovered
enough evidence against the conspira-
tors TO warrant indictments in score
Of large cities. Among the defendants
viii be undertakers as well as manu-
factures
The Department of Justice has
found in quiet Investigation that
probably the most vicious form of ex-
tortion yet disclosed among profiteers
Is being practised Systematically by
the makers of collins.
Some of the amazing eNampl 5
show that in some cities undertakers
have not Disseminated in their eN-
tortions. The charges are that in
numerous instances undertakers have
cold-hloodedly soaked" the poor in
prices so excessive that relatives of
the dead have lost their own homes
in foreclosures of mortgages by grasp
ing undertakers.
The records show that a large num-
her of undertakers need only two fun
erals "A month To keep in business AT
a good profit.
1t is declared that the evidence in
hand shows that the leading coffin
manufacturers are in a conspiracy 10
fix prices so unreasouably high and
by methods that are completely de-
structive of competition that prose-
cutions can be waged successfully in
the Federal courts under the Sherman
antitrust laws.
The frauds are said to be OF such
magnitude that practically no part
of the country is free from the grasp
ing tenacles of the coffin trust" and
bereaved persons contracting for flu
neral arrangements are literally at
the mercy of the trust" and its ar
filiated agencies. running all the way
down TO the undertaken.
Differing from the operat tions of 9TH
er trusts" suspected of violating the
Sherman law, the coffin combination is
said to have effected such selling
arrangement for its coffin output that
the undertaken. the final salesman in
the long list Of coffin handlers, gets an
abnormally large percentage of profits
out of each transaction. The manu-
fGcture of coffin, il is discovered, is
willing TO share on a liberal basis the
constituencies profits garnered with
the undertakers throughout the coun-
try.
The Federal Trade Commission is
making an inquiry into the costs Of the
coffin industry as a supplementary step
in the other investigation which are
drawing TO a close at the Department
OF Justice. The department has now
enough proof 10 go before grand juries
when the autumn terms of the Federal
courts are resumed. But expert data
going minutely into the ramifications
Of the coffin trust. it's production fig
ures, its selling prices and the private
agreements which it has with the job
hers and undertakers. is desired by the
Department Of Justice to make more
complete the cases which are TO be
pressed in the criminal courts
The facts discovered by department
investigators has evoked what officials
r. gard as the most shocking sample
yet discovered of profiteering that can
not be justified upon either moral or
legal grounds.
Coffins that are manufactured in fac
tories at $50 are being sold by under
takers for as high as 5000, according to
the substantiated charges now before
the department Coffins Of the mex
pensive type, made at a cost of about
$50. are sold and charged up in funeral