The Connecticut labor news., 1921-08-05

less than $7.5o per ton. This would
 make rails at net cost to them of $I9.
 We can sell at this price and ship abroad so as to net us $I6 at works
 10 rforeign business, nearly as good
 as home business has been. What is
 true of rails is equally true of other steel products. As result of this | we are going to control the steel
 bushes of the world.
 You know we can make rails for less than SIP per ton, leaving nice 1 margin on foreign business. Besides l this, foreign costs are going to in
 crease year by year because they have
 not the raw materials, while ours are ! going to decrease. The result of all | this is that we will be able to sel our
 surplus abroad, run our works full all
 the time, and get the best practice
 and costs in this way"
 | The Balance Sheet.
 l Now to prove how surely right MT. Schwab was in both his estimates and I his forecast we need only to look at the balance sheet Ot the United States l Steel Corporation. That tells the
 story, and tells it al, because the de l tailed and most admirable annual re-
 ports of the Steel Corporation give us l the exact number of their employees | and the total amount of all the wages and salaries paid to them, thus clearly indicating the total labor cost of their | entire product, and they also give us l the net earnings of the corporation, l from which all interest on invested l capital, all interest on bonds, and all l dividends on both preferred and com mon stock must be pa1d.
 Nothing to Fear.
 l These official figures prove conclusive lv that throughout period of fourteen years under pre-war conditions the Steel l Corporation was able to maintain, and actually did enjoy, scale ot prices high
 enough to yield them net earnings ot no less than 7S.6 per cent. Ot the total labor
 cost of their entire product, including all
 official salaries; and hence our steel
 manufacturers now have nothing to tear,
 and much to gain, If prices go clear back
 to pre-War levels.
 Now let us cite the record of truly
 phenomenal profits (which war prices
 have yielded, alike to the Steel Corpor-
 ation and the national government
 through the excess profits tax. In the | year 1916 the net earnings suddenly | jumped to $333.000,00O, or more than
 double the net earnings of any previous ! year; in 1917 the net earnings reached
 the amazing total of $528O0OOOO pf 1 which the government took $233, 5000 OOC through the excess profits tax; again
 in 1918 the net earnings were $473,OOO,- O0, of which the government took
 S274,0000O0; and so the story goes up
 to the collapse of business in Novem-
 Der, 1920
 A Simple Problem.
 The problem now confronting our
 steel manufacturers is not new, and ii
 Is a perfectly simple one. Throughout the whole history of the iron and steel industry, extending back for over a cen
 tury of time, we have authentic records
 of the fact that following each and every rcriod of panic and industrial depression
 there has been a radical cut in all mar
 ket prices of iron and steel. That must happen now. and no power hearth can .cnt it, because the buyers of steel are fully informed and they positively know that the prices of steel must come down in keeping with all other staple commodities corn, sugar, cotton copper, lead, zinc, tin, and rubber. There Is and can be no lack of de- mand for stee lat fair prices. because CD for fully five years past our rail ; roads, the greatest consumers of steel, have been buying from hand to mouth, , specifically because of the high prices made possible by the war. @ Mir. Hoover conservatively estimates that we
 are at least a million houses short be-
 cause labor was so long diverted to war industries; (3) our great farming in- dustry is driving ahead once more be- cause labor IS cheap, plentiful, and eflci- ent and (4) already the Automobile in dustry and especially the truck manu- lecturers, are making a brave fight to , | hocl fo +Ga, know that this is the richest country on face of the earth and people are ready to buy If we can simply get rid of this
 sudden illogical and intolerable indus trial depression.
 , Faith in Gary.
 | He has taught the steel manufactur- CTS the stupid folly of cutting each , others throats by selling their products
 at less than fair prices; he has taught
 his Worklnen the needed lesson that it
 is impossible for them to select repre- I sentatives who are competent to direct . the operations of a great technical in
 dustry, and for over twenty years past I he has been the industrial leader through7 , out a period of the most prolonged anC
 substantial prosperity that our people , l have ever known.
 , l have firm faith that he will now l take the existing situation actively IT
 hand and since the government has just 1 loaned the railroads five hundred mil , lions of dollars for re-equipment pur- l poses 1t stands to reason that railroad I | executives are now in a position to place f ! immense orders for rails and equipment f of every kind if fair prices can simply
 be agreed upon. Then let a correspond a ing scale of reduced prices be fixed for r all steel products and within few weeks = other large consumers of steel can easily : be induced to place orders enough to
 give profitable employment to tens ot i thousands of thoroughly disciplined anc , l willing steel workers who have already C been too long idle
 Let this happen; let the glad day come r when get word of recharged fur e naces and restarted rolling mills anc
 every far-sighted business man wei t knows that the news will dispe1 this in
 dustrial gloom as summer sunshine dis 1 pels mist
 t We are the richest. the most resource n ful and the most ambitious people on the }, face of the earth; we have become the il worlds centre of banking credit, becaus, r we have the most perfect banking svs