Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1921-01-07
WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
BIG BUSINESS MAKES
ENORMOUS PROFITS

The United States Bureau Of Labor
Statistics showed thai Ia May. 1920. TO
maintain a family OF husband wife
md three children. with a little insur
anee. education, a magazine and q
movie once in while but no auto
mobile. requires an income of S2.533s7
per year. or a daily wage of over s.
Yet Of the 1,1S3.000 men working for
wages in Massachusetts only ID per
cent get $4,000 or more. and one con
IstaHtly hears the wage oil 81 per hon
referred 10 as most preposterously
large, although the United States
Government is authority for the state
ment that these wages are barely
enough to maintain family in com
fort
With capital getting three times the
return that IL got before the war.
there Is no question but that in the
distribution OF the total income of
the country, labor is receiving very
much smaller proportion than 1t did.
and that profits, interest and rent are
squeezing the lemon dry. II is proba
bly, useless for us 10 warn big busi-
ness that IL is splitting the beans,
but such is the fact, and we will not
be recreant to cur duty in telling the
truth
The country made enormous say.
ings by disseminating the liquor traf
f., savings which should have greatly
Iameliorated the condition of the
workers and given them many lux
uiies hitherto enjoyed but these saw
ings have been appropriated by the
moneyed interests. and prohibition has
really done nothing for the workers.
that its advocates reasonably hoped,
believed, expected and preached that
1t would surely do.
IL seems hard to read that one baby
in every six dies when the father
earns $3.50 or less per year. and that
only one in every sixteen dies when
the father earns $3.50 per year, and
then to see how anxious the profit
takers are that the wages of the
workers should not be permitted to
rise to point where they would In
terfere with the new and exorbitant
profits to which they have been ac-
customed with the advent of this
demoeracy-savng war.
] In 1919 the worker on a yard OF
/ blue denim received AZ percent OF the
price, and the mill owners received IN
profits on the same yard 24.74 percent
of the price. From 1910 to 1919 the
profits on denim rose 602 percent. In
| 1919 the wages of the workers on
denim could have been doubled, and
| the profits of the manufacturers
would still have been twice as much
on each yard as the workers received
for making the yard.
In the canning of corn the labor
cost increased % percent between
1916 and 1917. but the Gamers profit
Increased 256 percent While the la
Dor cost in making ton of iron rose
| from 40 cents to SO cents, the price
of the iron itself rose from SIS per
ton to $50 per ton Big business is
proiit.mad and is disappearing the
condition of the workers Here are
some of the increases in profits of
concerns dealing in the accessories OF
| life
IN the year 1918 the profits of the
Standard Milling Company lfiourl
were 1876 percent In excess OF their
profits in 191S the profits of the
American Wooden Company were 3l6
percent of their profits in 1914: the
profits of the United States Rubber
/ Company were 43 percent in excess
of their profits in 1916, and the profits
.of the United Drug Company were 1iS
percent in excess of their profits in
1915
In the year 1919 the profits of the
| following great concerns exceeded
their profits over previous years by
i the amounts named
American Hide and Leather Company
265go over 1914.
American Ice Company over
| 1914.
United Fruit company-547% over
1914
May Department Stores-174Go over
1915.
Pacific Mills (iourl -2lS% over 1915.
Manhattan Shirt Company - 275go
over 1915.
Endicott-Johnson Company (shoes -
$3.50 over 1915.
Corn Products Refining Company
$500 over 1915.
Burns Brothers (coaD -729e over
| 1915.
American Linseed Company--7sOse
over 1916.
General Cigar Company-S4qo over
/ 1917.
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company
(muslin) S11Go over 1917.
Central Leather Company-10S% over
1918.
Cluett, Peabody Company (collars)
1856 over 1918.
For the period of 1916-1s the profits
of the International Paper Company
were 4S7 percent over the profits for
the period of 1909-15, and for the
period 1863 the profits of the Ma
tional Enameling and Stamping Com
pany (kitchenwarel were hts percent
over the profits for 1909-15.-Golden
] Aua