New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-05-21
Glass and Floor
Prices Inflated
400 Per. Cent
Manufacturers and Jobbers
Called Responsible for
Prohibitive Building Cost
by Lockwood Committee
Grip ON Materials Barred
Employers Association Ac-
cused of Failure TO Re-
form Despite Exposure

The fiat glass and hardwood floor
manufacturers and jobbers were at
tackled by the Lockwood Committee on
Housing yesterday as being in large
measure responsible for the prohibitive
cost of building construction through
The price boosting operations of their
combines in these two industries.
BY virtue of their strong local and
national control over these two lines
OF building materials, the members Of
these combines, it was shown by the
testimony, have been able to raise the
price of glass and hardwood floors 400
per cent, the increase taking place in
Dosh materials since 1916. In the case
OF glass there was $50 per cent boost
since the arnlistice.
Builders Fail to Clean House
In the course of the testimony bear
ing on this phase of the examination,
Samuel Untermyer. chief counsel for
the committee, learned that despite
the disclosures regarding alleged price
nxlng and illegal operations within the
9ulldlng Trades Employers Associa-
lion, and the indictment and conviction
od many OF its members for violations
ol the stace antitrust laws, there has
oeen no appreciable housekeeping
wlthn the organization and it's per-
sonhel and procedure remain practi-
cadiy as they were before.
testimony in connection with the
glass combines was obtained from To-
seph ELIAS, plate glass jobber of Long
Island City, and Edgar V. Jacka. Of
Holbrook Brothers, jobbers. of az Reak-
man Street. ''esA-
'Ellas said that almost all glass Job
oers and manufacturers of the c0un-
try, about 200 in number, were handed
together in the National Glass Distrib-
utors Association, with headouarters
II IN Chicago. The organization has an
Eastern and Western branch, Elias as
s:ert1ng ne was a member of the execu-
tive committee of the Eastern wing
1t was revealed through the testi-
mony of both Elias and Jacka that M
der the rules of the association mann
facturers operated their plants onIv
thirty weeks in the year in two periods
OF hfteen weeks each, with their nro-
duction limited by quota established
by the national organization. The
plants are shut down on orders from
Chicago and are permitted to reonen
only when the market is in condition to
take their products at a good price. il
was said
Circular Ruled Price
Elias identified a circular can't hin,
by the national secretary. ]. R. John'
son. containing instructions on how
distributors should figure their prices
to consumers. The current list nrices.
OF the manufacturers were to be
trebled, including the freight, and then
a discount of SO per cent be allowed
Elias said this resulted in a profit of
about so per cent to the jobber. He tes
tilted that the price of glass has gone
up 400 per cent since 1914, and that
after the armistice.
Elias said the union workers in
the plants did not want to produce
and were in favor of the shorter
seasons.
Jacka said that there were in fact
three individual glass manufacturers'
essociations--the National Window
Glass Manufacturers, of Pittsburgh;
the Plate Glass Manufacturers, of
Cincinnati, and the Association of
Manufacturers of Rough Glass, in
Pittsburgh, aside from the National
Distributors Association, which in
cludes both Jobbers and manufactur-
ers. Jacka said they were all allied
and bound to each other in one way
or another.
Jacka said that the country's glass
plants did about $150,o0o,0o0 worth Of
business a year. Mr.. Untermyer said
that the figure was nearer $350,OoO 600.
Jacka explained tina. the plants were
shut down twenty-five weeks in the
year because of hot weather, then ad-
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