White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-05-06

admits is putting his concern in a
bad light.
Mr.. Babst further weakens his case
when he says the trust makes Il bare
quarter of a cent a pound profit on
the sugar that it grows. imports.
refines and sells. Without a pretense
of possessing a technical or prac-
tical knowledge of the sugar bust
ness, the world long has known that
hundreds of millions of assets have
been piled up, dividends in cash and
stock have been distributed and con-
Germs which started with little or
nothing are tremendously rich. If
they are making no profit how and
where did they gain all this wealth
They cannot fall back on past years
and say that they made it when the
price OF sugar was still lower, for if
they are making but a quarter Of a
cent at top prices what could they
have made. If anything whatever.
when the prices were at the bottom?
It is a matter of Juggling of fig
ures and the new science of book
keeping that has been developed in
recent years in behalf of such trests
as the packers, the railways and the
sugar refiners to make figures lie
and mathematics tell f~alsehoods, is
the device by which this damnable
prevaricating is done.
Figures DO not lie,' IS an old
but a recently proved untrue say
ing. Figures do lie, and lie with
eternal and everlasting w~ickedness
when manipulated in behalf of these
criminal monopolists.
All during the war the meat trust
put out propaganda at a cost for
preparing, printing and distributing,
with an additional cost for publica-
ton in favored newspapers and peri
odicals. running into many millions
of dollars, to show first that it was
making less than half n cent a pound
on the meat it handled. Snd after
that to show that it was actually
losing money. Rat ii never explained
or attempted to explain by what
process the enormous assets of tho
packers were acquired 1t is a mat
ter of ocular observation that the
selfsame packers started in business
half a century ago with slim assets
and that now their property ratings
by their W figures are close to the
billions. Nor have these assets
ch aurn N cinn sc If~nfnsuhfav l.,~sAr
or since the a On the contrary
they have grown so phenomerally.
especially in the latter period, that
the Armours have been able TO spare
the cash and resources out of their
business to purchase and absorb the
interests of the Morrises and are fin
ishing the job in defiance of the law
and the edict of the secretary of ag-
riculture to the contrary. And these
are the same Morrises who less than
thirty years ago admitted having as
sets of less than $780, 900 and
through the four yaare of the world
var and the four and a half that have
followed according to their own
words, have made less than half
a ZEN a pound or lost as high as
35 per cent a year, and yet have
never had TO take in outside capital.
sell stock or go through any fnan-
cling processes whatever to maintain
their %solvency. all of which time the
ownership of their business remain
ing in the members of their own
family.
No, figures may not lie If they are
in honest hands. but there is one
thing that does net lie under any
circumstance, which is that of a man
or family being worth $4,000 thirty
years ago and $500, 000, 900 now,
which could not be done with a busi-
ness carried on at half n cent a
pound profit or a loss, as claimed, for
a period OF several years.
II the meat trust has Lost the
money that it claims 10 have lost in
the last fonr and a half years IL
would have gone through bankruptcy
months ago. Instead of that il keeps
or piling up wealth and one concern
is actually able 4 purchase the as
sets of another outright. and these
running into the hundreds of mil
lions of dollars in value.
The sugar trust is not doing bust
ness on a quarter cent a pound profit.
Statements of hat sort are palpable
falsehoods-plain lies.
AAaIrAT nilI Nru NrAnnN