Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1924-10-17
TRUST GOUGES
EVERY HOME KITCHEN.
Continued from Page one)

ment Of the patent owners and the
manufacturers to admit no members
to the manufacturers association
without the consent of three-quarters
Of the members. AS the association
controlled the basic vacuum cleaner
lpatents, this agreement kept "outsid-
ers" out of the business.
Probe Reveals Patent POOL
In the washing machine industry
the inquiry disclosed a very complete
and comprehensive system of patent
pooling. In 1917 four washing ma
chine companies, controlling 8 pat
ents and one application, entered
into a trust agreement creating the
Maytag syndicate to hold these pat
ents. In the following year a group
of 25 manufacturers organized the
National Household Devices Com
pany to defend infringement suits.
This company acquired five washing
machine patents. In 1921 an agree
ment was reached by these two
groups under which the patents of
both were pooled. This contract runs
until the latest patent expires, which
will be in 1887 The. members of
this pool and its licensees produce
a large proportion of the washing
machines made in this country.
Considerable space in the report is
devoted to candy" Melons pet, the
Aluminium Company of America,
more popularity known as the ALUMNI
mum Trust. In addition to the
charge already quoted, that the
Aluminium Company controls produc-
ton and prices, the report says of
the company and its subsidiaries:
'The Aluminium Goods Manufac-
turing Company is the largest manu-
facturer of cooking utensils in the
United States and is affiliated with
the Aluminium Company of America.
The competitive methods of this
company include various kinds of
price discrimination between custom
ers."
Census Bureau Studies Trade
The Trade Commission is not the
only government agency studying the
aluminium industry. From data col
lected by the United States Census
Bureau, it has been determined that
the aluminium industry is operating
at a margin of 1877 per cent of the
manufacturers price for his product.
The Bureau reports that in 1928,
the value of all products of the en-
tire industry was, in round numbers,
$107, 100000. Wages totaled $780,
100000 while materials, including
fuel, cost $67,OO0,000. The difference
between the sum of wages and ma
terials and the value of products is
SIC, 100000. This represents the man
facturer's margin from which he
must pay only selling costs and sal
aries of the executive force, the bal
ance going into interest on the in-
vestment or profit.
After presenting its conclusions on
the aluminium industry the Trade
Commission takes up conditions in
the sewing machine, refrigerator,
broom and brush trades. The report
says:
Manufacturers Fix Prices
''The National Refrigerator Manu-
facturers' Association, whose mem
bers produce more than half of the
total output Of refrigeratOrs, has been
engaged for several years in price
making activities. just after the Ar
mistice it was formally agreed to adj
wise non-members that the associa-
ton deems that costs make it imper-
atively necessary to stand firm on
present prices and about year later
it was voted to increase price 20 per
cent. Early in 1920 the association
employed w. H. Coye, cost and price
expert, to compile cost and price bull
letins for refrigerator manufaetur-
ers. The purpose of these compila-
tons, as shown by the records of the
association, was to bring about uni
formity and stability Of selling prices.
Refrigerator Prices 'sKited"
ain the refrigerator industry,
where persistent efforts were made
to prevent price reductions and to
maintain and increase prices, manu-
facturers' prices advanced more than
did those Of any other commodity
leOnsidered in this report, except