Evening star., 1926-02-04

grown frantic in days of small cor
ners" on wheat or corn. What OF
a national monopoly of bread?
| In brief prepared for Congress
by an organization Of investigation
| the extent to which water has be-
come an ingredient of this bread,
or rather of its stock, is indicated by
the result Of stock dividends and Of
mergers, whereby shares which, in
1916, sold for 81 each were bid in
last September by Mr. Ward and his
unknown financial hackers for 1880.
Somehow, the public consuming bread
Will be expected to pay dividends on
that enhanced valuation of 675 times
the value of 10 years ago The com
blne operate 166 large bakery plants
scattered over the country and To-
Gated in the large cities It does not
yet include biscuit or cracker fac
tories, but its program is said to in
ciude thousands of chain groceries, A
separate corporation, owning 1000
groceries, with a capital of $1,000
600, was incorporated in Baltimore
last week.
The bread combine. now in three
great corporations, is not held by
the old method OF interlocking direc-
| torateS of the several companies, but
William B. Ward holds an actual ma
jority of the voting stock in the three
great corporations. which, together
constitute the combine. 1t is said to
have been the original purpose to
unite the three into one holding cor
poration, but if SO, the plan has been
delayed, although it is not apparent
to the public what difference that
would make, from the one man control
of each great corporation.
x = x
One of the prominent heads OF a
bureau of the Department of Labor
declares that the bread combine is
beneficent, so long as it does not raise
the price of bread 10 consumers. he
points to the benevolent program to
build hospitals and Fairgrounds for
the employees and their children. He
declares that until the Government
takes over the control of industries
on a large organized scale, the greater
the organizations under private con-
troll, the better. ''If that be socialism
let Uncle Sam make the best of it,
What will be the economies of mass
production? This official, defending
the bread combine, declares that the
large bakery units have already reach
ed the ultimate In economies of pro.
duction, hence they cannot make
special profits out of improvements.
In answer, it has been pointed out
that even so simple a production as
raising wheat has made wonderful
strides. In the days of Nero one
bushel of wheat required four and a
half days labor to produce; in the
year that Mccormick invented the
reaper it took three hours labor TO
grow bushel of wheat; today it takes
10 minutes. If the great bread mo-
nopoly can shave ever so little off of
the cost of making one loaf. what will
be the saving on 31,000,000 loaves I
daily? That saving may not be in
baking, but may be in speculative
buying of supplies and in economical
distribution, destroying all Competi-
| tors, until the full capacity of the
chain bakeries-55, 900 900 loaveS daily
| finds a market.
Senator William II. King of Utah,
speaking in the Senate concerning this
combine, said:
Undoubtedly the currents through
out the land. political, industrial and
economic, are toward centrahzatton of
power, authority and capital Many
people are caught by the glittering
generalities indulged in by the propa-
gandists of bigneSs and concentration.
There are unmistakable evidences Of
|
philosophy which lies at the base Of
| this republic"
F, Senator George w. Norris of Ne
braska thereupon grew whimsical,
and retorted:
What wonderfully fine time we
| would have, with all the children
cared for and provided with play
grounds, and we would pay for it
| out Of bread, We would be in heaven
before weA knew It. We would have
one man running the whole thing. We
could abolish a good share of the Gov.
| eminent, because this man would have
a monopoly of the purchase of food
| products, and. likewise, monopoly
of the sale of them
So the Senate adopted Senator
Kings resolution calling upon the
committee on judiciary TO Investigate
tConyztght. 1896. by Razu v. CoIins.&