Askov American., 1934-03-22

However. they did not. The salaries
of those big fellows were like some
cogwheel in a machine that can only
go one way. The salaries went one
way only. The officials of large cor
porations controlled the business by
setting price on not only their own
products but also by setting price
on some one else's products. They
simply said: 1--WE want so much for
our products, and we will give you
whatever we please for your pro-
ducts"
Let us say that a man has to buy
a certain commodity, and sell ar
other commodity. For instance, e
farmer sells two hundred pounds of
butterfat, and buys a certain machine
which large corporation manufac-
turers. Assuming, at the same time,
that a corporation sets its own price,
but the farmer does not. Supposing
that the price of butterfat is 4Oc a
pound, 200 pounds will bring him $50.
With that $50 he buys that machine.
Supposing that the price of cream
goes down to 30c then it will require
267 pounds of butterfat to buy that
same machine. Furthermore, if the
price of cream goes down to zoe a
pound, it will require 400 pounds of
it to buy the same machine. Food
and clothes are more important than
machines and improvements, and If
1t takes twice as much cream to sup
ply the family with necessities, buy
ing machine can not be considered.
If every farmer buys 500 of commod- :
tiles less, someone is going to feel it.
If the farmer can't get as much
money as before, he can't pay the
same price for the things he must
buy. l say, therefore, that the prices
on all commodities should come down
in proportion, to avoid depression.
Salaries received by big business
leaders were, in some cases, higher
in 1882 than they were in 1929. U
have a clipping from the Duluth News
Tribune to that effect. These sal
aries were Investigated by the Fed
eral Trade Commission on request of
the Senate. The emoluments of near
ly 900 American corporations were
disclosed. In two cases they were
over million dollars a year for one
individual, and in many cases sew
eral hundred thousand. The article
which l clipped, reads as follows:
Earnings of individual executives
ranged from $1.635,753 which Eugene
G. Grace, president of the Bethlehem
Steel corporation, received in 1929
and $1,051, 900 which G. w. Hill, pres
ident of the American Tobacco COM
pany, received in 1881, to $4,000 and
less which heads of smaller companies
were paid.
"Other big compensations in 1929,
generally the peak, included: $27C,-
900 to r. l. Patterson, president of
the American Machine and Foundry
Co.; more than 100000 to George B.
Everitt, president of Montgomery
Ward & Co.; $4,000 to F. B. Rent
schler, president of United Aircraft
and Transportation Corpor n.
Nicholas M. Schenck, president of
LOew's Incorporated, received 1922
600; the three Warner brothers, head
of the motion picture concern bearing
their name, were paid $4,000 a week
for six years plus 10000 shares of
stock; two executives of General Cigar
Company-Fred Hirschhorn and Rich
ard C. Bondy-divided equally nearly
$500,O0O. Thomas j. Watson, pres
ident of International Business Ma
chine Company of New York, received
$41S,OOO in 1929, and $454, 900 in 1882,
one of the very few cases where total
compensation increased during the de-
preston. Another instance was in
case of Archibald r. Graustein Of In
ternational Paper and Power Co.,
whose $4,000 in 1929 grew to $104,-
900 by 1882.
American Tobacco Co. payments
to five principal officials ran to near
ly $15,OOO,OOO. One of the largest out
right salaries was to Andrew G.
Pierce, president of the American
Woolen Co., who received 100000
and no bonus. The extent to which
bonuses were used to pay executives
was illustrated in the case of Grace,
Bethlehem president, whose salary
amounted to $4,000 while his bonus
reached $1,620,000, and in the case Of
E. L. Cord, president of the Auburn
Automobile Co., whose $4,000 salary
compared with a bonus of $374,672."
A law in economics tells us that
demand and supply effect each other
through price, and the need of any
commodity has varying degrees of in
tensity. That law from the economic
text book is nothing more than COM
mon sense. Anyone can understand
that when the price is high the de-
mand must be low, and the supply
large. When the price is low the de-
mand for that certain commodity will
be great, and the people will not be
over-supplied as easily.
Since the corporation officials were
getting these exorbitant salaries, the
commodities which they manufactured
had to be sold for high prices. If
Eugene G. Grace had his salary cut
about a million dollars a year, and
the rest of his staff had their sal
aries cut proportionately, steel could