Montana labor news., 1937-01-28

three separate agencies, into the af-
fairs of three different groups of
corporations, have been going on in
Washington for several weeks. The
out comes of these tire luiries
are practically identical. show
enormous masses of capits 8 | huge
industries controlled by &C 3 alive
ly trifling investment b. con-
trollers. All show great 5. rtness
in milking the public-sor les the
investing public, sometim e con-
Stunning public, sometime h.
And all agree in maxim i'm the
fact that the chief agen these
financial devilments is Gliding
company, which is cor ed by
Economic r0yalists."
Senator Wheeler's investigation of
the Van Sweringen railroad empire
is a classic, even in the long array
of Senatorial Investigations.
Rail Empire Bought for Song
Touching only the high spots-and
not all of them-Senator Wheeler
showed that control of the corpora
ton which controls more than $4,000
miles of railroad line, was bought for
$274, 682; which Wheeler correctly
stated was about the price of two
first-class locomotives. Yet into that
controlling company, the Allegheny
Corporation, the investing public of
America put S147, 600, 900 in the year
1929 alone.
This control of a transportation
empire was bought by two elderly
manufacturers, neither of whom
seems to have known a safety coup
ling from a superheater. When they
made the purchase, they gave the
Van Sweringens an option to buy
back control at any time within five
years for $8,250. And Senator Wheel
er has shown further, that while the
Van Sweringens still ruled their far
flung dominion, one of their sub
sidiary companies, the Missouri Pa
cific, borrowed SIT, 100, 900 from the
RFC on false pretenses and dishonest
bookkeeping, And RFC money is
public money.
Other Financial HOcus-P0cus
At the same time, the Security
and Exchange Commission, through
the quizzing by its attorney, David
Schenker, was showing how David
Milton, ~son-in-law of John D. Rookie
teller, Jr., got control of a $218, 000,-
600 investment trust company, the
Consolidated Funds Corporation, for
$4,000 in cash and $500 shares of a
corporation which no one was either
buying or selling. The SEC showed,
too, how another investment trust,
the Equity Corporation, traded its
shares for those of another invest
ment concern whose common stock
holdings were practically worth
less and bought other concerns
at least, this is the contention of the
SEC-with the funds in the treas
uries of the purchased corporations.
In the same brief period, the Fed
eral Communications Commission
has been going into the hitherto pri-
vate affairs of the American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company.
Corporation Overcharges Exposed
The FEC attorney, Samuel Becker,
has brought out a world of facts of
serious interest to every telephone
user. It's engineer, Cyrus G. Hill,
testifies that the telephone monopo-
ly's capitalization of its equipment is
at least $500, 600, 900 overcharge.
Other expert witnesses of the com
mission and officials of the company
have revealed facts showing that un-
der the pretext of research" $177,-
921, 500 have been added to phone
charges in the last IL years; and that
probably at least half of this is an
other overcharge.
All these things have been done
through the agency of holding com
panies.
Labor has a big, practical interest
in these Investigations. The more
money paid to holding companies
the more money lost in investments
due to holding companies, the less
money is left to pay wages and pro
vide employment.