The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-07-21
On Capitol Hill
By GEORGE L. KNAPP
CardozO Was One of Nations Great
Liberalists - Monopoly Investi-
cation Has Road Clearly Chart
er in Known Economic Data.

L
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was one !
great man whom no one was able to i
hate. Probably not even Justice Nc
Reynolds, who read newspaper when
Cardozo was being sworn into the Su-
preme Court
1t is not easy to explain this; for
few men have dealt sharper thrusts
at privilege from the bench than he.
A corporation claimed that a boy was
a trespasser, and that though killed
by falling electric wire when ready
to dive in the Hudson, his parents
could not recover. SardoZo saw no
trespass in approaching the navigable
waters of the United States. The Buick
Motor Co. pleaded that its guarantee
ran only to the dealer. Cardozo
pointed out that the dealer, who would
get rid of the machine at the earliest
possible moment, was the one to whom
a guarantee was Of least value, and
that the guarantee plainly ran to the
real buyer.
And few dissents from the U. S.
/
ing than the one which Cardozo wrote
I for himself, Brandeis and Stone, when
the majority Of the court stopped the
! Securities and Exchange Commission
/ in running down what it believed to
| be swindle
He is irreplaceable, as a great Judge
always is.
{ "
! An amusing newspaper stunt in
Washington is in guessing or seeking
"inside information" as to the indus
tries which will be studied by the
monopoly investigation now under
way.
Neither guessing nor prying is es-
sential. An index may be found in a
bulletin published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics moths ago, showing
1870 articles whose wholesale prices
/ dropped at most II per cent from the
/ glad boom days Of 1926 to the bot
/ tom Of the depression in the early part
Of 1888. Control Of prices is the es-
sence Of monopoly. The committee
may not get through probing all the
industries which make these articles;
but it cannot help starting on them.
And the list Of fixed prices includes
many prepared foods; hide and leather
products, including shoes; metal prod
ucts-61 Of them; building materials,
/ except some kinds Of lumber; chem
icals and drugs; and under the head
Of miscellaneous" are classed coffns,
matches, soap, cigarettes, cigars, plug
tobacco and snuff.
The same bulletin gives a list list Of of
189 articles whose prices went down
farthest in the depression. Taking 1926
as 100, these commodities dropped in
February, 1888, to 34.6-a fall of 65.4
per cent. Farm products led this to-
bOggan slide; and here are some things
that everyone should learn and re-
member:
! Wheat dropped on the Chicago mar
ket in this period from S131 a bushel
to IL cents; but bread and wheat GER
eals stayed practically the same. Corn
fell till corn rotted in the field as not
worth husking; but corn flakes hardly
changed. Tobacco dropped till the to-
bacco farmer hardly got enough for
his crop to pay for his fertilizer; but
cigarettes stayed at the same price,
and the Big Four tobacco companies
scored their highest profits in the
worst years. Cowhides, steer hides,
calf skins, Sheep skins, all are in the
list of articles whose prices dropped
farthest; and shoes are in the list of
articles whose prices dropped least.
4 monopoly doesn't need to be un-
der one head. All it needs is to be
able to take hard times out on its
workers; to shut down its plants when
demand slackens, instead of shading
its prices.