The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-12-15
On Capitol Hill
BY GEORGE L. KNAPP

ashington, D. C. ULNS).-Isador
Lubin, head Of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, will go down in history as
the man who showed that an increase
of $2.25 day in the wages of our
poorly paid workers would bring un-
paralleled prosperity, far better dis
tributed than that Of 1929. If that
doesn't entitle DR.. Lubin to wreath
or even a halo from American labor,
what would?
Five million, two hundred thousand
wage earning families in the United
States are scraping through on less
than $1,250 year. Give these 1925
day more to spend, and they would
spend $8CO,O00,000 a year more on
food, $416,O0O,O0O more on clothing
and other increased expenditures for
various improvements in conditions of
living, including $2Os,OOO,O ,OCO more for
medical care, totalling up to nearly
$3,0O0,OO0OOO.
"It shuold be borne in mind"
said Lubin, "that these estimates
cover the effects of a change in
the incomes Of only a limited
group of our population. The
outline of the demands that would
be made on American industry
following even moderate in
crease in the incomes of all fam
lies and single individuals now
receiving less than $4,000 would,
in fact, be almost unbelievable"
Never have known such a mass Of
undisputed facts handled with sucl
skill. The so-called monopoly inves
tigation is off to a magnificent start
whatever happens to it afterwards.
Word comes by roundabout road!
but with strong probability Of trutl
that Eastern railroads are trying t.
go back to two-cent fare. The OBJ
stacle is the Pennsylvania, which tool
the lead in getting the raise to 21:
cents mile. But that raise has no
brought t he expected" increase il
revenue, and other railroad manager
are trying hard to persuade tn
Pennsy to yield.
So, runs the story; and the onl.
flaw in it is that quoted word "ex
pected." Who expected>an increase il
total revenues from a boostof fares
Not the ICC, who told the railroad
plainly that the candy they cried TO
so loudly was likely to make then
sick. Not the actual managers of tn
railroads., except, perhaps, on tn
Pennsylvania. Most of them ha,
lowered rates-and made money at it
The truth of the matter is that tn
railroads of this country have com
so thoroughly under the domination
of high finance that the managers ar
often little more than highly paid er
rand boys for the big financiers. l
takes a big fnancier to raise rate
when sales are falling off and com
petition is getting keener.
X X x
Secretary of State Hull isn't tn
only member of the Administrator
who is worried by development
abroad. Secretary of Agriculture Wall
ace is doing his full share. We had o.
hand in this country in October 851
100000 bushels of wheat. Last yea
in the same month we had 1,0O0
600 bushels, and in October, 1886, SAL
100000 bushels. q
Plainly, huge and hard-to-manag &
surplus is piling up. Our markets i
Europe are hampered by restrictiv
laws, designed to promote the grow
ing of wheat at home! and Canada
Argentiana and Australia are livel
competitors. The recent agreemen
which Secretary Hull put through wit
England has brought an order for 20
100000 bushels of American whea
that doubtless would have gone t
some other country; but that is
small matter compared to the quantit
waiting to be sold.
Meanwhile, there are millions O
people here who do not get as muc
wheat as they want because of pov
erty.