Evening star., 1943-07-08
BY FRANK MacMILLEN,
Associated Press Financial Writer.

StrangeSt llterary-ecOnomic argu-
mentS of recent years will appear in
print Saturday when Thomas w.
Lamont, chairman of the board of
j. P. Morgan g. Co., tilts on the sub
ject of war profits with his friend,
William Rose Benet, poet and Pu-
liter Prize winner.
Mr.. Lamont, in a letter to the
Saturday Review of Literature, ad-
dressed to Dear Bill''-Mr. Benet is
an associate editor of the Review
will protest against a statement by
Mr.. Benet in the May % issue of the
magazine that the people of the
United States have a strong sus-
picion that capital is cashing in on
the war"
Sometimes, when I think over
where I stand myself, as a patriot, I
guess it is against having the coun-
try run for those big boys and hav-
ing it run for Mr.. Wallaces common
man." Mr.. Benet had said.
To Cite Company Records.
Mr.. Lamont in reply will cite COM
posite records Of 40 big companies
engaged largely in production of war
materials which show:
Sales between 1910 and 1912 were
up 81 per cent; wages were up 96 per
cent; taxes increased 1873 per cent;
while net profits declined II per cent
and dividends paid to stockholders
were 20 per cent lower.
mo, Bill" Mr.. Lamont's letter will
say, Il do not believe you need be
concerned about the big boys in
industry.
"On the contrary. I assure you
from personal knowledge, that what
we have to be concerned about is
this: Namely, that many of our in
dustrial concerns under present tax
legislation, far from cashing in on
the war, are more likely to be dan
gerously depicting the corporate re-
serves they will surely need to meet
the task of reconversion of their
plants from war uses and machines
to peacetime production when the
war ends.
"Or course, we may squeeze the
corporations until the pips squeak,
but let us leave them enough to
prepare for this vital task of re-
construction.
Clash on "Self Righteous
The banker and the poet also
clashed over Mr.. Benetis reference
to "the self elf-righteousness of capital
toward the recent high handed con-
duct of John L. Lewis (and most of
the press, which can always be
counted on to side with the big
money. y"
Mr.. Lamont will say:
"* I cannot help wondering
what your definition, is of capital
that has shown such self-rigfteous-
ness.
rs it the recent 'high-handed
conduct of both houses Of Congress?
''Or Is it the conduct generally Of
our millions of citizens who own the
greatest single capital item in our
country, namely, our farms, and of
the other millions who own the
shares of our great industrial and
transportation corporations?'
Quizzed on Free Press.
Having started originally in
newspaper work." Mr.. Lamont will
continue, land for years followed
the course of the public press, have
always felt that its independence,
just as In England, had been recog-
nized and accepted as one of the
glories attained up to the present
time only by Anglo-Saxon peoples.
Have I been wrong about this all
this time? And are you able, mov-
ing as you DO more closely in jour-
nalistic circles than can hope to
do, to assure me about this lack OF
independence in the press?"
To Mr.. Benet's statement that I'VE
have seen un1ettered initiative ana
free enterprise run a country right
into the hole" Mr.. Lamont will ask
another question:
I'm other words, it was primarily
the initiators and free enterprises
was it?-who brought on the great
business depression that began late
in 1922"
Rather, Mr.. Lamont will declare,
it was the aftermath of war, "a Pc
riod in which the whole civilized
world went into tailspin."
Asks For formula"
In conclusion, Mr.. Lamont will
say: