Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-20

TO Tree living IN
America. This is true, despite the
miners declared purpose to use thu
royalties to build health and re-
Mobilization fund and to improve
housing and sanitary conditions il
the mine areas.
Bailey is taking on real battle
but it is not certain that he realize.
what the battle is about. He does moi
If he thinks that what Petrillo i:
getting away with is something
peculiar to labor.
Common Trade Practice.
Actually, what Petrillo has done
and what Lewis wants to do is tt
take advantage of common trade
practice, an accepted business Gus.
tom. If you and you alone have
something that everybody needs
you can charge your own price fol
it. 1t doesn't matter greatly how you
came by your strategic position
whether by your inventive genius OF
the purchase of some one elSe's in
ventive genius; whether by youl
ability to outwit the antitrust laws
or your control of the means of dis
tribution. You can fix the amount
of the toll and collect it. And you
don't have to justify your conduct
by setting up health and rehabili-
tation fund.
I was reminded of this in dem
lists Office the other day. The dentist
displayed for my edification new
plastic substance he uses to make
life happier for wearers of temper
airy dental work ut costs five dol
lars a pound" he said. Before the
war it cost 80 cents pound-in this
country In Mexico, it cost five cents
pound"
Somewhere along the line some
body Is collecting toll on our store
teeth and I don't believe it is a
labor leader. More likely, some ty-
coon of chemistry is amassing a
stable fund for the health and re-
Mobilization of his family, the i'm
provement of the housing and sani-
tary conditions of his country
estate.
The idea of a royalty on coal Is
repugnant, but this method of raid
ing the consumers pocketbook was
not invented by Lewis or even by
Petrillo. Consider what the word
royalty means. Webster's Diction-
airy defines it thus:
"A right, prerogative, due or per-
quisite belonging to king or SOW
ereign Hence: A share of the
product or profit (as of mine or a
forest, etc. reserved by the owner
for permitting another to use the
property. A duty or compensation
paid to the owner of a patent or
copyright for the use of it or the
right to act under it, usually at a
certain rate for each article manu-
featured, used, sold, or the like; also
a percentage, as on output, paid to
the owner of an article. especially
a machine, by one who hires the use
of it."
So you can see that Senator
Bailey is right when he says: What
these royalties really amount to Is
a tax on consumers. The greatest
complaint of ancient times was that
the Government farmed out the
taxes. We are now in the same
process of farming out taxes to the
big labor leaders"
Is it too much to hope that the
Senator, being a logical man, will
figure out that the iniquity lies in
the process rather than the person
or group to whom the profitable
privilege is given? If he should dis
cover this fairly obvious fact, then
we can hope that he and his Senate
committee will attack the evil at its
root.
A lot of expert help is available
Much valuable information has
been compiled by the Antitrust Di-
vision of the Justice Department in