The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1946-10-17
It's A Lie!
By MARTY SOLOW

One of the most widely propa-
gated lies which reactionary news
papers, columnists and radio COM
mentators have spread is the
statement that "an increase in
wages must be followed by cor
responding increase in prices"
THIS is HOKUM! Wages, ac-
cording to Federal Trade Commits
sion reports, average only 25 per-
cent of manufacturing costs. This
means that if wages rose 10 per
cent, total costs would increase by
only one-fourth of that, or 2la per-
cent. With profits at an all-time
high (see below, manufacturers
could easily absorb wage increases
in their total manufacturing costs.
Ex-fiction writer, now econo-
mist, Harry Hazlitt, whose eco
nomics still retain strong fiction
flavor, writes in Newsweek, Oct.
7, that between price controls and
priorities, production has been
thrown into more chaos than we
have ever seen in peacetime."
THIS is FICTION because the
report just issued by Reconversion
Director John r. Steelman, EMIT
led The Second Year Of Peace,
points out that private industrial
production is at an all-time peace
time high of 178 billion dollars.
Also, Hazltt's own publication on
page 20 points out that farm pro-
duction is the greatest in
history"
SOME CHAOS!
At a National Press Club lunch
con in Washington Oct. 3, the
New York Herald Tribune report
ed, President Charles E.Wilson of
General Motors blamed strikers
"for disorganization of indus
try ;"
A day earlier another auto big
wig, President James ID. Mooney
of lly-Overland told a gather
ing of several hundred industrial
lists, public officials and editors
that "every one knows industry is
practically stalled on dead center"
NUTS! Industry is so "disor-
ganized," so "stalled" that it found
time to make an annual profit of
nearly II billion dollars after
taxes, according to Steelman's re-
port. This is the all-time annual
high. Profits in previous peace
time period 1868 averaged 3.S
billion dollars. These figures and
those on production reveal that in
dustry is neither 'stalled" nor
"disorganized."
A New York Times editorial on
Sept. % said: "The fact that pro
fits have risen 'exorbitantly' or
that any 'exhorbitant' increase
impends will come as news to the
stock market"
THIS is A SHOCKING LIE!
Profit figures cited above are an
immediate disproof of this state
ment. In addition, corporation re-
ports for the second quarter of
1916, according to the National
City Bank report, show that "pro-
fits are almost double that of the
preceding quarter"
Some individual profit reports |
which have appeared in the Times
show that National Dairy Largest
dairy company and Borden's for
the first half of 1916, showed pro-
fit gains of 70 per cent and so per
cent respectively over the compar
ative period of l945. (How much
are you spending for butter?)
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
profits are 100 per cent higher for
the first half of 1916 than the first
half of 1916.
American Woolen Co. profits
scared from $3,451,217 i'm the first
half Of 1945 to $10,S84 $40 in the
first half of 1946--only 200 per
cent.
Times editorial writers could
well afford 3 cents for a daily
copy of the Times to round out
their education.
Il Il