Evening star., 1947-04-20

January, 1871, Dull0lng maLeTlalS
were 20 per cent more costly on
March / than they were In Mo-
vember, 1916.
Higher Wage Demands.
Workers want higher wages and II
makes no difference whether they
are the white collar employees OF
Government or union members,
Telephone workers have resorted to
the strike. School teachers have
followed the same program in some
communities. Coal miners, steel
workers, automobile workers soon
will be negotiating for higher pay
and there is pending in Congress
legislation by which the Federal
Government will be authorized to
aid States and local communities in
maintaining the schools. One might
be tempted to call it a Federal sub
sidy were 1t not for the fact that the
bill carries the name of Senator
Taft as one of it's sponsors.
Last week a corporation which
has been nationally known for many
years as manufacturer of electric
storage batteries announced 7 per
cent increase of prices. This is more
typical than the announcement of
price reduction of Fowler McCor-
mick of the international Harvester
Co. and Henry Ford ID.
More Ups Than Downs.
Meanwhile every statistical au-
thority upon which business has
been accustomed to rely for accurate
figures tells the story of vastly in
creased profits for proprietors and
manufacturers. Agricultural pro-
prietors in 1946 received almost 4
billion dollars more than they re-
ceiyed in 1914. Nonagricultural
proprietors received 3 billions more
and corporate profits rose from So
900 1000, 900 in 1914 to IL billion dol
lars In 1916. There are reliable fig
ures to indicate that corporate prof
its during the first quarter of 1947
are running at much higher level
than in 1946.
The Federal Reserve Board, an
unusually reliable source of statis-
tica1 information, shows continu-
ing upward trend and the National
City Bank of New York in its April
letter on economic conditions pub
lished table to show that for a
grand total of 1888 leading indus
trial corporations profits in 1916
were almost, % per cent greater
than they were in 1945. This in
crease may well have been due in
part at least to the fact that the
excess profits tax was repealed a
year ago aid that inventory values
are greater because of imitation,
but the National City Bank figures
show that in many industries the
percentage of increased profits In
a single year has been more than
100 per cent.
AS profits have risen, so also have
wage rates. ;.After the end of the
war when overtime schedules were
abandoned in industry, labor sought
to preserve for the shorter work
ing day the same compensation
it had beea receiving for the long
day. In some instances it has been
successful, but the figures of the
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce show that salaries and
wages in 1916 counted for smaller
proportion of the total national in
come than 1914. Salaries and wages
have dropped from $112,800, ,000, 900
in 1914 to s1o6,600, 100000 in 1916.
This, of course, represents a cur
tailment of purchasing power which
in the last analysis also means a
curtailment of the market for the
products of agriculture and in
dustry.
History Repeats Itself.
Attempts to assess the blame for
this condition are utterly fruitless,
1t makes no difference who or what
was responsible. The fact is that we
are in period of sharp imitation
and there is no sense in blinking
the fact for imitation brings disaster.
Every war in history has produced
imitation and whenever prices have
climbed to a dizzy pinnacle they
have plunged shortly afterward to
disastrous depths. That was our ex-
perience after the War of the
Revolution. It was repeated after
the War of 1912. 1t was repeated
again after the Civil War and surely
the memory of the crash which fol-
lowed the World War I has not
faded from our minds. Now that
World War II prices are climbing
10 unprecedented heights it requires
40 git OF prophecy to foretell that
unless this upward trend is stopped
thefe will be a repetition of the
sao experiences of the postwar de-
presslons of the past.
Ihere are those who saw "let It
go. They believe that business and
Government leadership can and
should do nothing, but should stand
idly by while the sad story of boom
and bust repeats itself, The de-
pressions which followed previous
wars were quite impartial in the
selection of their victims. Mem
bership In a particular politica,
party saved no one nor membershin
in any other group, business indus-
try or calling. These economic
crashes are as indiscriminate as q
tornado and no one is wise enough
to foreten the story of human
wreckage that would follow another
depression.
The cold figures before us, how
ever, make it very doubtful whether
the system of private property.
Akheru-isc Hno,,-y, ~ ~. 4,