The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-04-06
News and Views
80. By ALEXANDER S. LIPSETT, Can ILNS Feature)

The wizards of press and radio
have been in a dither this pas
week over the volume of industria
business and profits in 1949. Com
ment has ranged from sneers OF
the left to such compliments as
fabulous and unheard of. Imagine
565 corporations in 26 major fields
reporting a net income of 5 billior
dollars, an awed commentator
mused; such figures have hereto.
fore been reserved for Washington
Far be it from me to object to
those obs and abs or to belittle the
new records hung up by industry
during the past year. Indeed, the
feat is such as to warm the heart
of every American and make him
boastfully proud of the country's
capacity to outproduce anyone, any
where and at any time. But the
situation calls for more than boast
fulness. 1t calls for an analysis of
this phenomenal growth and APP
praisal Of the factors behind it.
:: !. !:
General Motors, we are informed
rang up a $5.7 billion sales record,
earned a $656 million profit for it's
$4,000 stockholders, paid $1,44O
million in wages to its 401 900 en-
ployes, and last but not least, she'll
ed out $3.50 million for federal,
state and local taxation, including
sales and excise levies. DUPONT,
General Electric and others have
done equally well. The significance
of these achievements not only to
the people directly concerned but
to the entire natioral economy is
obvious.
But having said that, let's pull
up our horses and survey the sit
uation. The principal factor behind
these striking increases, as GIN.
calls them, was inflationary pres
sure; never in American history has
there been so much money in the
hands of the people. But the value
of our money also differs from that
of the past; the dollar, as far as
purchasing power goes, has been
cut in half or less; living costs, as
any housewife knows, are 70 per-
cent above those of 1899.
These conditions are reflected in
correspondingly high wages, pro-
and replacement expendi-
lures, and many other cost items
which business must take into ac-
count. GIN. also spent $3.50 million
last year for new plant facilities,
etc, thus creating addi-
tional employment and business OPP
portunities.
Well, what are you driving at?
readers will ask. Are you agin'
it? Don't you want everybody
workers, management and stock
holders-to make a lot of dough :?
sure do, but do not like to be
fooled in the process. Nor am | am
xious to be taken in by lot of big
but essentially meaningless figures.
With materials, production costs,
wages, etc, 2 to 3 times those of a
decade ago, industry-and that is
simple arithmetic as well as a mat
ter of economic self preservation
must do three times the business of
former years. This is precisely
what has happened in General
Motors and other corporations.
Where GIN. did a business of less
than SO billion in pre-war peak
year, it is now doing $5A billion,
or just as much more as its require
ments demand. Profits must bc
correspondingly high, since a large
part of costs are relatively static
and have to be met regardless of
how we'll or poorly business is in a
given year. Besides, high earnings
siphoned off in crushing taxes en-
able Uncle Sam to live in the style
to which he and his bureaucratic
family have become accustomed in
these past 4 years
\ :: ::
1t is in the light of these facts
that the advances Of American in
dustry in l9d9 must be evaluated
and presented to the people. The
bigger these advances in terms of
both productivity and profits, the
greater the advantage for the body
economic and its components. Such