Ottawa County news. (Port Clinton, Ohio) 1931-1956, 1956-04-06
STEVE j. N0vAk, PRES.
LOCAL 497. UAW-Clo

LOCAL 4o7. UAW-Clo
Did you notice the announce
ment this week that the Steel In.
dustry, Profits Top $1-Billion for
the FIRST TIME? 1t was announced
in the magazine Steel and quoted
by newspapers.
Yet u. S. Steel reports to its
stockholders with straight
face - that Labor Unions and the
Governments full employment
policy are the two basic causes OF
initiation.
Let's look at the record. Last
Year, u. S. Steel raised its prices
three times the amount necessary
to cover wage hikes. It could have
absorbed the wage hikes without
price increases and still made
fantastic profit in 1855.
Recently, with no wage hikes to
use as an excuse, u. S. Steel raised
its tin-plate prices five per cent,
The announcement offered no rea-
son for price hike and it came only
few days after the company an
nounced record breaking profits
of $370,197 ,625 for 1855, an in
crease of 89.4 per cent over 1854!
So what happens as the result of
u. S. Steel's unwarranted price
gouging? The two can companies
announced that they are raising
the prices of their cans three per
cent, which means consumers are
going to pay more for canned
goods.
Still u. s. Steel attempts to
spread the propaganda that some
one else is responsible for the
higher prices of its products.
When prices rise as in this ex-
ample of canned goods, most peo-
pie began to shop around more
and hunt bargains in order to buy
the same quantity of goods out of
the same pay check. Often they
find they must cut down on buy
ing because of the higher prices.
This places a greater burden on
the small businessmen because he
is the first to feel the squeeze of
cut in spending or loss of business.
He is less able to adjust to it than
big store might be. No one gains
when prices rise except perhaps
the large industry that is monop-
oily in its field and can continually
up its prices to realize huge pro-
fits at our expense.
QUOTE: 'It is contrary to the
will of God that islands of pros
perity should persist amid oceans
of poverty, hunger and distress
Bread for myself is a material con,
Germ; bread for my brother is a
spiritual concern" (From the State,
ment on American Abundance
and World Need, signed by 81
Catholic, Jewish and Protestant
church leaders.)
Nature seems determined tC
make us work. The less hair we
have to comb the more face we
have to wash.
Yet
The life that we're living in
Is mighty hard to beat;
You get a thorn with every
rose,
But aren't the roses sweet?
Here's one more thorn W.
understand the country's shoe
manufacturers are planning OF
raising their prices from SO cent.
to 81 on each pair! >
We wouldn't be so rash as Il
suggest that small businessmen
ought to get smart and kick in ;
dollar to the nearest COPE drive
but the figures say they had bet
ter do something The Department
OF Commerce, presided over b,
that bankers banker, Mr.. Sinclair
Weeks, confesses that new busi
ness being started today has onl,
a fifty-fifty chance of being aliv,
two years hence. Four out of fiv,
businesses started this year, the,
say, will be dead within the mex
ten years. The rate of bushes
failures is now running doubl,
what it was under the Democrats
Last year, boom year, found NOR
than % thousand businesses fold
ing up. Small businessmen, a
least, are discovering that the wide
ly advertised sympathy" tn
Eisenhower crowd has for smal
business is the solicitude of tn
undertaken for a client.
o.
A company doctor in San Fran
cisco has recommended that as
sembly-line workers be given fre,
beer while they work !. Bloc,
circulation in the legs is a prob
lem for those who stand all day
he says, and adds: "Pve foun
that beer facilitates circulation an,
Inse 1t -