The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-02-07
WHO REALLY PAYS
WHEN UNIONS UP
PRICE OF STEEL7
No End to Demands Of Groups
With Unlimited Power to
Handicap America

it-sharing" is actually profit
squeezing" and the principal VIC
tins would be its intended benefit
ciaries-the employees of Ameri-
can business" Roger M. Blough,
chairman of the Board of United
States Steel Corporation, declared
in a speech in Detroit.
Mr.. Blough said that although
"decked out in a new bib and tuck
err" the purpose of those proposing
the program is to "share the life
right out of employers profits
the fellow who is supposed to pro-
vide the job"
Of "three great propaganda
campaigns converging headlong on
Detroit" he said, the one against
profits "could well be the most dis
astrous for us all-for employees
and employers alike"
The two others are: A campaign
from Iron Curtain sources to UNI
dermine Americas faith in it's way
of life and Sin the domestic field"
a cure for the slump which would
call for "a few more shots of
tn e e-inflationary-dog
that bit-you."
"Not the least of these, of
course, is the oft-tried-and-found
wanting scheme of increasing pur-
chasing power by merely increas-
ing wage COSTS" He said if
we take a part or all of
profits and "put them into
the pay envelopes of our own
employee people, we can only do
so by Withholding them from other
consumer people" and in the pro-
cess consumer purchasing power
as a whole will not have been in
creased by so much as a thin
dimes worth"
"The fact that the present slump
in business activity began at a
time when consumer purchasing
power had reached the highest
levels in history does not dampen
for moment, the ardor with which
the proponents of this quaint
theory are urging their formula
upon you," he added.
"Nor are these enthusiastic
'sharers' discouraged by the fact
that profits have already been
squeezed considerably. For seven
successive years corporate profits
as a whole have fallen below the
1850 level; and-as a share of the
national income-they have shrunk
by more than one-third during
that interval" he said.
One of the most remarkable
things about the campaign, Mr..
Blough said, was that it is "being
innocently supported by large
numbers of well-meaning people
who sincerely want the United
States to prosper and be strong;
and who yet seem to think that
somehow this can be brought about
by eroding the one thing our econ
omy must have to live on and to
grow on: a working profit"
He said that usually people pic
ture profits as Something that
goes into the company's pocket as
though a company were an actual
person who might go out and
squander these profits" He point
ed out that of U. S. Steel's profit
of 91a cents on each sales dollar
last year, "every penny Of it came
from people; and every penny of
it went back to people. From peo-
lie to pepole in one operation"
In the course of it's travels, he
said "that profit made possible the
production of millions of tons of
quality steel and other products
that the American public wanted,
needed, and used. Thus it added
enormously to material wealth of
the nation as whole. 1t was in
truth a working profit working
for the welfare of everyone"