The potters herald. [volume], August 01, 1946, Image 2

About The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982

Image provided by: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

                
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Justice Department Cracks
DownOn Optical Swindle
Chicago (FP)—A huge swindle of
the American public was exposed by
the Justice Department here when it
filed two civil suits in federal court
charging optical wholesalers and
about 5,000 leading eye doctors
throughout the U. S. with violating
anti-trust laws.
The biggest firms in the optical in
dustry were accused of fixing prices
on spectacles through the device of
rebating to the eye doctors about half
of the total price paid by their pa
tients for glasses.
Named in one suit as defendants
were Bausch & Lomb of Rochester,
N. Y., four subsidiary companies and
30 doctors named in a “representative
capacity” who received $307,550.46 in
kickbacks in 1944. The 30 doctors, As
sistant Attorney General Willis L.
Hotchkiss said, represented some
3,000 doctors who regularly received
rebates from Bausch & Lomb and its
subsidiaries.
The other suit named as defendants
the American Optical Co. of South
bridge, Mass., and 20 doctors named
representatively for 3,000 throughout
the country. The 20 received $277,
676.38 in kickbacks in 1944 and 1945,
Hotchkiss said. Among the 3,000
sued as a class in each suit there was
some overlapping, he explained, in
volving about 5,000 in all. The Jus
tice Department suit asked that the
defendant companies be enjoined
San Franciscans
Join Price Fight
San Francisco (FP)—“I will fight
higher prices.
“I will
‘T will
need.
“I will
profiteers.
“We demand
strengthened OPA
prices and rents down to the June 30
level.”
not pay higher rents,
buy only
what I absolutely
higher prices to
not pay
revised and
that will keep
Eight thousand San Franciscans
took this pledge at a mass meeting
called by AFL and CIO unions, the
American Veterans’ Committee and
civic groups.
Rep. Hugh DeLacy (D., Wash.),
Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.), who
spoke by telephone from Washington,
State Senator John F. Shelley and
other speakers urged a buyers’ strike
to begin July 23.
“Irreparable damage' tias already
been done,” 'Pepper said. DeLacy,
pleading for a fight against adjourn
ment of Congress until a satisfactory
OPA bill has been passed, said the
NAM “has just about taken over
Congress” and charged that the big
corporations “are themselves on a
sitdown production strike.”
Resolutions were unanimously
passed for national and state price
and rent control bills and against
current and pending legislation to re
strict labor. More than $1,000
raised to carry on the fight.
was
How To Moke
(Continued Fnn Page Ont)
“Ice cream sodas^-The 10c soda
about out of the picture. If your cost
prices indicate a 15c selling price then
we suggest that you use a Mel-o-rol
instead of bulk ice cream. On your
signs advertise that 15c sodas are
made with Mel-o-rol. This makes a
better soda and will be good value.
“Malted milk—Most stores sqrve a
12 oz. glass for 15c. It is suggested
that you cut the size to 10 ounces and
maintain the 15c price.
“Some of your hot plates or sand
wiches can be re-arranged in order to
maintain established selling prices,
"Hot roast beef sandwich, mashed
potatoes, gravy, 25c—By adding cole
slaw or sliced tomatoes and serving
on a compartment plate, you can
make it look like a super-value and
get 30c.”
is
On items where prices must be in
creased, the memo orders: “Do not
scratch out selling prices on your
menus or streamers. Instead make up
new menus and new streamers. Most
people cannot remember selling
prices, except on a few everyday
items. Therefore, if you scratch out
prices on your menus or streamers,
you are then advertising your price
increases.”
Some of the aew selling prices will
work out to odd numbers, the memo
says, advising: “You should use such
odd prices wherever they are advan
tageous, otherwise round them out to
the nearest 5 or zero.” Customers
might balk at paying 15c for a 10c
frankfurter but a 12c price would look
more reasonable, it explains.
Management is instructed to keep
as many low-price menu selections a
possible in order to keep the “regu
lar” customer happy. “The most dis
turbed customers are the ones whom
(sic) have always lunched at your
fountain for 30c or 35c and must now
pay more. Price changes are not so
irritating te the regular customer if
he can still get a good lunch at the
old price.”
Although the memo was sent out
“under the assumption that '-OPA
price controls will be eliminated on
food items,” the firm is not too wor
ried about protecting its profits even
if OPA is restored. “We know," the
meme confides, “that if the OPA had
continued without interruption that
they were going te grant some price
relief for fountains
due to the increased
and restaurants
costs.”
7“
from paying rebates and that the de
fendant doctors be enjoined from re
ceiving any rebates.
Still pending is a four-year-old
monopoly suit against the optical in
dustry, with Bausch & Lomb and
American Optical again the chief cul
prits, which accused it of depriving
20 million Americans of care for their
eyes by fixing prices at exorbitant
levels
The suit was halted Oct. 27, 1942,
at the request of the army and navy,
which said the trials “would seriously
impede the war effort” of the two
big companies. Also named in that
suit were the Optical Wholesalers’
National Association, two patent
holding companies, 60 individuals and
11 other optical companies.
Evidence obtained by the Justice
Department, before the brass hats
forced adjournment, showed that
spectacles sold at $20—a price which,
it estimated, 20 million Americans
with bad eyes cannot afford—could
easily be sold for $7.50. It also re
vealed that four companies control 88
per cent of all eyeglass sales in the
U. S. Thes companies have compelled
the public to pay for kickbacks ex
posed in the latest suit, as well as
400 to 600 per cent markups by op
ticians.
Despite artny and navy kid glove
treatment of the industry, the war
effort felt the pinch of a shortage of
military optical instruments created
by the international optical cartel,
headed by Carl Zeiss of Germany and
Bausch A Lomb.
An investigation which led to an
anti-trust indictment of the two firms
in March 1940 showed that secret
U. S. military information was given
by the American firm to the German
firm not only before but after Hitler
came into power. Because of its
secret agreements with the German
firm, Bausch & Lomb refused to sell
military equipment to England and
France and used threats of patent in
fringement to frighten competing
firms from bidding oi/military equip
ment for the U. S. army.
Tobin Suggests 4
Cattle Car For
Senator Bilbo*
Indianapolis (FP)—“Troop trains
should have been rolling into Missis
sippi within 24 hours after Bilbo de
fied the constitution,” President Dan
iel J. Tobin of the International
Brotherhood of Teamatora (AFL)
writes in the August issue of the
union’s official publication.
Suggesting that the Senate deny
Theodore Bilbo his seat which he won
by threats of violence, Tobin said:
“Federal troops should be sent any
where that armed supervision is nec
essary to guarantee the basic rights
of citizenship. That’s what the Revo
lutionary War was all about. And the
Civil War. We won both those bloody
conflicts and presumably established
forever the principle that men are
free and equal.
“They were not equal and they were
not free in Mississippi last month.
That’s why Bilbo won. Only a hand
ful of the Negro population dared to
vote. Bilbo had warned them that
they did so at their peril. By such a
threat, Bilbo violated the federal con
stitution.
“Mississippi prefers to wallow in
the swamp,” he said, after describing
sub-standard wages, poor living con
ditions, low health and education
standards in the state.
“She can send Bilbo to the Senate
but the Senate doesn’t need to accept
him. It should ship him back,
ferably in a cattle car.”
V
pre-
NLRB Election
(Continued From Pege One)
protection forces and the crew super
visor of the slip house in plant No. 5.
The company contended that the
board lacked jurisdiction to certify
the union on the ground that the
foremen are employers rather than
employed. The board held that the
foremen are employees and therefore
it has jurisdiction to certify a union
as collective bargaining unit.
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ATTACKS BlLW)—.President
tel J. Tobin of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters (AFL)
lathed out against the nomination of
Senator Theodore Bilbo (D., Miss.).
Said Tobin: “Mississippi can send
Bilbo back to the Senate hut the Sen
ate doesn’t
need to accept him.
Twenty years ago Alva Bradley
was a typical “public-spirited” presi
dent of the Cleveland Chamber of
Commerce. Baseball interested him
as a business proposition. And civic
mindedness demanded that the Cleve
land Indians be owned and operated
by Clevelanders., Guye you know and
can trust with your last million to
put the old town on the map.
Supported by other local money
bags, Bradley formed a $1,600,000
syndicate, bought the franchise and
became president of the Indians. Pub
lic spiritedness, of the C. of C. kind,
is usually linked to commercial book
keeping in black ink.
These shining models of civic virtue
were all financial big shots. Late
comers in the syndicate were John
Sherwin 3iX RM ®Ut
not too late to hold k mijority of the
stock when the club was sold. Silver
haired Bradley was suave, smiling,
friendly in a Chamber of Commercy
way. As helmsman of a major league
club he simply didn’t belong. For 19
years under his stuffy guidance the
Indians never won a pennant though
in 1940 they missed it by a single
game.
Bradley enjoyed the prestige of of
fice while Cleveland fandom ground
its teeth over his bungling brand of
baseball. Betimes, there were rumors.
Club to be sold. Each time Bradley
& Co. said No and hung on until—
One day a baseball scribe asked
Bradley about a reported deal for the
club. About a young go-getter named
Bill Veeck, supposed to ha^ve collected
enough pewter to buy the club.
“Pure nonsense,” retorted Bradley.
“The Indians are not for sale.”
Strangely enough, Bradley meant it.
He was the club’s p^esid«*nt and in
the know. In Chicago, as Bradley was
pooh-poohing the deal, another re
porter asked the same question of the
league’s president, Will Harridge. He
quickly answered: “Yes, there is a
deal on.”
Bradley did read the papers,
though. His next answer to the ques
tion was: “MAYBE there’s a deal on.”
He even confessed that POSSIBLY
Mr. John Sherwin MIGHT sell the
club without advising him. But he
didn’t think so, knowing John as he
did.
Yet that’s exactly what John Sher
win did. He waited until lawyers for
both sides had finished haggling and
only signatures awaited slapping on
the deal. About that time Bradley
discovered he was out of baseball.
Bradley toppled with the banners of
Willison Retains
(Continued From Page Ont)
operation extended him during the
past term and urged that the same
cooperation be extended the new of
ficers. Only by this method can we
hope to have a strong local and be
ready to meet new conditions as they
creep ipto the trade, he stated in his
remarks chartering a course the local
will follow throughout the year.—
O. C. 131.
Members Of Local
(Continued From Pajft One)
We wish to thank President Duffy
and other mem Iters of the Executive
Board for their kind consideration
and support and we feel that the
many times we have met find talked
with them that it has really been a
with them that it has really been
great help to the members of 77.
RAISE FOR CLEANERS
San Jose, Calif. (FP)—Averting
Sh THE POTTERS HERALD%
SSSJJP?
POLICE ATTACK PICKETS—This Los Angeles policeman lifts his club
against pickets at the strike-bound Pacific Press plant. Members of Interna
tional Printing Pressmen’s & Assistants’ Union (AFL) tried to prevent scabs
from crossing the picket line and police intervened. Three workers were in
jured. (Federated Pictures).
CALLING 'EM STRAIGHT
SALE OF INDIANS OBSERVED
LAW OF JUNGLE
The recent sale of the Cleveland
Indians highlighted the animal in
stincts of big business. The wolf’s
fang and the fox’s trickery are ap
proved, even admired weapons when
baseball’s tycoons come to grips,
whether to snatch a prize or to defend
possession of it.
waul
civic mindedness flying high. That is,
as high as a hunter, suddenly caught
in the ripping and tearing of a tiger,
could hold a banner. Desperately he
tried to form a new syndicate to buy
the Indians. He pleaded for time,
wailing: “I want to keep the club in
the hands of Clevelanders.” The ma
jority stockholders gave him the bird.
Bradley took his mauling with gal
lantry and dignity—the code of the
whipped in big business’ daily cat
and-dog fight. He smiled genially as
he grasped Veeck’s paw and wished
him the very best of good luck. He
thanked all the boys who had sold
him out—including the Sherwins—for
their “fine cooperation.” How could
he do it? I
Well, there cwas sorhe conflation
as Bradley, still the businessman and
a civic-minded citizen, tumbled into
the limbo of out-smarted magnates.
“Why did THEY sell to the Veeck
interests?” he remarked. “Well, my
guess is because it was the FIRST
GOOD OFFER they received.”
The mighty don’t fall jn baseball.
They are catapulted. Bradley attend
ed the fiigt garja under new manage-
nient. He“ satWft .-Ms*
Veeck was out ih the lower stands
getting acquainted with his cus
tomers.
The $64 question: Was Bradley a
guest or a paying customer in the
first day’s receipts? A fair question,
all things considered.
Pullman Walkout
Slated For Aug. 7
Chicago (FP) A nation-wide
strike of its 40,000 members against
the Pullman Co., which would tie up
all sleeping car service in the coun
try, was called for Aug. 7 by the
Order of Railway Conductors (unaf
filiated).
The union said it would exempt
Pullman equipment involved in troop
and hospital movements. The dispute
is based on application of recent wage
increases. The union is asking wage
increases of $1.28 a day as of Jan. 1
and an additional 20c a day as of
May 22. ’VT
a
A counter company proposal would
break the increases down to an hourly
rate, then multiply them by the basic
number of hours in a working month.
This method of payment, ORC Vice
Preeident Benjamin C. Johnson said,
would deprive Pullman conductors of
“a portion of each increase and de
stroy the formula for computation of
monthly increases which has been
provided by the union for more than
I 0 years.” ______
ki
Averting
aan jose, cahl. (r P) a
threatened strike, the Laundry Work
ers, Cleaners 4* Dyers Union (AFL)
settled for a 10 per cent wage raise.
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NO O. P. A.
Crook’s intends to help “hold-the-line” against
rising prices. All merchandise now in our store
or on order wiU continue to be sold at the rea
sonable prices that have won us the confidence
of our customers. .»
CROOK’S
«rHB
New OPA Law
Rigged For
Price Boosts
It would be of great assistance to
all the company employees if custom
ers would cooperate in removing haz
ards from their basements and cellar
stairs, etc. which are, in many in
stances, the cause of personal injury
to meter readers and service men.
The slogan for the campaign dur
ing August will be “THINK FIRST.”
This slogan will be displayed through
out the properties of the gas com
pany in bulletins, lapel buttons and
posters. The aid of all customers is
earnestly desired. Daily safety meet
ings will be held by employees on all
work.
The campaign is timely, as there
has been a marked increase in all
types of accidents since the ending of
hostilities.
Leaves Hospital
Mrs. Delia Plate, a member of
Local Union 124 who recently under
went a major operation in the East
Liverpool City Hospital, has been re
moved to her home in Oakmont with
her condition reported as greatly im
proved.
Our failure to write more personal
letters is due to embarrassment be
cause our life is so dull or so it
seems at the time.
BEST PJ*ACE TO BUY AFTER AIL”
Established 1880 'East Liverpool, Ohio
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Are Frozen
Prices Rise
Wages
While
Washington (FP)—American work
ers will now be compelled to fight
“frozen wages while prices rise”
under an OPA law “rigged to force
higher prices all along the line,” AFL
President William Green said Jtfiy 26.
Green said the AFL “is deeply dis
appointed by the inadequate new
price control law passed by Congress
and reluctantly approved by Presi
dent Truman.
“This new law is rigged to force
higher prices all along the line. It is
bound to increase the cost of living.
It is certain to lower the purchasing
power of the dollar,” Green declared.
“The cruel aspect of the situation
is that NOW rigid wage controls will
be restored under the Wage Stabili
zation Board. American workers will
be compelled to fight frozen wages
while prices rise.
“Unless industry and business ex
ercise more self control than they
have to date and voluntarily hold the
line mi prices, conditions may become
insupportable to labor. Unrest will
spread and a new strike wav? may
hit the nation.
“I have repeatedly appealed to all
unions affiliated with the AFL to
conduct themselves with restraint
and self discipline and to refrain
from any interruption of production
because the sooner production is
raised high enough to meet demand,
the sooner all government controls,
on wages as well as prices, can be
dropped.
“I now warn American industry and
business that they must cooperate to
maintain stable conditions or face
evitable chaos.” -t
in-
Safety Campaign
By Gas Company
During the month of August, em
ployees of your local gas company
are engaged in a campaign to elimi
nate all accidents. This month has
been selected as the time of the cam
paign since much new construction
work is in progress. Many construc
tion jobs are being rushed to comple
tion before the advent of fall and
winter ^weather and in time to have
available gas in sufficient quantities
to take care of the ever-increasing
needs of their customers.
In entering into: such a campaign,
we are assured bj^ Mr. W. T. McIn
tyre, local representative of the gas
company, that the safety of the public
is an important part of this cam
paign.
The treaty, or convention, as it is
called in International Labor Office
terminology, establishes a minimum
monthly wage of $64 in United States,
currency or £16 sterling or the equiv
alent in other currency for able sea
men employed in the world’s mer
chant marines, and fixes maximum
hours for seamen in the deck, engine
room, room and catering departments
of sea-going ships.
The treaty was one of nine inter
national conventions adopted at the
Maritime Conference of the Interna
tional Labor Organization held at
Seattle, Wash., June 6 to June 29
The other eight conventions dealt
with such aspects of the living and
working conditions of seamen as food
on board ship, crew quarters, vaca
tions with pay, and social security*
The convention on wages, officially
entitled the Wages, Hours of Work
and Manning (Sea)
is unprecedented in
the ILO says. For
an ILO convention,
the standards it establishes may be
applied by the terms of collective
agreements between the seamen’s and
shipowners’ organizations. The con
vention’s provisions may also be im
plemented, as in the case of previous
IL0 conventions, by national laws or
regulations, or they may be applied
by a combination of both laws and
collective agreements.
Convention, 1946,
another respect,
the first time in
it provides that
One of the other conventions adopt
ed by the -conference provides also
that it may be implemented in whole
or in part by collective agreements.
This convention declares that mas
ters, officers and radio officers shall
receive not less than 18 days’ vaca
tion for each year of continuous serv
ice at sea, and that other members of
the crew shall receive not less than
12 working days.
The minimum wage of $64 or £16
is considerably below the monthly
rate prevailing in the United States,
Great Britain and a number of the
other relatively advanced maritime
countries. It was made clear by the
delegates, however, that it was their
intentinn tn establish a figure that
would make possible ratification of
the convention by the less advanced
6AS
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Thursday, August 1,
Comment On World Events
Pessimists have long said that
establishment of world-wide stand
ards of pay and hours for any class
of workers was impossible. But the
“impossible” was done recently, when
for the first time in the history of in
ternational social and economic col
laboration, an international multi
lateral treaty fixing minimum wages
and maximum hours of work was
successfully negotiated.
COOKERY/
Yes, the modern Gas Range has more features of clean
lincss than any other cooking method. Here's why—
The dean blue flame of the modern Gas burner leaves/no
residue—actually scours the bottoms of pans with heat.
Broiling with the modern Ga» Range truly smokeless
broiling. The live Gas flame consumes the sooty particlct i
of fat thoy arc given of by the meat.
Gas heat is itutaatly controllable—when food reaches a 1
boil, the heat can be reduced immediately to prevent the
food from boiling over.
The mpdera Gas Range is the easiest of all to keep clean.!
y The burners are dog-proof and rust-resistant. If food is
spilled on them, they can be removed in a jiffy and cleaned
L. without trouble or danger.
I Remember these four points of kitchen cleanliness which
you enjoy with a modem Gas Range—because no ocher
i cocking method can give you all of them.
Your new automatic Gas Range will make you feci
like whistling while you cook—because Gas cookery
is as “clean as a whistle." Sec the new Gas Ranges
I at your Gas Company office or at Registered Dealers.
The Manufacturers Light & Heat Co.
110 W. Sixth Street East Liverpool, Ohio
■A ti
1946
countries, and which would at the
same time establish a floor under the
wages of the world’s seamen.
The convention was adopted after
three weeks of intense negotiation in
which government, seamen’s and
shipowners’ delegates of 32 of the
ILO’s member countries participated.
In its final form, the convention was
approved by 55 votes to 21, with 7
delegates abstaining—a margin com
fortably in excess of the two-thirds
majority required by the ILO’s con
stitution for approval of a conven
tion.
The convention will come into
force as soon as a number of condi
tions have been fulfilled. These are:
(a) it must be ratified by 9 of the fol
lowing countries: Argentina, Aus
tralia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
China, Denmark, Finland, France,
Great Britain, Greece, India, Ireland,
Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, United
States, Yugoslavia (b) 5 of the rati
fying countries must each have at
least 1,000,000 gross register tons of
shipping and (c) the aggregate ton
nage of the ratifying states must be
not less than 15,000,000 gross regis
ter tohs. The third proviso means, in
effect, that the convention must be
ratified either by the United States or
Great Britain before it enters into
force.
STEEL STRIKE ON COAST
South San Francisco (FP)—Picket
ing of the Bethlehem Steel Corpora
tion’s plant here by the United Steel
workers has closed it down except for
a few open hearth workers allowed to
enter by the pickets.
OLD ENGLISH
LAWN SEED
and
The Perfect Fertilizer
A 'iki/u
15
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