'Cabaret '49' patrons
romp in carnival spirit
\ The man who walks before
■ the wavy mirror at the carnival
, end shrieks that his feet are too
Stubby and his head's too long
will get his laugh at Cabaret '49
this Sunday night.
* For in a howling .ketch pre
pared specially for the occasion,
leading Progressives will strut
before the audience in carica
tures of themselves, getting per
haps their first and last chance
to see themselves as others see
them.
I Some 15 actors and actresses
’ from the casts of top legitimate
shows now in Chicago and a top
dance band will add to the eve
ning's merriment.
The cabaret, to be held in UE
Hall. 3* S. Ashlrnd Ave., Sun
day, Jan. 30, 8:30 p.m., will be
staged night-club style. Progres
sive State Director Bill Miller
and Legislative Director Sidney
Ordower will be among those
taking off on themselves in the
revue.
CRC to picket
Federal Building
To protest the trial prosecut
ing 12 communist leaders, a
picket line will be thrown
around the Federal Building,
Adams and Clark streets. Satur
day, Jan. 29, at 1 p.m., accord
ing to Mrs. Imogene Johnson,
executive secretary, Illinois
Civil Rights Congress.
Convict GE for conspiracy
TRENTON, N. J. < FP) —1The giant General Electric
lamb-bulb empire was convicted in federal court here this
week of conspiring to maintain a monopoly of the incan
candescent electric lamp indus
try in the U. S.
It was the sixth time GG has
been convicted for monopoly
practices since 1940.
Judge Phillip Forman upheld
Justice Dept, charges that GE
and eight other firms had a
stranglehold on the production
of lamps. The companies are
guilty, Forman said, of engag
ing in the following practices in
violation of the Sherman anti
trust act:
1. Fixing prices to get “high,
unreasonable and excessive
profits.’’
2. Patent pools with Westing
house and other companies
which stifled competition and
Strike, buyer resistance
push down packer profits
1 Two things stick out like a
hog's sore thumb this week from
the profit statements of the big
meat packers.
First, the packers' resistance
in last year’s packing strike was
! nothing short of bonehead. It
cost them plenty, whereas they
; could have afforded a raise in
the first place and come out way
ahead.
Second, the batting around
the consumers have sustained
al the hands of the packers is
, being returned somewhat in
kind.
Armour, Swift, Cudahy, Rath,
Morrell and Wilson were struck
in 1948, The profits of every one
• of these outfits went through the
slicing machine. Armour's $31,
000.000 profit for 1947 was
i ground down to a $2,000,000
loss for 1948 to lead the herd
; in the backward stampede.
Cudahy was trimmed from $7
j million to $1 million; Wilson's
I 1947 take of $18 million flopped
i to $6 million for 1948. Getting
off easiest was Swift whose $34
million in 1947 dropped to $28
million.
i All these figures are after
taxes.
Hormel, up 17 percent from
1947. makes an interesting con
trast with Rath which went down
57 percent. Ilormel workers
were not on strike. Rath work
ers were. These two companies
do about the same volume and
draw their livestock from pretty
much the same area.
The packers, who looked like
portions of horses to their work
ers and to the public after they
broke the strike, saved their.
faces with a voluntary grant of
a four cent per hour raise. The
profit figures demonstrate that
the workers’ demands could
have been met to the advantage
of not only the workers, but to
making the profit reports con
siderably more handsome.
SLIGHT PRICE CUTS
Now in the face of these re
duced profits, packers find them
j selves forced to tempt price
angry buyers into the meat eat
I ing habit, in the manner of one
i training a dog to lie down and
! roll over. Prices have slumped
| slightly below the normal de
; cline customary this time of
; year.
On top of all this, popular
pressure has moved the govern
ment to sue the Big Four pack
' ers in a new anti-trust suit.
The packers sure are getting
Warsaw impresses
N.Y. Times writer
"The reconstruction achieved
in Warsaw in the short period
of three months takes one's !
breath away," according to Syd
ney Gruson, New York Times;
correspondent in a special fea- }
ture recently printed in the ;
Times.
“Warsaw,” writes Gruson, “is!
only faintly recognizable now as |
the ruined city left by the Ger- j
mans in 1945. It has shape and '
beauty again, much of it formed
in the last quarter of 1948.”
And the correspondent con
tinues: “Blocks of rubble have
been transformed into shining
| new office buildings and houses.
Two new bridges have been
completed across the Vistula to
relieve the burden on the single
span that previously had joined
Warsaw to its suburbs on the
cast bank of the river.
“The main streets bisecting
the capital, both north-south
and east-west, have been made
into wide thoroughfares. . . .”
"Not only government and po
litical party buildings have
sprouted. Blocks of new flats
providing better housing than
Polish workers ever enjoyed
have been rushed to completion,
and new ones started.”
The Times writer in Warsaw
says “much of the reconstruc
tion” both in Warsaw and in
\
the countryside “was done un
der the impetus of a one-month
production drive and labor com
petition instituted in November
to mark the merger of the Com
munist and Socialist parties.
Many new houses bear such
painted signs as ‘this house has
been built in fifteen days (or
eighteen or twenty-one) in hon
or of the merger of Congress.'
Gruson concludes that “the
political effect of the merger
production drive and of the
steadily improving living stand
ard that has resulted from in
creased production is evident to
returning residents. The (Pol
ish) government is buoyant,
more sure of itself than ever be
fore and confident that it is
daily gaining more honest sup
port from the people them
selves.”
Georgia assembly
defeats attempt
to unmask KKK
ATLANTA (FP)—A bill that
would have forced Ku Klux
Klan members to come out from
behind their sheets was killed
by the Georgia House of Rep
resentatives this week.
it from all sides. And the peo
ple seem to cause all the trou
ble.
hampered industrial progress.
3. Carving the world market
into exclusive territories which
each company could exploit and
setting aside the U. S. as ex
clusive territory for GE.
4. Abuse of the Mazda trade
mark, which was used inter
changeably by GE and Westing
house.
The judge summed up his
findings by saying: “GE con
spired to and did restrain trade
and competition in, and unlaw
fully monopolized the incandes
cent electric lamp industry in
the U. S.”
According to the Justice
Dept., GE, which advertises that
its bulbs “stay lighter longer,”
has been cutting the life of its
flashlight bulbs by two-thirds.
GE’s most recent previous
conviction came Oct. 8, 1948,
when Federal Judge John Knox
fined the company and its top
officials a total of $50,000 for
engaging in the conspiracy with
Krupp and other foreign firms
to fix prices and limit produc
tion of tungsten carbide.
A highlight of the latest trial
came the day Board Chairman
Philip Reed admitted that GE
had been operating its gigantic
lamp business under invalid
patents. *
TRAITOR SENTENCED. Former
U. S. Air Force pilot Martin J.
Monti was sentenced to 25 years
in prison and fined $10,000 for
wartime treason. The traitor,
who deserted to join Hitler's ofr
force and later broadcast for
the Nazis, pleaded that he
wanted to "fight communism."
UE HALL* 57 S. ASHLAND • Donation--* 1.00
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT-’
PROGRESSIVE PARTY
1S7 No. La Salle St. RA 6-9270