The Butler County press. [volume], March 12, 1937, Image 1

About The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946

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Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—The
report of the federal trade commis
sion on agricultural income, its de
cline since 1929, and the contrast
between farm income and the income
of corporations which process farm
products, is a tremendous document.
Even the summary contains 24 single
space typewritten pages, and wastes
no words.
The gross income of farmers, the
commission finds, fell much more dur
ing the depression than did the in
come of manufacturers and others
who process and distribute farm prod
ucts. Taking the gross income of 1929
as 100, wheat in 1934 stood at 45 and
flour at 74 cotton at 48 and cotton
textiles at 96 tobacco at 78 and to
bacco manufactures at 91 livestock
at 51 and meat packing at 58 milk
at 64 and milk distributors at 75.
The commission gives another view
of the same facts by showing what
part of the price paid by the con
sumer for products originating on the
farm gets back to the farmer. On
bread, the bakeries get 56 per cent
of the price of a loaf, retail distribu
tors 19 per cent, flour millers 7 per
cent, transportation and other things
5 per cent—and the farmer gets 13
per cent.
FTC Finds Monopolies Threaten
Death to Independent Farming
At American
Concentration of Council
On the concentration of control of
things made from farm products, the
commission reports:
"Thirteen manufacturers in one
year sold the equivalent of over 97
per cent of the cigarettes, 90 per cent
of the smoking tobacco, over 98 per
cent of the snuff, and over 75 per cent
of the chewing tobacco produced in
the United States in 1934.
"Ten leading meat packing com
panies in 1935 sold 70.3 per cent of
the beef, 98.5 per cent of the veal,
35.1 per cent of the fresh pork and 54
per cent of cured and processed pork
products.
"Thirteen flour milling companies
sold over 47 per cent of the wheat
flour for the crop year, 1934-5.
Separate Report on Tobacco
"Ten companies had over 30 per
cent of the commercial bread produc
tion, and the three largest companies
had nearly 20 per cent."
The report dealing with the to
bacco industry deserves and will
be given separate treatment. No
brief mention in a general ac
count could properly set forth
the things the commission says
about the Big Four.
The commission praises the growth
of farm co-operatives but its
view, the farm future is dark unless
drastic reforms are made,
"The commission records with dis
may," says the report, "its belief thac
the survival of independent farming
by farmers who own their farms and
maintain an American standard of liv
ing is in jeopardy." In the last 25
years, while the population of the
country gained 40 per cent, the farm
population declined. The total value
of farm land and buildings in 1095
was $2,000,000,000 less than in 1910.
Tenancy grew, and 236 farms out of
every 1,000 were foreclosed under
mortgage between 1930 and 1936.
Monopoly is Blamed
For a large part of this decline of
agriculture, the commission blames
Living
fJ* \""t .V -N *.
VOL. XXXVI. No. 19 HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, MARCH 12,1987
Standards
monopolies and near monoplies, and
calls for sharp revision and vigorous
enforcement of the anti-trust laws.
'The problem created by combina
tions and mergers," it says, "is not
merely the lessening of competition
in a particular industry. The pro
gressive enlargement of a few pre
dominant enterprises has already gone
so far that in financial strength and
in numbers of persons unde4r their
control, the largest concerns exceed
some state governments". The com
mission recommends the enactment of
legislation to "forbid the acquisition
of the assets of another enterprise
by any concern whose total assets
thereafter would exceed a specified
amount."
Drive to Organize Textile
Industry
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—John L.
Lewis has returned to Washington to
take personal charge of the CIO's ac
celerated drive to organize all mass
producing industries. It is believed
that the committee's most immediate
pending business will be to put in
motion a drive to unionize the South
ern textile workers.
The immediate schedule of the CIO
was outlined iO the Press Association
as follows:
1. Contracts with other U. S. Steel
subsidiaries besides Carnegie, Illi
nois, and similar agreements with in
dependent operators.
2. The automotive uuioru^tttion
campaign will be pressed. An effort
will be made to begin collective bar
gaining with Henry ord before
Christmas.
3. On April 1, the committee will
begin a drive to unionize the workers
of the Southwest oil field. A meeting
of the committee's oil union is to be
held in Houston, Tex., to plan the
campaign which is aimed particularly
at Standard Oil subsidiaries.
4. Campaigns to unionize the shoe
industry completely will be pressed
in the principal shoe centers of New
England, and in St. Louis.
5. The drive to unionize the South
ern textile mills will start as soon as
the coal negotiations are completed,
though preliminary maneuverings
may be expected shortly.
The textile drive is the key of the
committee's plans,
6. The discussions with the coal
operators will be pushed to a conclu
sion, with a strike probable if an
agreement is not reached.
Appeal Denied
Columbus, Ohio (OLNS)—The Ohio
supreme court Wednesday denied the
appeal of the Cincinnati Joint Board
of the Amalgamated Clothing Work
ers of America for a re-hearing of its
suit to dissolve an injunction granted
the Hamilton Tailoring Company of
Cincinnati,
The injunction was granted as an
outgrowth of a strike called by the
board against the tailoring company
in October, 1935. Four justices of
the Ohio supreme. eourt on February
17 ruled that no constitutional ques
tion was involved, and refused to ad
mit the appeal of the workers for con
sideration.
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Oysters, pint 20c Dance Spangles 49c
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Forty Hour Week With Minimum Wage of $5 Per
Day Adds Millions of
Workers New Labor
Chrysler and Genera
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—The
breath-taking pace at which labor
news of the first importance pojired
out over the country through the
early part of this week has slackened
only a little but that little is enough
to allow a fairly general survey of the
ground which labor has gained.
First, of course, comes the agree
ment between Carneg-ie, Illinois, and
the CIO. It seems wise at this point
to put in the first article of that
agreement, as follows:
1. The corporation recognizes the
steel workers' organizing committee
or its successors as the collective bar
gaining agent for those employes of
the corporation who are members of
the Amalgamated Association of Iron
Steel and Tin Workers of North
America, hereinafter referred to as
the union. The corporation recognizes
and will not interfere with the right
of its employes to become members
of the union or its successors. There
shall be no discrimination, interfei
ence, restraint or coercion by the cor
poration or any of its agents against
any member because of membership
in the union or its successors. The
steel workers' organizing committee
or its successors agree not to intimi
date or coerce employes into member
ship or to solicit membership on cor
poration time or plant property.
A New Magna Charta
"No discrimination, interferences,
restraint or coercion, by the corpora
tion or any of its agents, against
any member because of membership in
the union or its successors." That is
the heart, the Magna Charta of this
agreement. With that granted, any
development of the union becomes pos
sible indeed, is put squarely up to
the union itself.
Second only to the Carnegie, Illinois,
agreement is the way in which lesser
steel companies, both independents
and subsidiaries, have tumbled over
themselves in falling in with the
day and the 40-hour week. Five in
dependents led off the first day Beth
lehem, Republic, National, and In
land Steel Corporations and Youngs
town Sheet & Tube Company. These
concerns employe at least 173,000 men
Since that day, Jones & Laughlin, Co
lumbia Steel, Pittsburgh Steel, Sha
ron Steel, T. C. & I., Otis Steel, Wheel
ing Steel and National Tube have
taken the plunge. Figures for employ
ment are not available for all of them
but the ones for which data can be
had employ around 45,000 men, and
Jones & Laughlin would raise this at
UTJLEft COUNTY PRESS.
Spring Floods
i\
Labor Victories Electrify Nation
Carnegie Agreement Followed by 5
Independents Employing 200,000
Spending Power to Steel
*olicy Being Adopted By
Electric.
least a third. No up to date figures
for Carnegie, Illinois, are available:
but common report puts their em
ployment figure not much below
200,000.
The total steel employment at pres
ent is given as 550,000. A. J. Hain.
editor of the magazine, "Steel,"
timates that at least 40,000 more
es­
wili
get jobs on account of the shortening
of hours.
Chrysler "Work Councils" Resign
Steel, though the largest part
of
the picture, is only a part. The nego
tiations between Chrysler Corporation
and the United Automobile
Workers
of America are in progress and seem
to be going forward quite amicably.
Only one big piece of news from thi
quarter is absolutely certain yet
but
that is big indeed.
Chrysler, like all other big employ
ers, established "works councils"
company unions in 1933. In the
De­
troit area, there were 120 employ^
members of works councils. The
res­
ignations of 103 of them were
pie
sented to the conference by the U.
A.
W. A. representatives, and in each
case, the resigning member stat
that the great majority of his con
stituents favored the UAWA as 1
sole bargaining agency for workers.
It would be difficult to imagine a
harder wallop to the company
union
than that.
Sloan Blasts Sour Note
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., has issued an
ill-natured statement telling Genera
Motors employes that negotiation^
with the union had nothing to do will
their 5 per cent increase in wages
As the London bobby said about tin
soap-box orator who was slammiie,
Queen Victoria, "t seems to 'elp
'iin,
and it don't 'urt 'er."
Representatives of the General
Electric Co., and of the United Ebx
trical and Radio Workers of America
will meet in New York, March 15,
discuss the demands of the union
foi
the company's 60,000 employes. The
demands include a blanket increase
of
10 cents an hour for all employes, in
creased compensation for certain
sshifts, and complete elimination
of
the speed-up system.
The steel workers organizing com
rnittee is going ahead with its work
The first objective is to secure agree
ments with all the subsidiaries of th
United States Steel Corporation. Now
that the biggest of all, Carnegie, Illi
nois, has led the way, this does
not
seem likely to be over difficult. How
ever, the American Bridge Co., Amer
ican Steel & Wire Co., Tennessee Coal
& Iron, and Columbia Steel, all sub
sidiaries of U. S. Steel,, all have rec
ords of hard-boiled anti-unionism
and the Bridge Co., in particular, is
a busy employer of spies.
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Bonds Net Morgan Nine
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Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—Coming
back this week to his investigation of*
railroad holding companies after an
interval of nearly a month, Senator
Wheeler, of Montana, charged that
the Van Swearingen brothers had set
up the Allegheny Corporation to evade
a ruling of the interstate commerce
commission. The commission declared
that the Van Swearingen plans for a
merger of railroads 'were not in the
public interest" and the Vans set
up the Allegheny.
"The Allegheny Corporation was an
accentuated case of what the ICC had
previously condemned," said Cenator
Wheeler.
Wheeler quizzed sharply Charles R.
Gay, president of the New York
Stock Exchange, for listing the Alle
gheny Corporation bonds. Gay tried
to defend the action but had to admit
that issue was admitted to the lists
with a minimum of delay, and that
the exchange normally should take
account of any formal ruling by such
an agency as the ICC.
Wheeler showed that the House of
Morgan cleared a net profit of $6,957,
933, and individual members of the
firm had cleared $1,368,972 more out
of unloading the Van Swearingen is
sues on the public. Thomas W. La
mont, member of the House of Mor
gan, admitted that this was true
but said that on Van Swearingen
business in general, the house had lost
more than $9,000,000. Wheeler brought
out the fact that these losses were
largely in the Cleveland Terminals
Co., the Vans' favorite real estate
peculation.
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