Evening star. [volume], May 04, 1948, Image 9

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Green, Murray Seen
Following 'Party Line'
On Corporate Profits
AFL Head Calls Returns
'Swag'; Olds Replies
For United States Steel
By David Lawrence
Three addresses delivered on the
same day on somewhat the same
subject illustrate what a confusing
time the average person must have
nowadays trying to find truth amid
a barrage of propaganda.
Philip Murray, head of the CIO,
gave an address on wages and prices
in the steel industry, while William
Green, president of the AFL, dis
cussed corporate profits as a whole.
Irving Olds, chairman of the board
of the United States Steel Corp..
evidently noting a similar argument
made by Mr. Murray in other
speeches, undertook to give a re
buttal.
Mr. Green's speech was the least
temperate of all—or maybe that
was the way it was prepared for
him by his propaganda bureau. He
says:
"According to official Government
figures, corporate profits reached a
record peak of $17,000,000,000 in
1947. We all thought that' business
was reaping heavy profits during the
war. But the 1947 peacetime figure
was 71 per cent higher than the
$10,000,000,000 in prohts which
American industry gained during
the war year of 1944. Just think of
lt—the postwar profiteers have
almost doubled the swrag which the
war profiteers raked ih.’’
Murray Hits Profits. Too.
It's a bit severe, even for MrJ
Green, to call all the profits of
American industry by the little
word ‘swag.’’ In that 17-billicn
figure are all kinds of businesses,
and it comes a little hard to have
Mr, Green, who denounces Com
munists on one day and uses their
lingo the next, to call all profits
‘swag.”
Anyway, whoever prepared the
apeech for gentle Mr. Green went
on to say that the $17,000,000 000 of
corporate profits after taxes in 1947
"represent an increase of 35 per cent
in corporate buying power over
1944.” Did the prices of goods and
materials bought by industry really
decline by 35 per cent since 1944?
Weren’t Mr. Green's economic ex
perts mixing a numerical increase
in profits with "buying power” per
dollar?
Turning to the Murray speech, one
finds the head of the CIO also
criticizing profits as if they were
something sinful. He says:
"The United States Steel Corp
the so-called 'bellwether' of the in
dustry, enjoyed staggering profits
last year of approximately $244,000.
000 before Federal income taxes,
and $153,000,000 after such taxes.
This corporation's profits in the
year 1947 increased 73 per cent over
1946 ”
Return Same. Olds Says.
On the same day, Mr. Olds of
United States Steel was telling his
stockholders that profits wert the
same in 1947 as for 1946— namely* 6
cents on a dollar of sales. This, he
says, is “the'lowest for any peace
time year in the history of United
States Steel during which steel op
erations were at a level approaching
full capacity." He adds:
Such a return on sales is only \
slightly more than half of the cor
porations average return on sales
in 1920, 1923. 1926, 1928 or 1940
It, is interesting to note that United
States Steel's profit in 1947 from all
operations was approximately $70,
000.000 less than in 1929, although in
1947 its sales in dollar amount were
twice those of 1929.
"These relatively lower earnings
in 1947 reflect the effect of higher
casts which have continuously de
veloped over recent years * ♦ •
I should like to call' attention to
the fact that although shipments,
of steel products in the first quarter
of 1948 were approximately 300,000
tons larger than in the correspond
ing quarter of last year, the profit
of United ST5tes Steel for the first
quarter of this year was approxi
mately $5,300,000 less than in the
first quarter of 1947.
Higher Costs Citrd.
"This diminution in earning
power of the corporation is pri
marily occasioned by higher costs.
By way of illustration, employment
costs in the first quarter of 1948
were up $31,600,000 over the similar
quarter year ago; and the cost of
purchased goods and services for the
quarter was $55,300,000 higher than
for the same quarter last year."
On top of this, while the coal
strike deprived the United States
Steel Corp. of 3.200,000 tons of coal
and 430,000 tons of pig iron and
430,000 tons of steel ingots, the
"left wingers” are criticizing the
steel industry for not building more
plants and facilities. At the same
lime the labor bosses are saying, in
efTrct, that profits must be less and
less and that there must not be
money set aside to finance expansion
or to encourage investors to lend
money needed for such expansion.
Strangely enough, the labor-union
bosses decry communism, but they;
follow the "party line" when it j
comes to disparaging the American
profit-and-loss system.
4 Reproduction Rights Reserved )
This Changing World
Past-West Trade Revival Could Lead
To Conflict Sharper Than Political One
By (. onstantine Brown
One of the more dangerous points
in the broad-scale argument that
communism and capitalism can
learn to live together in the same
world is that
t r o ubles would
all disappear if
only trade could
be started again
between east and
west.
It is true that
a m ong nations
which are free
with respect to
each other—that
is, none subject
to the will and
control of any
other — a lively
trade and close
, ( orWanline Brown.
economic rela
tionships have the tendency to
establish and preserve peaceful con
ditions throughout the world. This
results from the fact that it is the
economic interest of all to keep the
peace in order to profit from mutual
exchange of commodities.
In the present situation, however, j
when it is the desire and purpose of
one member of the society of;
nations—Soviet Russia—to graspj
more and more nations within its |
embrace and harness their produc-S
tion as well as their consumption'
to its own system, the principles:
which underlie a free economic!
world system cannot be considered
valid.
Political Aims Would Rule.
That is to say, the hope that east
west. trade can be revived to any
great extent, or if revived, can
exert any real influence on the basic
causes for east-west conflict, is a
futile one.
In the first place, there will never
be greater trade between the free-,
trading countries of the west and
the Soviet-bound countries of the;
east beyond the point which the
masters of the Kremlin believe wisej
and desirable for their political
purposes. Trade in the Soviet sys- j
tern—unlike the capitalistic west—j
does not represent a source of profit,
for profit as such has been extirpated
from the Soviet economy.
This is important to remember, j
for any really live exchange of goods
—any really great volume of trade—
depends on the desire and ability of
each country to export as much as
i it can to those people who need and
can use foreign products, and the
desire and ability of each country
to import everything it needs and
can use above its own production.
Mutuality Cannot Exist.
Essential to this exploitation of
foreign markets and satisfaction of
domestic markets with foreign goods
j is ptivate enterprise, operating as
freely as possible from government
restriction and from application of
government policy to International
trade. And private enterprise means
a profit system which has been
totally excluded from the Soviet
Union and every country over which
; it has extended its sway.
Healthy international trade pre
; supposes mutuality between all the
trading nations and this mutuality
cannot exist when on one side trade
is carried on by private enterprise
seeking profit and on the other by
the totalitarian state, whose motives
are not economic profit but political
influence and the desire to choke:
off dependence on foreign sources j
of materials or manufactured goods. |
The only way that Russia and her j
bloc could engage in a truly exten- I
sive international trade is by open-1
ing up their, markets to foreign pro-;
ducers and permitting the needs of i
their populations—which are tre
mendous in view of the Soviet j
bloc's inability to provide for them— j
to#be satisfied by importation from1
surplus-producing countries.
May Unload Low-Quality Goods.
Short of that the Soviet Union
may attempt — as Germany at-,
tempted—to penetrate foreign mar- j
kets by unloading low-quality goods
made under slave-labor conditions
in competition with the higher;
quality products of free-labor coun- j
tries.
Such an attempt by Russia would j
not be a healthy solution to the
problem of International trade, but!
would be a more vicious attack on ;
the free world economic system than j
Germany made in the '30s. To an
even greater degree than Germany,'
Russia will only excite bitter an
tagonisms and further divide a
world already sadly spli£T
The prospects, then, on the inter
national trade front are not as some l
contend, for pacification and com-:
promise between east and west, but'
for an even more bitter struggle1
than already is in progress on the
world political front.
CIO Maneuvers in Open
Error by Mail Clerk Sends Pamphlet
Backing Eisenhower in PAG Envelopes
By Doris Flees on
Through the error of a mail clerk,
the draft Eisenhower maneuvers of
Philip Murray and his CIO are out
in the open.
Operation Eisenhower, a pam
phlet keyed to
newspaper head
lines that Gen.
Eisenhower can
be drafted, is
reaching the
public in en
velopes marked
CIO-PAC In
quiries developed
that while CIO
PAC paid for the
pamphlets, the
envelopes were
a mistake; it
had been in
tended to mail
them under the i>ori« Fimon.
aegis of Americans for Democratic
Action, the anti-Communist liberals
who have already forsworn Presi
dent, Truman for Gen. Eisenhower
or Justice Douglas.
This merely confirms concretely
what informed circles have been
saying about CIO political inten
tions. But the pamphlet itself is |
interesting in its disclosure of tlje
flimsy evidence upon which the
labor statesmen apparently feel jus- j
tilled in building an Eisenhower
candidacy.
Views Are Quoted.
Tt. consists of Gen. Eisenhow'er's
views quoted under headlines, de
mocracy, religion, peace, free press,
etc. Naturally he says all of them
are a good thing. The workman, i
for example, is seemingly expected
to find assurance in these state
ments by' the general about labor:
“When great emergency demanded
special effort, time and again our
unions loyally responded. American
labor rightly shares in the laurels
won by American troops on the
battlefield.
"Democracy has given great dig
nity to labor. Only labor has made
this country' great.
“There is no need for me to ex- ;
pound upon the importance of
American labor to our position be
fore the world and to our own
future happiness and prosperity, no
need to extol the benefits that have
been brought to American working
people during recent decades by
labor organizations. Men of my
generation, familiar in their youth
with the specter of insecurity that;
haunted many a family whose
meager shelter and clothing and
food depended upon the father's i
prolonged hours of toil and some- |
times miserably small pay, ffre liv
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complished.”
Nothing on Economics.
Gen. Eisenhower’s own suggestions
that professional soldiers "in the
absence of obvious and overriding
reasons, abstain from seeking high
political office” are, curiously, in
cluded.
Apparently no Elsenhower on
economics could be located. Under
that headline is only a newspaper
account of what Gen. Eisenhower
supposedly said at the controversial
1925 F Street Club dinner last year.
By what alchemy labor leaders
transmute these blameless remarks
into labor's candidate for President,
remains their secret. Perhaps the
catalyst is a deep distrust for all
the other candidates. Anyway, they
are doing it.
It must afford wry amusement to
the President, who vetoed the Taft
Hartley bill, and to Senator Taft,
who has been fighting for his presi
dential life in Ohio with explana
tions of what the labor-capital
problem is and how he tried to
meet it.
Round Table Speaker Named
The Washington Round Table of
the National Conference of Chris
tians and Jews will hear Mrs.
Gertrude Hart Day, director of the
Neighborhood Project, sponsored by
the conference in New Haven,;
Conn., in a talk at noon tomorrow in!
the Willard Hotel. The luncheon
has been arranged by Mrs. Verna
D. Linzel, executive director of the
Round Table.
Court'Advises'
Knife Carrier
Where to Go
Stanley M. Hibdon, 35. asked
Judge Walter J. Casey yesterday to
be lenient in sentencing him on
knife-carrying and drunk charges.
In fact, he offered to get out of
town "and never come bark."
"How much money do you have?”
Judge Casey asked.
‘ Seventy cents, your honor,"
Hibdon replied.
"Where will you go if you do leave
tow’n?" the judge wanted to know.
"I haven't thought about that
yet.” the man said.
Judge Casey said he knew "just
the place.’’ He committed him to
District Jail for 60 days.
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On the Other Hand
Some Provisions of Fellows Bill
To Admit DPs Held Troublesome
By Lowell Mellett
Some progress is being made by
our rich and greatly blessed coun
try toward extending a welcome to
—and obtaining the needed labor
of — a reason
able share of
the thousands
of European
families left
homeless by the
war. It has not
been a sponta
neous and
speedy process,
considering the
fact that many
of -those ■ who
may be taken in
eventually have
been looking
taken up by the latter body. This
would avoid the almost impossible j
cask of making something reason-i
able out of the Wiley bill through 1
amendments from the floor and the
later task of obtaining a workable !
compromise in conference, if the:
Senate should enact the Wiley bill.
The legislative climate Ls consid-!
ered generally favorable. For this1
fact those descendants of earlier!
immigrants, the ladies of the j
Daughters of the American Revolu
tion, deserve some thanks. Then
action the other day in adopting
once again a resolution against ad
mission of the homeless Europeans
brought a storm of protest from all
parts of the country sufficient to
impress Congress with the wrong
ness of the ladies’ attitude.
longingly across
the seas for two u,w*“
or three years, but Congress Is
beginning to move. The wall of
honest doubt and ingrown preju
dice Is slowly giving way before the
persistent efforts of various organ
izations who want to see this decent
and intelligent thing done.
From the House Judiciary Com
mittee. after months of considera
tion, has come a bill that would
permit 200,000 of the displaced per
sons to be received by the United
States during a two-year period.
Representative Fellows, Republican,
of Maine, is the author. It is a
much more generous measure than
that recently approved by the Sen
ate Judiciary Committee. This is
so. not merely because it provides
for the entry of twice as many
persons—which is still only half
' the number proposed by the Presi
dent—but for other reasons. The
Senate bill is mean in spirit, con
taining more than a trace of thinly
hidden anti-Semitism.
Doubtful Points in Bill.
Even so the groups which have
been working for the legislation,
patiently seeking out the necessary
job opportunities for the newcomers
at the same time, are not too
happy over some of the provisions
of the Fellows bill. One is that
which would require a recognized
voluntary agency, engaged in aiding
the entry of the DPs, to post bonds
for every individual thus aided
This is intended to eliminate the
possibility of any immigrant be
coming a public charge. But fur
nishing bonds on this mass scale,
it is feared, would bankrupt any
of the interested agencies. Such
bonds are not required in the case
of immigrants coming in under
present quotas.
Another doubtful provision Is one
requiring tljat the Governor of any
i State prepared to receive a given
I number of the Immigrants must
certify officially that there are that
| many job opportunities in his State.
This, it is feared, some Governors
otherwise ready to welcome the
refugees will be unwilling to do.
Still another disturbing provision
is that whereby the number of aliens
admitted during the two years
would be charged against the regu
lar quotas of their native countries
in future years. Poland's quota, for
example, would thus be mortgaged
for about 33 years; Latvia's for
nearly a century.
Finally, under the language of the
bill, only those displaced persons
now waiting in Austria, Italy and
Germany, would be eligible. The
thousands of hopefuls gathered in
Shanghai are ignored.
DAR Action Stirrrd Protests.
How ready the House may be tc
take up the measure is not known
Speaker Martin has heretofore in
dicated a cautious degree of sym
pathy for the proposal and no hos
tility is known to exist within the
Rules Committee. From the stand
point of the proponents the Ideal
legislative situation would be pre
sented if the bill could be passed by
the House and sent to the Senate
before the deplorable Wiley bill is
McLemore—
Calls Film Star Golfers
Outright Larcenists
By Henry McLemore
Wish I were J. Edgar Hoover for
a day.
If I could be. Alcatraz would have
about 50 new boarders starting to
morrow, and
they all would
be motion pic
ture actors of
my acqu a i n t
ance.
They would
go to the Rock
on the charge of
grand - super
colossal larceny
committed while
on the golf
course. And they
would get an
extra 10 years
for working
their thievery on Henry MrL.-mnre.
innocent visitors to Hollywood.
Handcuffed and wearing leg irons. I
off to Uncle Sam’s rooming house
in San Francisco Bay would go
such characters as Don Ameche,
Adolphe Menjou, John Hodiak, Den
nis Morgan, Johnny Weismuller,
Grant Withers, Randolph Scott, Bob
Hope. Bing Crosby, William Fraw
ley, Phil Harris and many others.
Let me explain.
Handicaps Too High.
Most of the actors out here are
good golfers. Golf is perhaps their
favorite pastime and clubs like!
lakeside and Bel-Air could field
teams which would give any teams
of nonprofessionals a whale of a
battle.
But—and here is where the lar
ceny enters in—they all have higher
handicaps than they deserve. Just
how they manage this I don't know.
It may be that in California every
thing is bigger and grander than
anywhere else, including golf handi
caps. Or it may be that each actor
has a doting aunt or uncle on the
handicap committee.
But whatever the reason to play
an actor is to get a going-over that
a butcher wouldn’t give a leg of
lamb. You not only get trimmed,
and pockets cut in you for dressing,1
but you have to pay for this fright
ful treatment. I have been here less
than a month, but already I am
down to my last Confederate trav
eler's check. One more round of
golf with these latter-day James
and Dalton Boys and I’ll be adver
tising in the Los Angeles Times for
some one going East on a pogoi^tick
who wants a passenger to ride the
jump seat and share expenses.
Cooking His Own Meals.
I had planned to have a gay time
out here—dance at Ciro's and Mo
cambo, eat at Chasen's and Roman
off’s. But thanks to these thieving
golfing actors I am cooking my own
meals, doing my own laundry, and
passing highly questionable checks.
Don Ameche was the last one who
robbed me. Don said he was a 13
handicap player. Hiat happens to
be my own handicap, so we played
even. He was out in one over par.
' Best game I ever played.” he said,
putting my wallet into his pocket.
Only my liking for his wife. Honey,
kept me from causing him to appear
in his next picture with a putter
sticking out from the top of his
head.
Adolphe Menjou is even more
merciless. If “Dolf” appears over
weight in his next show it will be
due to the iteaks, chops and caviar
I have bought him by meeting him
at golf. He said his handicap was
16, so I gave him a few strokes. He
owned me body and soul before we
had reached the eighth tee. Byron
Nelson and Jimmy Demaret com
bined. using illegal clubs, couldn't
beat "Dolf” with a 16 handicap. Ha
also has the advantage of his
clothes. Dressed for golf, he locks
very much like a neon-lighted pea
cock. And his opponents become so
blinded by the brightness of his
array that they can scarcely see the
ball.
Grant Withers lives in a home
which it is said was bpught solely
on his golf winnings from the trust
ful. In the game room are the
mounted heads of half a dosen of
his victims. He is now sawing out
a plaque for me and has mads a
date for me with his taxidermist.
William Prawley has a kinder ap
proach. After the victim has been
trapped, Bill shows him his (Bill’s)
last 10 scores and suggests that he
be paid off in the locker room and
save the trouble of walking 18 holes.
Who said crime doesn't pay?
(Distributed by McNautht Syndicate. Iaa.)
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