New Secret OPA Study Reveals Vast Food Profiteering
STOUT, JONATHAN
New Secret OPA Study Reveals Vast Food Profiteering Agency Survey Belies Browns Statement on Real Wage Rise By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—Corroboration of the recent series in The New Leader...
...August 9—Father Haas axumamces that Capitol Transit be* made a new prop teal, the FEPC regards the case as still in uegotiation and there is no question before it of a public hearing...
...Malcolm Ross, fellow traveler who left .the NLRB when the Browdar boys were cleaned out of that agency and who is now Deputy Chairman of the FECP: Milton Starr, southern owner of a chain of movie houses which makes money by snowing secondrate pictures in fourth-rate theatres for Negroes, and who was ousted as Sl-a-year adviaer oa Negro affairs ia OWI on the protest of the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Negro press...
...OPA I I w i l t s adnutted that when eon Mdered oa the basis of hourly earnings, "it appears that the real bssnc wage rate has HepThes e B v e V U d e c t y ^ ^ the war...
...Modigliani, who as head of the Italian Socialist party, fled ta Southern France, has (since the Nazi occupation) also been Hving in Switzerland...
...Lussu is a former member of the Italian Parliament, and the Action Party was born with his political group in Sardinia in 1925...
...Spokesmen of the Italian-American Labor Council warned that "any repressive measure against Silone and Modigliani on the part of the Swiss government, or the Badoglio government, would be considered an injustice and a challenge to onr organization and to American democracy...
...June 1—Father Haas announced postpone-ment of Capital Transit hearing until the new committee can consider the matter...
...Instep I sf incnsimg U3...
...Davis' statement was contained in a WLB opinion formally denying a general wage increase to 1,000,000 shipyard workers...
...r. "The test will come in the straggle between this new generation" of liberal socialists and the conservative groups now finding refnge under the Badoglio government, to determine which shall control the destiny of Italy...
...s-s-^m Official tallies will not be available at*, » Board of El.-oiM.ns check b^po.W aad the regular organization had swept seven out of the eight districts hi Bronx County...
...The OPA study states: "Wholesale food grocers realised twice as much on every dollar of sales fat 1942 as in 1939...
...It was the first time such an agreement had been reached under government auspices and established a jim-crow principle which now ethoes in Chicago...
...The "White Cabinet on Black Affairs" is made up of Rotaem...
...January 5—The company is reported working °» • plan...
...Bread and Wine, and The Seed Beneath the ^Snow, all ma/or contributions to the spirit of democratic socialism...
...True, one important action which Bajr have disastrous consequences has been overlooked...
...Strong pressure for this stood came from the West Coast AFL which three weans age adopted resolutions calling on the Governmew-to bar the return of Japanese Americana to the West Coast The AFL action is a hard blow to attempts at unity in the Orient and will have a tremmf-doua kickback in Japanese propaganda...
...On smother, he confuted to one of his court: "Be careful of what yen sues to me because I must tell eeui umme to M »**»!*¦¦ " With the onset of the Hitler kenssmOOS t§* Royal family had to learn Gorman to carry on their Arm daises...
...On -July 24 Grandi tabled a motion of noncenfidenc* in Mussolini...
...15, 1942, level shew that after deductions are made for living cost rises, the weekly wages of workers employed la manufacturing establishments increased 28.9* between Jan...
...Bigart reported "the amazing reeeptive-ness of the Sicilian population...
...Three out of every 10 food wholesalers reported profits over 300% higher than hi 1939...
...In the Alabama case the FEPC put its stamp of approval on an agreement under which four ¦ays were set aside for Negroes for bare hull construction of ships which involves certain preliminary construction.' The work is then tarned over' to white workers to complete...
...The facts in the OPA study show that: One out of every 10 of the big wholesalers in food reported profits up to 600% over 1939...
...Involved are about 79 different skills...
...This information was in the possession of OPA Administrator Brown when he hit back last week at labor's demands for his removal by quietly inspiring a widespread press story that "real" wages have showed an increase of 28.9% between 1941 and 1943...
...s May 17—Hearing fa-postponed to June 2 rpi*y 28—A Bew committee »¦ appointed to rEPC, headed by Father Haas...
...The FEPC, directly responsible to the President, is empowered to investigate com-plaints of discrimination, conduct hearings and take any appropriate steps to obtain elimination Of such discrimination...
...better in fact than any A. F. of L person, for the A. F. of L has been mare-Independent and vocal in its opposition to disastrous War Labor Board practices...
...With food taking somewhere around half of the worker's wages every week, these figures lay the most serious indict meat of war profiteering at the door of the chiseling food middlemen who beat down the farmers at sae cad and rob the consumer workers at the ether end...
...In that paragraph the OPA tails the real story ef what, has happened to wages and the cost of living...
...Two c^jof^ every W .of, the smaller food whdeaaferi reported 'ptm9m*4mt~?«>.mM% over 1939...
...has an international reputation for his lifetime's work.h>.l{|MLmL>ae working-class movement...
...Credit for the fell of Mussolini is not given to Allied ebfdiers—or Italian anti-fascists—but to the . . . King...
...At one time the Japanese ambassador at Rome moaned to a number of U. S. correspondents that the Queen would speak to him only in German—not a word of which ho vasdorstoodf The King's 21-year-old alliance, historian Davis observes, "has tavaea a large section jof Italy against the monarchy...
...AFL Council Rebuffs Lewis on Re-entry Special to The New Leader CHICAGO, 111.—The 12-man A. F. of L. Executive Council meeting here this week passed oa to the October convention of the Federation the question of the readmission of John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers into the A. F. of L. Whether Lewis wiH*still maintain his application is not known...
...4. *«* Sun shipyards are owned by J. G. Pew, Repubi a: stalwart of Pennsylvania and head of the Sun Oil Company...
...In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I. "he went through a severe personal breakdowa, and for ami months physicians and psychiatrists labored VaatorS his equilibrium...
...leading left-wing figure in Italy, and tneanthor ef Fon-tamara...
...And seven out of every ten food middlemen reported profits, over 200% higher than in 1939...
...But we got coffee and sugar instead of light...
...The move was to oust II Dace and put Grandi in his place as Fascist Prime Minister...
...Davis avoids the use of the famous OWI phrase, but remarks that Victor was "a weak child," and never developed "a decisive mentality...
...Four out of every seven food wholesalers reported profits over 200% higher than in 1939...
...The idea was first advanced at this July 7th meeting that the race riot situation be met by declaring certain industrial areas as military tones under the Act of March 1, 1942, under which authority the Army was able in summary fashion to mote American citizens of Japanese ancestry out of Pacic Coast areas under martial law...
...action...
...The echo of that idea came jutt a month later from the Attorney General's.office...
...Already there are storings underground...
...Rote: The underscoring is that of The Em-skyers Association of Chicago.] The FEPC (Fair Employment Practices Committee), established to carry out Exec-stive Order 8802, is responsible for establishing s jim-crow precedent for separating Negro and white workers...
...column) exposed and betrayed two of the world's leading democrats and idealists...
...In his book, We Cannot Escape History, John T. Whitaker reported that "the Royal Family is as bankrupt politically as Mussolini...
...He has been vigorously attacking the "ideologues who want to fight the war as 'an anti-Fascist war' "—and also those other ideologues who, he charges, mask their general conservatism with the theory of 'military expediency.' The recent Lippmann columns have been surprisingly energetic and outspoken (if a little confused...
...On left and right sides of many newspaper feature pages throughout the country...
...The prevalent corridor gossip ascribed the vote to "White House pressure...
...WALP State Office Wilis Primaries The regular American Labor Party stoat m gissmMsm this week defeated, at• tempts ef the Com munist "left-wing* to capture the party in the primary elections . held jsm Tuesday...
...1, 1*41...
...The OPA War Profits Study was made in two sections—one of 94 of the largest food wholesalers in the United States, and the other of 160 large and small food wholesalers...
...Fan nor Bontecou...
...Although the public announcement stated that the vote was unanimous, it is understood that the actual vote was 10 to 2, with burly William H. Hutcheson, Carpenters' czar, and Harry Bates, Bricklayers' chieftain, holding eat for 'Lewis...
...The 28.9% cited in The Times story was for total weakly earnings...
...real wages o f worsjr* to manufacturing iilahMsfcmiste.sssraaaad only l g g * . la short, wage increaaes did not even reach the IS par cent permitted under the "Little Steel" formula...
...Looting has stopped...
...Sabotage and sniping are nil...
...The first detailed account of the activities of Amgot (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories) was cabled this week to the New York Herald Tnbune by its correspondent Homer Bigart in Palermo, Sicily...
...In 1»22, of couaae, ft was he who "summoned" Mussolini to power...
...And so the picture unfolds with a Republican jim-crow notion established at Chester, Pi., spreading to Mobile, As., and now moving' on to Chicago—under the imprimature of the FEPC, which was to have established I new era in race relations, proving to Negroes that there is a democracy to fight far...
...This was at the last historic session of the Fascist Grand Council...
...A curious propaganda campaign is serving u> rehabilitate the Italian monarchy in international circles...
...The Lewis question has occupied most ef the press in its handling of the AFL council story...
...According to employees in the office of OPA Economic Adviser Richard V. Gilbert, "these studies are not public documents"—(that is, they are net intended for public distribution)—"they are intended only for the use of OPA officials...
...Sales were up 43%, but profits before income taxes roe* over 2*0...
...The Sicilians will pay taxes at the same rates as before...
...the Communists (in Its Foreign Dept...
...It also revealed names of the personnel of the Office of Strategic Service, a confidential U. S. military agency—all in order to expose "a bankrupt crowd that has been causing trouble...
...or "some other member of the House of Savoy and.another gerieral «r official...
...e • • Attorney General Biddle's recommendation that the race riot solution lies in barring Negoes from farther migration to war production centers seems of a piece with the above...
...Lewis's refuspl to disclose any information regarding District 60 and his plsns for its future also antagonized a number ef AFL leaders who regard the catch-all set-op as a had harbinger of future jurisdictional conflicts...
...The OPA report points tip the hollow mockery of the cynical report this week by War Labor Board Chairman William H. Davis that the Administration's economic stabilization program has been remarkably successful, with the single exception of the cost of food...
...and March 1 of this year...
...He is not only still at liberty, but is reported to have il ready had two ioog interviews with King Victor Emanuel...
...It m the intention or Amgot to make Sicily pay for her own salvation...
...Dorothy Thompson has Men insisting on the spiritual, or political, front of the war: "The first Fascist government hi history has abdicated...
...The anti-fascist community here was scandalized by the Daily Worker story...
...The Capital Transit e**ei as readers of The New Leader will re-¦tomber from several reports in this space, has "ragged from last December until now without •olution...
...They also charged the Daily Worker and the Communist Party with "giving comfort to the enemy," aad emphasised the continuing dangers of Communist totalitarianism to liberty-loving people...
...It is run by a Negro, K Emmett J. Scott, former secretary of aiward University and a Republican wheel-korse among the Negroes, who Is the personnel •trtctor of the jim-crow yard, Sun's No...
...A further record of FEPC backdown is evident in the case ol tne Capital Ttansit Company here in Washington, which refuses to give Negroes jobs as mo-tormen and bus drivers, despite a bad shortage of such help and a bad transportation problem here...
...The chief White House "contact" in the A. F. of L is Dan Tobin, and Tobin's replacement of Hutcheson as a member of the AFL-Lewis negotiating committee was a tip-off to the Executive Council...
...Organized labor had asked the President for Brown's removal because of his failure to do his Job of keeping the cost of living from rising any farther and his failure to roll back prices to the level of September 16, 1942, as required by the President's executive order...
...July 16—FEPC ia supposed to set date for Capitol Transit hearing, but all that's heard is silence...
...Lipp-mann has been calling for an agreement wfth the...
...met in the office of Victor Rotnera, chief of*the Justice Department's civil liberties division, to consider the race riot prqhlam...
...It appears," wrote Seville R. Davis (well-known authority on Italian affairs) this week, "that the long, gallant light of the Giastisia e Liberia, the liberal anti-Fascist organisation founded by Ernesto Rossi and Riccardo Bauer and carried on in exile by Gaetano Salvemfaii, Carle Boseelli...
...FEPC—R.I.P...
...He is under police orders to abstain from political activities...
...Since that time he has moved fearlessly in and out of Italy, operating from underground stations in France and Central Europe...
...With II Due* and Count Ciano, Grandi holds the Order of Annunziata, the highest Italian decoration...
...The Danger tolgnazio Silone and Itatiah Socialist* 'Worker1 Betrays Anti-Sascists J as m The Dally Worker and the Communist Party which controls it were this week responsible for one of the most shameful acts of espionage and provocation of the war...
...Known mainly as a "popular" Foreign Minister, and a "popular" Ambassador to Britain, little is known of Grandi's war-mongering record— for it was his influence thai pushed Mussolini decisively into his first aggressive wars...
...All reports indicate that, even with the discount of Berne rumors and exaggerations, Lussu's Action Party, with its special so-called "Justice and Liberty" wing, are developing into a political movement of mass proportions in .the face of the Badoglio repression...
...And Saville R. Davis, for many years In Rome for the Christian Science Monitor, suggests that King Victor Emanuel III, servant of Fascism for 21 years, is quite irwapabte of any independent action...
...For some mysterious reason he haa not shared the fate of other prominent - Fascist leaders placed under arrest...
...The Church and the great mam of Sicilians are adopting an affirmatively friendly attitude toward the occupying forces...
...April 18—The FEPC schedules a hearing for *»y is...
...The facts and figures in this OPA (tody - •re not only a blistering indictment of the • criminal war profiteers who have subordinated the war effort to war profits, but are an equal indictment of the culpability of OPA Administrator Prentisa Brown who has permitted them to ret away with it...
...Indeed, the full figures for both manufaeturing and non-manufacturing industries fog the same period show that instead of the wing any increase at all the real wages of workers show an average DSGREASE of one per cent since January 1, 1941...
...Summing up its report, the OPA study states: "la the past fear years, the wholesale grocery s—Intel has seen transformed from a margins...
...The increase, sought by both AFL and CIO unions, were denied on the ground that the shipyard workers had received more than the 16 per cent raises provided for in the "Little Steel" formula...
...Inquiry by The New Leader tote ibis OPA "data" disclosed the full figures en whack the hasaired story at The Times was baaed...
...Lewis's emnity and bitterness against Phil Mar-ray is well-known, and observers feel that the most immeduie motivation m Lewis's bid to return to the A. F. of L. was a wish to gain a springboard tor use against the CIO chief...
...But what'e even mora interesting is what lies behind the Biddle recommendations...
...Dorothy Thompson and Walter Ltppmann have been hitting contradictory 'left* and Tight' notes :n their comments on the Italian situation...
...The answer to what has become of the President's Executive Order is contained in a note to the August 4th issue of the house organ of Thi Employers Association of Chicago, remind. "Segregation of Negro workers from' white uudjsyees is not necessarily a violation of the MM as" the FE PC recently approved suck • jrfsKeM of a racial controversy at the yards ef Ik-Alabama Drydcck and Shipping Co., Mobile, Ala...
...The Allied forces, he added, are working overtime to dispel "pie-in-the-sky" illusions, "tolling the public by press and radio to expect ae Santo Clans...
...The 1*4* * i s* ******* hourly earnings...
...Emilio , Lussu...
...Silone wee...
...As to the unemployment problem, new jobs will perforce be created, but "for the rest there wiU be the usual dole...
...This is what we Have been waiting for...
...Chester has a segregated nrd for Negro workers...
...One waits rn breathless anticipation for a voice...
...tJP1* in-again-out-again Finnegan record of Jm FEPC on the Capital Transit case shows Ottonologically that: » December 4, 1942—Capitol Transit is ordered " Mre Negroes and report to FEPC on January *i 1943...
...On one occasion ike Kxng said: "I p~ with Mussolini because whether h* is right or not, he is tacky...
...Using its usual epithets of "Trotskyite-Soeial Democrat cliquism...
...dean of women at Brya Ma wr who is doing research in the Attorney General's office, and William Leland of the War Department...
...Under Amgot's nde, there is a complete ban on political activity of amy kind, but a people so volatile as the Sicilians cannot be expected to live for long- xn a political vacuum...
...The Alabama jim-crow set-up was patterned on that established in the Sun Shipbuilding yards at Chester, Pa...
...The only green* wjttoh rontiac to support it actively ia Italy today are those conservative group* which hare found refuge against the Left for two long decades to Fascism...
...Capital Comment FEPC Bogs Down, BAcks Segregation By JONATHAN STOUT Washington, d. a—What started out mwely a? a new era in race relations, based so the President's Executive Order 8«02 barring discrimination against Negroes in war industry aupfciyiuent, has been watered down to a shameful—and what's worse, a stupid—travesty of wast it might have been...
...King and Badoglio...
...The latest development in this case here gives ~* Capital Transit Company practically an •Melinite postponement of the hearings that had "«n scheduled...
...This is the action of the Executive Council opposing the repeal of the Chinese Frfraaion Act...
...The Executive Council move now blocks that action...
...The larger companies showed the greater increase in sales, hot the smaller concerns reported the greater increase in profits...
...July 2—FEPC announced it haa new proposal from Capital Transit uadex consideration and unless it ia promptly put into effect the FEPC will proceed-against Capital Transit "within a couple of weeks...
...la its issues of August 11, the Daily Worker publicly charged world-famous novelist Ignaaio Silone and veteran socialist Giusseppe Modigliani—both of whom are in refuge in Switzerland by special political asylum—with international underground activities...
...Notes on Italy's Crisis— People And Politics Behind the Lines By MELVIN LASKY From Europe's underground railroad has come Italy's first active national anti-fascist leader— Emilio Lussu—to organise the free forces of , liberation...
...Based en an annual inventory torn-over ef about tea times, wholesale food grocers are currently earning an average of 25% to M% m the capital invested in inventories at any time daring the year...
...Modigliani [he was a member of the executive ceeamtttoeef the Labor said Socialist International...
...In the majority against Lewis were Daniel Tobin, Matthew Woll and George M Harrison, who comprised the A. F. of L. sab-committee that met with Lewis...
...Murray, en the other hand, has stood in wdl worn the White House...
...The average return on miss in 1942 was mere than doable that of 1939 While the profit margin ef 1.1% in 1942 may seem small compered to that realised by most manufacturing enterprises, the rapid turnover of inventories among feed wholesalers compensates for this superficially lew return...
...Oa 'July 7 the self-appointed "White Cabinet on Black Affairs...
...M% ef the ALP vote is concentrated in Bronx aad Brooklyn...
...Grandi has not calculated, apparently, that with Mussolini would go the entire Party...
...industry to one of considerable profit...
...These figure*, aa supplied by OB A Economic Advteer Gilbert shew that...
...If the issue' is not decided on the streets of Italian cities and towns today— as it probably will not be since the time is not ripe—it will very likely be decided in the same wdy and place at seme future dsy, when the showdown between right-wing and left-wing philosophies comes...
...has been several times victim of provocation and espionage by Communists who have charged aim with political activity in order to create trouble for him...
...and others, is bearing fruit in a new generation of liberals within Italy, mere to the left in their economic and political ideas, but nevertheless successors to the older tradition...
...Last year he was arrested and kepfc in prison for some time en account of a radio broadcast from Moscow denonncing his alleged political activities, the Italian-American Labor Council here revealed...
...He had applied to the Executive Council and had enclosed a Bases' covering a year's per capita dues In Order to gain a voice and voting at the convention...
...Most significant was the item on politic* in Sicily...
...had lost, as expected, in Manhattan, hut had gained three districts to the fight, and had carried Brooklyn...
...The profits figures for both tallied very closely...
...The puzzle of Italian politics is the fate of Dano Grandi...
...The catch in the illffsfjiMt between weekly and hourly earnings is explained by OPA economists, who say that the figure for weekly earnings actually shows increases ta employment, increases from part-time wapy to full-time work, overtime pay, bonus payment* aad promotion of workers to higher-paid job...
...New Secret OPA Study Reveals Vast Food Profiteering Agency Survey Belies Browns Statement on Real Wage Rise By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—Corroboration of the recent series in The New Leader pointing to the war profiteering of the middlemen in the food industry as justification of labor's demands for increased wages was forthcoming this week from the Office of Price Administration when your correspondent was able to obtain a copy of Volume Six of the OPA series of "War Profits Studies" showing that the food profiteers have increased their profits as high as 500% or more between 1939 and 1942...
...Ignaxio Silone, one of the most uncompromising of Europe's anti-fascists, has keen living in Switzerland as an exile...
...The inspiration behind the phony story of labor's wage increases was plainly hinted at in the report in the New York Times on August 4. Said The Times story: "Data assembled by the Office of Price Administration as an answer to labor's demand for a rollback of living costs to the Sept...
Vol. 26 • August 1943 • No. 33
