Capital Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Marcantonio Threatens full Employment, FEPC WASHINGTON, D. C—Supporters of progressive legislation on Capitol Hill have run head-on into the new Communist ¦paity...
...29 this column reported that the Landlords' Lobby in Washington hail put up $500,000 for a phony "research" organization calling itself the National Real Kslale Foundation...
...Sometimes he fed them i.t the soil in solution...
...General Motors has stated that the question of wages, prices and profits 13 not the public's business...
...Howard knew this literature...
...It mu.-1 be settled on the basis of sound economic facts...
...They said they tand it easier to combat the relatively **sest opposition of reactionaries and NWs than to cope with Ihe hypocrisy of Marcantonio's new slogan...
...The old Model-T distribution system just couldn't kfep up with the Cadillac production machine...
...Howard has discovered, finally, that balanced fertilisation means i*ss fertilisation...
...Think of it—30 percent increase in wages to workers—no increase in prices to consumers—and the high 1940 profits to industry...
...1940 was considered a high profit year...
...Feeling protected against Alcoa competition, inasmuch as Alcoa has been declared by a court decision to be a monopoly...
...A realistic and equitable solution to the problem of wages, prices and profits is an economic MUST if we are to win the peace...
...t. If we teer« at smart at rati, wouldn't we $tmrt yelling for nutritional grading of eitrui and of ker fr*»k rnnd ?? ace.tied food*'/ 8. it it possible fkai nth,, farmer* beiidu the Florida eitrui yiowtn ait hemp told too muck badly balanced fertilizer, lacking in c***ntial traf element* —and even hy their own co-opt at thatt Waqes, Prices...
...New multiple spindle drills perform 14 lapping operations simultaneously, superceding a single radial drill operation...
...Sometimes hr mixed them with the commercial fertiliser...
...Even the seedt are better...
...Judge Vinson, now Secretary of the Treasury, recenlly said: "The American people are In the pleasant predicament of having to learn to live 50 percent heller than they ever lived before...
...As reported at the time, "the promoters of the outfit themselves described it as a "nationwide move against public housing and to safeguard real estate interests...
...This week there are further developments to report: The District of Columbia Banken Association held their annual fall meeting at the Mayflower Hotel this week...
...Management must learn that human engineering is as important as production engineering...
...ftrther assistance in breaking the monopoly *¦» K'v«n by Congress in stipulating in the """Plus Property Act that the disposal of gov-'""aent-owned or operated war plants to Wages, Prices, and Profits Should Industry Grant Labor's Demands...
...Bui, apparently, not great enough...
...Here are two examples taken from (i.M's report to its stockholders: "AJ, Buirk, a newly designed electric welding machine makes it possible to speed up welding of Diesel engine crankshaft balancers from 8 to Sti per hour...
...In August, 1940, when we proposed the conversion of the auto industry to wsr production, these gentlemen who now say you can't raise wages without increasing prices »aid we could not convert the auto industry to wsr production...
...We are fighting to restore the purchasing power of workers whose lake home pay has already been cut 30 percent or more...
...There is no sign as yet that anybody Is even considering having the (Joveru-ment stay in the aluminum-production field to keep the greedy corporations in line...
...than in the patt three yean under rent control...
...Our in percent demand is not a wage demand in the ordinary sense...
...If we got into trouble in 1929 because the old Model-T couldn't keep Up with the Cadillac, it is just ABC economics to know that we are beading for mora serious trouble unless we develop a B-20 distribution system to keep up with our B-29 production machine...
...The farts prove (hat General Motors can pay us 30 percent higher wages without increasing prices one cent...
...The best wsy it could encourage new investment in building would be to do away with rent control at the earliest possible moment...
...Reynolds mm4 Columbia A LONG anti-monopoly campaign against the Mellon-owned Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) provided the opportunity dui-¦Of the war for entrance into the aluminum r**by two competitors, Reynolds Metals Com-***Mnd Columbia Metals Company...
...Krom 1936 to 1941 General Motors earned (after faxes) a total return of 124 percent on the «lockholders' investment...
...In 1929 we got into trouble because we had a 12-cylinder Cadillac production economy, with a Model-T distribution system...
...but profits jumped HI percent...
...As it happens, Florida is a paradise for the soil scientist...
...1. What would happen to th* eifru* market if ALL th* growers «?·** Howard'* method...
...The effect of this announcement has been I o consolidate the opposition to each of the two hills into a greater combined opposition...
...Nelson announced that seversl trustees of the Foundation will meet in Washington this week to formulate further plans for action by the Foundation, which now has 3,000 trustees throughout the country...
...They, too, needed those trace minerals...
...a runaway Federal budget, and the tremendous expansion of public housing into a political weapon through a $4,000,000,000 program...
...To get increased wages out of higher prices is robbing Peler to pay Paul...
...TwKNTY YEARS ag-t a young British g.-nlogist was studying aerial photos of the South African veldt, looking for evidence of mineral deposits...
...But we did convert the auto industry to war production because we had a war to win...
...Howard twitched the location of the suprrior seed, but couldn't fool the rats...
...Now we ran raise wages without increasing prices because we have the peace to win...
...Wages' that are fixed arbitrarily, either by management or by labor, will not work...
...li' is understandable that the public is alarmed at reports of growing labor unrest...
...P. S.: OPA'reporti that landlord* hare never made greater profit...
...Now we have a B-29 production machine, backed up by all the potential power of atomic research...
...These conferences would need to develop a new concept of wages nuited to the age in which we live...
...At least twelve mineral elements are known to be required in animal and human nutrition and all of them have to come from the soil...
...People simply didn't have the money to buy what they needed...
...Rent control is one of three major dangers faring the real estate and banking business...
...In the last year of auto production— 1941— General Motors made a profit of $510,000,000 before Taxes...
...Production is not our problem...
...Conservative business journals are already predicting the highest profils m history for 1948...
...N'*w, here is the pay...
...Representatives of the A FL, CIO, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and allied organizations have been ttwwn (pjo feverish activity here by Marran-¦eio's announcement in an effort to head off the new sabotage move...
...emphatic statement ke has come ?» understand only a fraction of the rusiplri relationships of aoil minerala, climate, and culture that determine success »i failure in citrus growing...
...can shake a test tube at...
...If we had taken only the increase in profits from 1940 to 1943 and had given it to the workers in the form of a wage increase, every U. S. industrial workei-could have had a 30 percent wage increase without increasing price...
...in a period of seven years...
...In 1981 Frank Howard ¦ came to Florida to recover from a bush fever...
...We must fight Geologist Into Food Scientist By JAMES RORTY and PHILIP NORMAN...
...Jti Sept...
...In 1918 we won the war on the battlefield abroad, but we lost the peace on the economic froiri at home...
...The revelation eann- with the disclosure that Vito Marcantonio, lone Congressional representative of the Com-Bunist-controlled American Labor Party of New York, has joined forces with the reactionary anti-labor group here which is bitterly fighting against the Full Employment Bill, and with the native purveyors of Nazi race theories who are as bitterly fighting the Permanent Fair Kmployment Practices Committee Bill...
...Millions of workers went hungry while farmers lost their farms...
...It can happen again unless we demonstrate the same courage and unity of purpose in peace as in war...
...Our Aediting men must not again come home to' sell spples on onr street corners...
...For the past decade a revolutionary synthesis of these sciences has been in the making...
...We want to buy the things all the rest of you make, and we want you to buy the cars we make...
...Working conferences of labor and management should be called immediately in every baaie industry to discuss a realistic wage program, industry-wide wage agreemeata baaed upon equal pay for equal work, and a guaranteed annual wage...
...The result of this strategy has lieen to bring each of these bills close to passage...
...In effect, he was prospecting for copper from the air...
...Name < ailing will not solve our problem...
...This promises to be the most elaborate landlords' lobby that Washington has ever seen, and will deserve the most watchful attention...
...Willi the reactionaries and bigots pretty rmuch Ttfratreat all along the line...
...All would have gone well, perhaps, except that Reynolda and Columbia Metals became greedy...
...When both parties put all their cards on the table, the public can judge who is acting in the public interest...
...Rats dove to the bottom of the bin to select and eat the seedt of th* superior fruit grown with balanced »oll supplement...
...His place must now be filled by putting purchasing power in the pockets of farmers, workers, white-collar and professional groups...
...that they produce not only more, but better fruit...
...It cannot be settled by full-page propaganda ads by C.eneral Motors and other corporations...
...We didn't have overproduction...
...He knew what every competent food scientist knows by this time: that health goes back to the soil through an unbroken linkage of soil, plant, animal and human nutrition, that if you break this chain at any point, both the soil and the life it supports start sliding down hill...
...While liberal and labor groups are supporting both bill, the light for each bill has been separately maintained...
...a 73-acre grove grossed $1*4,000 Howard has proved properly nourished tiers art more resistant to frost...
...General Motors has stated publicly that they expect their volume of production to increase 50 precent over 1941...
...If private industry is to survive, it must provide that purchasing power through higher wages...
...The featured speaker was Herbert U. Nelson, executive vice-president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, who called for banking support of the "newly formed National Real Kstate Foundation to mobilize public opinion for defense of the private ownership of property...
...The tremendous profit made during the war prove* (shat wages' can be raised without increasing prices when maximum production is maintained...
...The presence or absence of certain minerals in a given soil is reflected by the species, the density, and the color ol the vegetation that soil supports...
...Here i* an example of what Increased production did for Oners I Meters between 193» and 1941: Wages went up 37 percent...
...produced only 2,500.000 "et, and yet for every dollar they paid h> wages they made $1.02 in profits...
...The key In these great profils Is a high volume of production...
...Hy hie...
...Howard started working with all twelve, including trace elementa like manganese, sine, and boron as well as the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that make up the standard fertiliser formula...
...These examples, multiplied a thousandfold, give you an idea of the march of the machine...
...It can be done...
...There are many Congressmen who are opposed to one bill, but Hot the other...
...same tradition, the Automobile Workers Union has proposed to the (Jeneral Motors Corporation that our wage demand for a 30 percent increase be discussed in public negotiations...
...Marcantonio came to their rescue this week in a manner which threatens to kill both bills...
...Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Marcantonio Threatens full Employment, FEPC WASHINGTON, D. C—Supporters of progressive legislation on Capitol Hill have run head-on into the new Communist ¦paity line," and into the discovery that it is ant ? labor and anti-progressive...
...the state is one big soil laboratory, exhibiting more varied and complicated soil deficiencies than you...
...But the answer to labor-management relations cannot be found in screaming headlines or hysterical editorials...
...These wages enable millions to buy and use the products of our farms and factories, our service industries and our profession...
...Another important factor enabling industry to raise wages is the tremendous increase in labor productivity resulting from improved technology...
...n 1941...
...Our light for greater purchasing power requires that prices must not be increased...
...What you do is to eliminate your negatives from the air, and then explore your positives intensively, on foot, with a pick and shovel...
...Our trouble is consumption...
...Profits fpr an economy o( full employment, full production and full contumptivn...
...We shall continue to urge the corporation to agree to public negotiations...
...The Florida climate cured Howard's hush fever...
...The challenge this country faces in peace is— how can we pnt purchasing power in the hands of the people so they ran consume in abundance the things we know how to produce...
...In tin...
...It want...
...Howard now has about a thousand acres of ritraa groves which are being fertilised ander his direction...
...Hit clients use about iorty percent lets fertiliser than the average citrus grower who buys, or is sold, as much of the standard mixtures as th* salesman thinks he is able to pay for...
...A ten acre grove ander Howard'* management groaaed $22,000 last year...
...Thousands of scientific reports, many of them highly disturbing to the status quo of both agriculture and the food processing industry, have long been bulging the technical journals...
...These conferences would afford labor and industry an opportunity to share in the responsibility of achieving maximum production and employment in their respective industries...
...the Full Kmployment III...
...In keeping the opposition separated, both bills stood higher chances «f passage...
...He has learned enough, however, to double, triple and even quadruple the production of the groves in his rare...
...This problem,,must be solved by removing the basic rau-es of the unrest...
...Supporters of (he two bilk were unanimous in describing Marcantonio's an-¦wmreaient as the worst blow either bill has received to date...
...By Walter P. Reuter Vice President, Automobile Workers uion THE basic issue before us is one which I transcends the interests of labor and man-agemenf...
...We know that this larger purchasing power we are talking about must represent a larger volume of goods and services...
...It, affects the welfare of Americans in every walk of life...
...Meanwhile he became engrossed in the plus and minus factors of the Florida soils...
...The three main threats, he said, were rent control as a permanent gag on building...
...Wages must flow from our true productive potential and must reflect our ever-increasing ability to create wealth...
...Keynolda and Columbia are demanding "guarantee*" from the Government which amount to subsidies before they will consent to enter a bid for the properties or diacuas lesses...
...We want wages that buy things...
...Why?—because production increased 21 percnt...
...to do the asm* in peace...
...Nelson won the applause, and the hearts, of the assembled bankers when he told them: , "Kent control, If made permanent, might be the first step toward practical extinction of the construction industry...
...Here are a few of the facts: The total profits of U. S. corporation* in 1944 were $25,000,000,000, or five and one-half times their average prewar profits...
...Raising the new slogan of "Nothing less than Full and Fair Employment," Marcantonio publicly announced that he would not accept full ¦enmloyment alone, nor fair employment, alone, and tnat?-tfVN:efpre, he would move to add I he ifiPC Bill as a "rider" or...
...American labor won the battle for pro-dud ion in war...
...In the case of the government's widely-aeaitered aluminum plants, that was taken by W. Stuart Symington, Surplus Property Administrator, to mean thai Alcoa may not get any of these plants...
...Out of these three findings there arise, as naturally at the chicken from the egg, three rtther uncomfortable ques...
...We believe that it is...
...Sometimes he fed them to the leaves of the growing citrus trees in the form of s spray...
...We aren't kidding ourselves...
...1943 was even better...
...Capital Comment private ownership must be done in such a manner as to foster competition...
...21 Percent increase in production enabled General Motors to increase wages ¦•ere than twice as much as price* ¦M still make »4 percent greater Profits...
...prices up only 16 Percent...
...Bruce Balrd, president of the National Savings* and Trust Co., who as president of the District of Columbia Bankers Association presided at the meeting, Is one of the trustees, Nelson explained...
...During (be war Uncle Sam, the$90,000,000.000 customer, kept (he wheels of industry going...
...1941 profits were high enough to have 9'v*n every GM worker a 30 percent w*ge increase without raising the price ·' 'art one cent, and still the corpora-ll»a would have made $235,000,000 in >rnfitt, because of that 21 percent In-tr«eas in volume...
...The Government should encourage building," he declared...
...As a result, Symington went to Congress this week snd put the question squarely before Cspitol Hill: Does Congress wish to grant subsidies to new aluminum processors...
...The tremendoua economies and reduced unit cost of production which will flow from this 50 percent increase in volume will enable GM to grant our 30 percent wage demand, maintain 1942 prices, and still make a very substantial profit...
...Til ? question of higher wages is a question of fact...
...Greater volume is •he answer to our problem of raising wages without increasing prices...
...I am certain that millions of farmers and small business men would be pleased to realize a return of 124 percent on their invest-mnt...
...Unfortunately, the corporation has refused such public negotiations...
...Thus South Africa loet a promising geologist and America gained an assiduous investigator in the closely related fields of soil chemistry, plant pathology, horticulture and nuli i tion...
Vol. 28 • October 1945 • No. 42
