Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR PROGRESS I should like to congratulate you upon the excellent supplement entitled "A Generation of U. S. Progress," which was published with The New Leader of January 23. In my...
...Are the profits made by such farm corporations included in "farm income" or "corporate profits...
...The banks own an enormous slice...
...We all paid for this by paying higher consumer prices...
...We can afford to, and should, honor all the war bonds bought with actual earnings and savings...
...Depending on its understanding of the question, the Chamber of Commerce might reply either that no corporation profits had been made in Smithville, or that $10,000 had been made...
...For example, I already have had occasion to use his figures on farm income, parity prices and similar matters in my discussion of major issues before the Senate...
...San Francisco Park Chamberlain Can it be that Mr...
...Now it happens that, where farming is only feasible on a large scale, the farmers have sometimes organized corporations to handle the work, or part of it...
...They are not fought with next year's foodstuffs or next year's material production...
...I take it that this suggestion will shock your bourgeois souls--which I intend it should...
...With this hank credit, it went into the market to bid against others for goods and services...
...The Government printed war bonds...
...For example, if steel producers were making X dollars of profit per ton in 1929 but only 1/2X dollars per ton in 1955, obviously they are working harder for less compensation...
...Doesn't he know that those bonds represent inflation rather than savings or earnings...
...If Lewis's figures are only of corporations that made profits, then they are even more meaningless...
...All wars must be paid for out of current production...
...However, it is possible that there are more than three times as many corporations in 1955 as there were in 1929...
...They could be paid for currently with a proper taxing of those who have...
...Doesn't he know that the banks' yearly income from war bonds is enough to pay all their operating expenses...
...It took these bonds to the banks and exchanged them for bank credit...
...Next, we must know how much business was done by the corporations existing in 1929 as compared with those existing in 1955, so that we may compare profit per some given unit of business, such as the sales dollar, or some unit of production...
...But those who have do not want to pay such a tax...
...And what a joke it is to say that the national debt is "owed to ourselves...
...And does Alfred Baker Lewis understand the method by which the banks acquired their war bonds...
...Actually, Lewis's figures prove nothing of the kind...
...Let us suppose that the Chamber of Commerce in Smithville, upon being asked if any corporation profits were made in town, found that of Smithville's only two corporations one made $10,000 in profits while the other sustained a loss of $10,000...
...This would reduce the national debt right off by over a hundred billion dollars...
...on the other hand, if they are now making 2X dollars per ton, then they are doing better than in 1929...
...This created the enormous war inflation...
...Los Angeles William Edward Zeuch...
...The national debt is owed to a very small segment of our citizens and corporate institutions...
...In my opinion, Alfred Baker Lewis, the author of this supplement, has done a most excellent and worthwhile job...
...Washington, D. C. Richard L. Neuberger United States Senator In his special section Alfred Baker Lewis presents certain figures showing that "corporation profits" are larger in 1955 than in 1929, and concludes that "These figures destroy the argument that profits have been harmed by the regulation of industry that the New Deal imposed...
...would he cancellation of all war bonds in the hands of banks that had been issued in the above manner...
...I note that he compares "farm income" with "corporate profits...
...Lastly...
...Without such facts as a minimum, we have no way of knowing which period was better for the steel producers...
...I have found it to be objective, impartial, non-partisan and informative...
...The banks got the bonds plus interest on the bonds in exchange for pure creation out of nothing, that is, by pure inflation...
...They are meaningless unless other facts are known, such as the following: First, how many corporations were there in 1929 as compared with 1955...
...They prefer, through the device of war bonds, etc., to put the burden on the future producers and pocket enormous present profits for themselves...
...It is also vital to know if the total figures for "corporation profits" refer merely to all profits of corporations that made profits, or if they show the net balance of all profits less the losses of the corporations that sustained losses...
...The only honest thing at this late date, as I see it...
...It is my hope that this supplement will have as wide a circulation as possible...
...Lewis's figures show that profits after taxes were a little less than three times as much as such profits in 1929...
...Does he not know that it is just a means whereby those who have put the burden of national emergencies on future generations of workers rather than shoulder the costs themselves...
...An informed public is the only kind of public which is' equipped to govern a great democracy...
...Lewis doesn't know the national debt is a class device...
Vol. 39 • March 1956 • No. 10
