HUGE PROFITS MADE

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1935, Page 14

HUGE PROFITS MADE

MUNITION FIRMS’ OWNERSHIP. DISCLOSURES AT INQUIRY. The fabulous profits, ranging up to 800 per cent., made by American .munition, copper, and other firms during the war years were revealed in evidence before the Senate arms inquiry, states the Daily Telegraph. Statistics were introduced showing that forty-seven persons in the United States, most of them well-known manufacturers and industrialists, reported taxable incomes of 1,000,000 dollars (£200,000) or more during the war who had not, previous to 1917, been included in. that class. ♦ The total number of dollar millionaires was 181. Among those mentioned in this category were:— Mr. Henry Ford and Mr. Edsel Ford, his son. Mr. Andrew Mellon, former U.S. Ambassador to Britain.

Mr. Eugene Grace, the steel magnate. The late Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Three members of the Astor family. Two members of the Rockefeller family- , Three members of the du Pont family, who control the big munitions firm. With regard to firms’ profits, amounts of 40 to 80 per cent, were quoted in numerous cases. . , Figures were given, of the Bethlehem Steel, du Pont, United States Steel, and other leading firms. In 1917 the Bethlehem Loading Company’s profits were 350 per cent., and other figures for that year were: Bethlehem Steel 43, Colts Arms .64, Savage Arms 65. Newport News Shipbuilding 60. In the case of meat-pack-ers it was shown that their profits from 1914 to 1917 reached the staggering total of £28,000,000, of which £24,200,000 represented excess over pre-war profits. Earnings on the invested capital of the United States Steel Co. jumped from £9,200,000 in 1914 to £26,200,000 in 1915, £69,600,000 in 1916, £117,000,000 in 1917, and £103,800,000 in 1918. At that time some steel mills complained that the Government prices were too low, but an official investigation showed that all were enjoying their unusual returns. The returns of 21. copper companies showed that profits jumped to 107 per cent, in 1917. The Calument and Hecla Co.’s profits were 800 per cent, in 1917, while the Utah Co., another big copper concern, showed 200 per cent, in 1917. In the flour trade returns based on Federal trade records showed that the average net profits of brokers in 1913 and 1914 were 15 cents per barrel. By 1917 this had increased to 50 cents. Other industries, it is stated, will show correspondingly large war-time profits. Mr. Pierre du Pont protested that the profits mentioned were misleading, as the Government recovered 80 per cent, through the excess profits tax.