Great Swindle, The (1948)

[Music] no no no no no no no no no foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] to a customer that'll be 25 cents but couldn't you I'm sorry a chair and share a light we do have a fine margin at only 24 cents a pound all margins those price controls is that all you've got hamburger first class grade only 27 cents a pound I don't care what it costs I want a good steak at this Opa take off price controls and we'll have plenty I don't see how it'll make the cows breed any faster Tom Gray had his groceries for the weekend but he hadn't found everything he wanted Tom was a puzzled man the war had cold shortages he knew that but after all these months of Peace things ought to be better maybe it was these price controls newspapers blamed the OPA not only one paper or two but practically all of them the radio blames Opa senator of Daniel Democrat said today and I quote the man owned a pound of butter he should get all he can for us the people were confused you're wrong oh you're wrong look it's simple the more you produce the more you buy production goes up prices come down yeah but suppose a matter of fact it doesn't let the prices come down he's got to he's got to my foot all right you wait and see you wait and see Opa is ruining the country Opa is saving account eliminate control keep control no yes no yes no yes no yes no [Music] foreign [Music] if all PA is permanently discontinued the production of goods will Mount rapidly and through free competition prices will quickly adjust themselves to levels that consumers are willing to pay will just plain full my dear boy they know what they are talking about they are The Men Who Run industry or they're just a bunch of shorts listen just listen to this the members of the National Association of Manufacturers have no intention of rocking the inflation boat now or at any other time oh no none at all just take off control that's all why brother they'll skin Us Alive young man you sound just like a red these are the men that know what they're talking about [Music] hey you're next there [Music] I got it where's that brother mine I don't know he should have been here half an hour ago [Music] that's right sis it's time for dinner I'll play it for him later all right no doubt about it those fellows know what they're talking about oh dear Where Have You Been he's been waiting for you oh Pete listen to this members of the National Association of Manufacturers but look here Pete they show you right here you knock off price controls and you increase production and lower prices it makes sense it's fun Tom ously but listen Pete these are the men that can make promises yeah and break them okay Katie let's go home but remember Tom they're just giving it double talk foreign [Music] [Music] there you go Tom streaming again [Music] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] with promises and lies big business won a republican Congress The Truman Administration promptly fell into line together they raced to scrap price controls big business ran America right into an orgy of profiteering thank you [Music] in six months prices jump a third look five dollars for this it costs more every day we need a race we need low prices she's right Pete I'd rather have low prices in a raise me too but what chance have we got of low prices or getting price controls with this Congress none at all well we need to take some Congress all right you said it but that's at least a year away and in the meantime what do we do sit on our hands what's getting worse every week and you know it that's true Tom I don't care what you say if wages go up prices go up it's a vicious circle it's economic nuts it's company propaganda look you come to the union hall tonight well Pete don't start that business again come on we're giving a movie tonight on that wages and crisis business supposed to be good why don't you Tom it sounds interesting okay [Music] looks new it is isn't that a honey it looks complicated no baby could run it here movies are fine thing folks come out to meetings yeah just take a look at that job yeah let's get a seat thank you [Music] today people are being squeezed squeezed out of food clothing Necessities because of rising prices just think back to 1939 and prices at that time a broad cloth shirt 88 cents a pair of shoes 1.95 and as for food but her 31 cents a pound chuck roast 15 cents then prices started upward as big business took advantage of the war Uncle Sam established the OPA and cracked down in 1946 controls were removed prices shot up in 18 months they went up as much as in the whole previous seven years these prices mean big trouble to families as shown by experts from the University of California the Heller committee who prepared a minimum budget for a family of four its standards are not very high for example father gets one Overcoat every six years three work shirts a year for mothers two house dresses a year food for a week nine loaves of bread less than two dozen eggs a pound and a half of butter and Oleo milk a little over two quarts a day this modest budget cost about seventy five dollars a week in January 1948. the administration considered even this budget too optimistic so the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated a more realistic one a little less of everything for vacation and savings practically nothing this super modest budget averaged 65 dollars in January 1948 while at the same time manufacturing wages were around 51 a week it's a simple sober fact that most people cannot live on their pay because of high prices and inflation what's the reason for inflation not high prices according to the National Association manufacturers who say inexpensive ads inflation comes when the flow of money into the market is greater than the flow of goods the Nam says that production and incomes or Goods and money are the controlling factors in prices if there are more Goods than dollars prices go down if there are more dollars than Goods prices go up sounds reasonable but it's only half of the story this explanation leaves out price fixing monopolies speculation Market rigging it leaves out the basic reason for today's inflation and that is the killing of opa let's Analyze This inflation business it's important here is production Goods here is the money people get for producing during the war half of production was military and while civilian goods were less money increased because of payments to soldiers their dependents and others here it is less goods and more money prices should Zoom according to the Nam but they didn't because Uncle Sam established controls people shared the goods at reasonable cost the money which wasn't spent went into savings this is the picture during the war the war ended Army Goods went back to civilians there was less money because overtime was cut therefore money and goods were more in balance there was less reason for inflation with Opa continuing savings would have gone for washing machines houses Automobiles and refrigerators for many years to come we would have had Prosperity a sound stable prosperity instead government-controlled prices were replaced by business controlled profits prices went up wages were used for food and clothing but wages weren't enough savings went for food and clothing 10 billion Savings in a year millions of GIS were promised this they're getting this because of big business prices the blow of inflation Upon Our Economic Securities seems like an act of nature that it actually is the result of Acts by big business and the people are beginning to discover who is responsible for inflation to postpone this discovery big business is putting up a barrage of propaganda here are their excuses and here are the facts against them as dug out from official government sources excuse number one the farmers out of Lane one of the principal causes for high prices is federal support of farm prices the Department of Agriculture finds that of the increases in food prices in the last year the bulk went to Food trusts and Senator Aiken of Vermont underlines the facts it is my belief that a campaign against Farmers is being indulged in to divert attention from the real profiteers in food and clothing the speculators in commodity gamblers speculators men like Ed Paulie oil operator former Democratic committeeman this man bought a half a million bushels of wheat oats corn he didn't Finance farmers he didn't sow the wheat he didn't Harvest it didn't distribute it he didn't even eat it he just sat on it until a hungry World paid his price Mr Pauley feels no moral guilt he was quoted by the press as saying I doubt in everything I could make a profit in in the good old American Way what a patriot growing Rich out of people's hunger Mr Paulie isn't the only profiteer here is a government report on the prophets of the food trusts in the past year profits increased by as much as 320 percent no wonder prices are high one of these companies the A and P was charged with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act their extra take from Housewives was estimated at 21 million dollars the company was found guilty and fined 175 thousand dollars cheap enough at the price no Gentlemen of the Nam you cannot blame Farmers for the high prices the Nam has another excuse for high prices strengths high prices are due to strikes 35 million man days of production were lost last year 35 million man days sounds like a lot doesn't it yet during the same time illness or accidents caused this much loss to production 600 million man days furthermore in comparison to all mandates worked strike losses are practically nothing to be exact one-third of one percent of the total 9 billion no Gentlemen of the Nam you cannot blame high prices on strikes but the biggest target of the Nam propaganda is Wages labor costs come to 85 of expenses upon which prices are based so naturally if labor costs go up prices go up simple arithmetic well let's take a look at the miner for a concrete example miners average 65 dollars a week for working underground daily risking their lives as in the Centralia disaster 111. death for this kind of work the miners got an increase of 1.20 cents a day now let's see what happened to this increase under big business manipulation the cost of the increase for coal produced was 40 cents per ton for these three tons the coal companies increased their prices by 4.50 three tons of coal make two tons of steel the steel companies increased their prices on two tons by as much as twenty dollars two tons of steel are used in the average car auto companies increased their prices by as much as one hundred dollars big business doesn't know how to add it only learned the multiplication table no wonder prices go up wage increases have no relation to price increases this is true throughout industry era wage increases in typical Industries practically all are less than five percent of the price increases and now keeping the same scale for easy comparison take a look at the price increases the facts are obvious there is no relation between wages and prices as economic experts have known for a long time no gentlemen at the Nam wage increases are not responsible for price increases let's see what is responsible for high prices Auto increased its prices more than steel and steel more than coal why the answer line the degree of Monopoly which industry let's examine these industries more closely take the three largest producers in each in coal mining the three largest companies produce only seven percent of all coal in steel the largest three produce 60 of the total in Auto the largest three produce 90 percent of all cars in other words the Auto industry is controlled by a few companies the coal industry is not coal mining is very competitive Auto is monopolistic as a result they can and do charge more they can and do make bigger profits take the profit level at 100 for 1946 and compare 1947 in coal mining profits up 56 percent in steel of 84 percent in Auto up 125 percent these increases in profits are not unusual throughout all Industries profits are incredible here is the golden year of American Business 1929. now let's compare the last five years with 1929. the War years were very profitable American manhood suffered a million casualties the corporations averaged nearly 10 billion a year then in 1946 big business broke all profit records and in 1947 the take was out of this world 17 billion dollars in two years corporations cleared 29 and a half billion dollars net in two years big business collected for themselves as much money as was collected by the entire federal government of the United States from taxpayers from the time of George Washington to that of Herbie Hoover a total of 140 years no wonder prices are up these profits are so outrageous that big business is trying to minimize them through a huge campaign of ads and pamphlets typical is this pamphlet of the Nam which is based on their latest propaganda trick the argument of the sales dollar to show up this phony argument let's take armor and Company as an example according to the company figures they make only a couple of pennies on each dollar of sales aside from these two and a half cents all of the dollar is going to pay for labor and plant and materials and supplies of all kinds connected with the job of giving you meat therefore says armor they only make 2.6 percent profit which is very low sounds reasonable doesn't it but it's phony most of this dollar is spent before armor begins working which is right here this part of the dollar is paying for activities that have nothing to do with armor or meat processing this part is paying for armors operations and when we look at it closely we find that for its work in processing meat Armor gets two and a half cents all right but these few little pennies represent a profit to armor of 17 on the value of their work and 17 for each armor dollar is a very high rate of profit but armor isn't the only profit here in this picture let's examine what goes on before processing here are the cattle that provide the meat for your table producing these cattle involves nearly the whole economy of the United States just to give an idea it takes grain to feed the cattle it takes tractors to plow the fields that raise the grain and refineries to make gas for the tractors and steel and cement to build refineries and the railways to carry the steel and cement and the gas and the tractors and the grain of the cattle and the banks to finance everything all during these activities profits are being made big profits as big as armors and that is why the price of meat is so high the sales dollar argument hides all these profits profit must be figured on the basis of investment that's what profit means to a banker to an economist to a businessman GE is a good example which shows why let's take 1933 and 1947. a depression year and a boom year in 1947 they made nearly six times as much here are their prophets no question about it GE is making much more money now than in 1933 now here are their sales in 1933 and here are the sales in 1947. the sales dollar argument gives GE 10 profit in 1933 only 7 in 1947. in 1933 GE actually had a higher rate of profit maybe they ought to go back to the depression silly isn't it now take profits again and compare them to Investments as Bankers do it's a different picture profit rate in 1947 is 20 percent practically five times above 1933. this makes sense very high volume of profits a very high profit rate everybody's happy except the consumer the unreasonable degree of profiteering is shown by the amount of money made on each worker here's the total of GE profits before taxes here are Westinghouse profits and here are General Motors a grand total of 742 million dollars these three corporations employ over half a million people a total of 640 000 workers for every worker therefore these companies make twenty dollars a week profits twenty dollars a week on every worker every week the average wage at this time was about fifty one dollars for every five dollars in wages the companies made two dollars in profits you would think these companies would be ashamed of themselves but big business has no shame for big business has no soul it's out for profits big profits and cares nothing for people's needs profits which they make through controls direct controls and indirect controls but always real controls over the whole economy of the United States we know the facts of this picture thanks to the investigations of the Roosevelt administration eight big business groups control over thirty percent of all the assets of the United States the heart of the economy said Wendell Burge once headed the government's antitrust division of the 100 largest corporations in the United States 44 are now defendants in anti-trusters because of their ability to manipulate inflation is enriching the monopolies it is hurting the people it must be stopped we the people can and must call a hope to this arrogant misuse of power [Music] democracy demands the defeat of monopolies and the Monopoly power the people can do it the people will do it [Music] [Applause] easy to say but hard to do reaction Towers over our daily lives seemingly all-powerful yet there is a mighty of power a power far greater than wealth the power of people organized and United widespread organization built up through years of hard work [Music] giving the Working Man strength at the bargaining table some voice in his pay envelope a degree of Economic Security this ability to organize and fight is rooted in our political freedom they this freedom is in jeopardy reactionary representatives in Congress are fronting for corporations in their attack against labor in their attack against the people through the Taft partly Act through the attacks on civil liberties the jail sentences the contempt charges the deportation proceeding these men must be replaced we must act we must vote we must preserve our great democratic tradition by electing men whose first concern is the welfare of the people we need such men men of conviction not puppets of military brass hats and Wall Street profiteers we need Leaders with a deep abiding sense of democracy and decency today only the political victory of progressive Americans can assure peace and prosperity for the nation a happy life for ourselves and our children [Music] a future we can face with confidence [Music]