The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 11, 1921, Page 13

Consider Your Clothes HAVE you ever stopped to think of the part petroleum plays in converting raw material into the fabrics which are used to make your suit of clothes? From the wool on a sheep’s back to the clothes on your back is a long journey and petroleum shortens it at every step. By machinery lubricated with petroleum, a man may shear from 175 to 200 fleeces a day. By the old method, 50 fleeces would be considered a big day’s work. After leaving the sheep, the wool passes through ten major processes before it is ready for the tailor. Each of these require the use of intricate machinery, having bearings which run at speeds varying from 350 to 12,000 revolutions per minute. From the clipper to the last finishing machine, a diversity of mechanical con- ditions exist, each of which has been studied and experimented with, and a lubricant found which meets exactly the needs of the machinery. In solving thesé lubricating problems, and manufacturing oils and greases which enable these machines to perform their work, the Standard Oil Company (Indi- ana) always has been among the leaders. Its staff of carefully trained chemists, refiners, and lubricating engineers are constantly at work, devising new and more efficient means of reducing friction. This Company computes its success not wholly upon its balance sheets, not wholly upon the number of useful prod- ucts 1t manufactures, but rather upon the fact that many of the useful prod- ucts of petroleurn are made from ma- terial which otherwise would be wasted, and are made by processes which were evolved in the Company’s laboratories. Standard Oil Company ( Indiana) 910 So. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Il - Mention the Leader When Writing Advertisers Packers State Their Case Swift & Co. Attempt to Explain Figures on Livestock and- Meat Prices Published in the Leader NOTE—The Leader’s answer to the fol- lowing letter is on page 4 of this issue. DITOR Nonpartisan Lead- er: The Leader recently contained an article in which it was said that “prices paid farmers for hogs, beef steers, butch- er heifers, canners and cutters, veal . calves and pigs, declined an average of 41% per cent between April 6, 1920, and April 5, 1921,” while the “price paid by retail dealers to packers and slaughterers for this same meat de- clined in the same period only 29% per cent.” These figures would give the im- pression to one who did not under- stand the situation that the packer had been profiteering at the expense of the farmer. This is not true, be- cause the price”of meat is not de- pendent entirely upon the price of livestock. - One reason why livestock prices have fallen more than meat prices’is that the value of the by-prod- ucts has also fallen. During the war the packers paid the high prices for livestock because they asuld get high prices for meat and by-products. The recent fall in by-products has natural- ly made livestock less valuable than they were. In April, 1920, the value of the by-products from a steer was about $4.75 per hundredweight of beef; now the net value of the by- products is only about $1. Some by- products are more a source of expense than of profit to the packer, and he has had no choice but to reduce the amount he could bid for livestock, be- cause he gets so much less for the by- products. Another fundamental reason for the wide spread between livestock and meat prices is that although whole- sale prices have fallen to some ex- tent the expenses of manufacture and distribution have remained practically the same. Therefore, the price paid the producer has fallen in greater propor- . tion than the price paid by retailers. Suppose, by way of illustration, that the farmer has been getting $50 for raw material which can be manufac- tured and distributed to retailérs at a cost of $50, making the price to re= tailers around $100. Now, if the wholesale price falls 25 per cent ($25) while the expenses of manufacture and distribution remain the same, the price that is paid to producers will fall approximately the same amount ($25), which is a reduction of 50 per cent. For this reason the prices of practically all basic commodities have fallen in greater proportion than wholesale or retail prices. It is true in the case of livestock and meat prices, and all along the line—wheat and flour, wool and woolens, cotton and cotton goods, petroleum and gaso- line. The principal item in our operating expenses is wages, which are stil at high levels. It is directly to the in- terest. of farmers that wages in our - industry be reduced. The purchasing power of wage rates in the packing industry has been increased substan- tially through arbitration proceedings, while the purchasing power of the farmer’s livestock has fallen tremen- dously since 1918. The higher the wage rate that we are forced to pay under the present wage igreement the less we are able to pay for live- stock. We realize the hardship that the present wage scale has imposed upon livestock producers, and we are at the present time asking the presi- dent’s mediator to reduce the wages of * packing house employes. Reduced wages would have the effect, in the long run, of narrowing the spread be- tween livestock and meat prices; and an improvement in the market for hides and other by-products would have the same effect. b Very truly yours, SWIFT & COMPANY. Per GEO. E. PUTNAM, Commercial Research Dept. Chicago, June 14, 1921. Notice to Readers The circulation department finds it necessary to announce that it can not supply back issues of the Leader free to subscribers who have missed issues because of failure to renew promptly. A charge of 5 cents a copy will have to be made for such back issues, to cover expense of looking them up and mailing. A large number of subscribers forget to send renewals of their subscriptions on time, and when they begin to miss the paper—as they all do sooner or later— they send a request for the missed issues with their renewal. This puts a great burden of trouble and expense on our circulation department, which we neces- sarily are trying to operate on as economical a basis as possible. Renew ON TIME and avoid the extra charge for back issues! We discontinue the paper promptly on expiration of subscriptions. To our good friends everywhere we renew the request to put us in touch with a-reliable person in each locality to act as our circulation representative. We give our local representatives full charge of our subscription list in their vicinity, furnish them with names of persons to call upon and pay a liberal commission. Maybe YOU would be interested in this proposition. If net, call the following blank to the attention of someone in your vicinity who would be interested.—Adyv. WRITE PLAINLY Circulation Department, ; Nonpartisan Leader, ¥ Box 2072, Minneapolis, Minn. Gentlemen: Without obligation to me in any way, please send me your offer to local circulation representatives.