72 THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 



panics. At the time this dividend was declared, 

 press dispatches quoted the vice-president of the com- 

 pany, in explaining it, as saying : " The $80,000,000 " 

 (this dividend) " surplus involved in the increased 

 capitalization stock dividend was earned in the period 

 from 1901 to 1912, when few dividends were paid." 

 A " few " cannot be less than two probably several 



but even if dividends covering only two years' prof- 

 its had been declared, it would still leave a net annual 

 earning of 44.4 per cent, covering the other nine years, 

 and this without taking into consideration the princely 

 salaries usually paid stockholders of such concerns as 

 officers of the companies. Table No. 2 is taken from 

 the April number of the Farmer's Open Forum, Wash- 

 ington, D. C., in its discussion of the Heney investi- 

 gation. This table does not indicate that profits have 

 been reduced to any great extent. 



TABLE No. 2 



PROFITS SUMMARY OF THE BIG FIVE PACKERS 

 IN 1917 



Capital Profit Per 



stock and loss Net cent 



outstanding surplus Sales income earned 



Swift & Co $100,000,000 $59,965,000 $875,000,000 $34,650,000 34.65 



Armour & Co 100,000,000 56,126,680 575,000,000 21,293,563 21.29 



Morris & Co. 3,000,000 37.293.554 (not given) 5,401,071 180.04 



Cudahy Packing Co. 20,000,000 7,730,120 184,811,000 4,430,530 22.15 



Wilson & Co., Inc. 30,476,400 15,051,045 (not given) 6,504,422 21.34 



Facts disclosed at the investigation started (but not 

 completed) by Mr. Heney, at Chicago the ratio of 

 the price of live hogs to cost, as shown in Table No. i 



would indicate that the packing business had been 

 vastly more profitable than disclosed by the above fig- 

 ures. Why was the Heney investigation carried to the 

 point of maximum benefit to organized labor in the 



