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Show 8 PER CENT PROFIT ALLQVVEDPACKEnS Hoover Refuses to Raise the Limit After Listening to Protest, WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. A vigorous protest today by Chicago packers failed to shake the food administration's decision de-cision to enforce regulations which will cut packing profits to 9 per cent. The packers' objections were presented to Food Adminitrator Hoover by representatives repre-sentatives of the five great packing houses. The decision that earnings shall not exceed 3 per cent maximum profit, was reached, the packers were told, after a careful Investigation of pre-war profits ;;n:l after consideration was given to I the entire situation. Pre-war profits, the investigation disclosed, were slightly slight-ly less than 9 per cent. Any profit higher than that, Mr. Hoover declared, would force producers and consumers of the eountrv to pay for plant expansion expan-sion and would raise a serious question of public policy and the rrghts of the public in expansion of the sort. Packers argued that limiting thpivv profits would limit their borrowing ca- pacity and that they could not expand to maintain their efficiency and to meet the annual increase in the world s demands. New capital for the purpose, they said, would be difficult to find during the war. Mr. Hoover expressed th opinion that fringe the export demand for packing pack-ing profits i? great-p-r than the supply. I there ran be no lack of confidence by banks in the packers' earning capacity. If the packers exhaust the;r abilitv to find capital, are uuable to expand from their earnings and need extensions to meet war needs, the case, Mr. Hoover said, would be considered on its merits. Any regulations imposed by the government, gov-ernment, the packers said, would be observed, but any responsibility for future fu-ture shortages in production would fall on the food administration. It is , not their desire, they declared, to earn excessive war profits, but money must 1 be had iOr extensions. " j |