Religion: Business of Death

Parallel meetings of crematory and cemetery owners in Chicago last week revealed part of the big business which goes on behind the religious ritual of Death. Undertakers, florists and monument men do $500,000,000 worth of business a year in the U. S. Casket manufacturers do $65,000,000 gross. Crematists. a growing profession, take in $1,500,000. Priests and parsons make anywhere from $5 to $100 per funeral.

To dispose of a dead body decently costs for the undertaking $35 to $1,000; cremation, urn and a niche in a columbarium $50 to $10,000; a single...

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