'^MILL WHISTLE
Copyright, 1950, Marshall Field & Company
Issued Every Two Weeks By and For
the Employees of Fieldcrest Mills, Divi
sion of Marshall Field & Company, Inc.,
Spray, North Carolina
OTIS MARLOWE Editor
No. 4 Monday, Sept. 4, 1950 Vol. IX
Profit and Prosperity
Has it ever occurred to you that when
business operates at a profit we have
prosperity? And that when business is
not profitable we have “hard times” or
depression? It can’t be any other way.
An industrial or business enterprise
must take in more money than it pays
out. If it doesn’t take in more than it
spends, then bankruptcy is sure and it’s
“curtains” for that business and its em
ployees and others who are dependent
on it for support.
A business must earn a profit. For
there’s no such thing as operating at a
“break-even” point for any considerable
length of time. If a company is just
breaking even and earning no profits,
only a narrow line separates it from
bankruptcy and all of its dire conse
quences.
A business has no money coming in
except from the sale of products or
services, or money invested by stock
holders or otherwise borrowed. But
who would be foolish enough to invest
their savings in a business that con
tinually ran at a loss? Or who would
lend money to a company that had no
hopes of making a profit? It just would
n’t be good sense.
So you can see that a business must
stay “in the black.” It can not operate
long at a loss or at the break-even
point. When no profits are being earned
there can be no dividends to stockhold
ers to encourage them to put more
money into the business. Nor can there
be capital for the heavy expenditures
necessary to expand and modernize the
business and make its future secure.
Also, without profits there is no money
to pay for increased wages, better work
ing conditions, vacations with pay, pen
sions, recreational facilities and other
employee benefits that progressive,
profitable industry wants to provide.
As Samuel Gompers, pioneer Ameri
can labor leader once said: “The great
est crime against the working man is
the business that doesn’t make a profit.”
The welfare of a company and its em
ployees is directly dependent upon the
ability of the company to operate at a
reasonable profit. So remember this the
next time you hear someone sounding
off on the subject of profits. These facts
of life in business can’t be wished away
or made any less.real than they are.
The Citizen and the Gold Standard
A complete explanation of the “gold standard” is not practical
within these brief articles, but its principal purpose in the United
States, as far as the citizen is concerned, is easy to understand: it is
a device designed to prevent the government and the banks from
arbitrarily increasing the supply of money.
Under the gold standard, the supply of money is limited by the
supply of gold and if the people think there is any cheating taking
place, they can present their paper money and demand gold.
This keeps the money supply “honest,” and, gold being hard to
get, prevents rapid increase in the money supply.
The gold standard is the best method ever devised to prevent gov
ernment from increasing the money supply.
Without the gold standard, money is worth whatever the govern
ment wants it to be worth, thus giving the government powerful con
trol over the lives of the people through being able to control the
“value” of their labor and their savings.
Historically, every dictator has had to abolish the gold standard
before he could completely control the people.
When the money supply is constitutionally controlled by the
people, government must remain the servant of the people.
World Production of Gold
In Millions of Fine Ounces
This is the fourth in a series of 10 articles dealing with money and its uses in our economic system.
The articles are based on the book “Money,” written by Fred G. Clark and Richard Stanton Riman-
oczy and published by D. Van Nostrand Company. The American Economic- Foundation (295 Madison
Avenue, New York City) has granted permission to publish the series.
FIELDCREST MILL WHISTLE