PAGE TWO
THE PIEDMONITOR
AUGUST, 1971
SECONP QUARTER REPORT . . .
(Continued from Tage One)
miles over the same month last year on non
subsidized routes but we experienced an 11%
decrease in passenger miles on subsidized
routes.
“The outlook for the remainder of this year
is still uncertain, but barring some unforesee
able unfavorable occurrence, the prospects for
earning a profit for the year appears favorable.”
PI Employee Stock
Purchase Progress
To help you keep up with the amount you pay
for Piedmont stock every month if you’re buying
it through payroll deduction the Piedmonitor
publishes this periodic report of the number of
shares purchased, average price per share and
total investment in the previous month.
FOR JUNE, 1971
Amount Invested $5,026.22
Number of Full Shares Purchased 648
Average Pcice Paid Per Share $ 7.75
FOR JULY, 1971
Amount Invested $5,041.22
Number of Full Shares Purchased 706
Average Price Paid Per Share $ 6.62
Senior VP R. S. Northington, left, has been designated
as Deputy Regional Director of the Office of Emergency
Transportation, Region ill by Secretary of Transportation
John Volpe. Presenting the certificate of selection is Ed
Tamis, Regional Emergency Transportation Representative
in the Atlanta Office. Northington has been active in
the National Defense Executive Reserve Program.
Editorials
Confusion: Two Points of View
Not even enough years ago for the memory
to fade we were in London, the day after the
British pound had been devalued.
We had been several times before and have
returned many times since, but that particular
trip stands out in our minds because of the
overnight change in the value of the pound in
relation to the dollar.
The day we left home an English pound was
worth $2.80. By the next day the pound was
worth $2.40.
Our first reaction was almost delight. Our
dollar had increased in value, meaning we could
buy more English goods than we had antici
pated.
Our newly acquired purchasing power was
however a great source of confusion to every
one. Shopkeepers had been given no warning of
the change. The pound’s value was lowered but
the price tags on every conceivable product re
mained the same. Even cashing travellers
checks was no longer a routine transaction as
bank clerks had to refigure each exchange. Li
terally nothing was as it had been the day be
fore.
The pound, never the easiest of currencies
to understand, was even more baffling to those
of us used to figuring in dollars only. Although
newspaper headlines told us day by day what
bargains our dollars were buying it was im
possible to enjoy the situation as we saw at
every hand the confusion that reigned.
Perhaps we never really understood that
whole situation until a few days ago.
It's Almost Time to Start
It has been raining for days and continues
to show no signs of letting up. As if this
weather were not enough to provoke trenchant
thoughts on affairs in general we overheard
someone say, just the other day, that “It’s
almost time to start getting ready for Christ
mas.”
If you don’t think that is an abrupt awaken
ing thought, try it yourself tomorrow morning,
but only if you’re sure your system can stand
the shock.
The bad part about overhearing that sort of
remark is you know it isn’t rumor. You know
its true and unless you’re careful panic will
set in.
How could it possibly been more than a few
weeks ago that we were in the throes of
writing January’s editorial for the New Year?
Somehow the days and weeks have flown by,
must have been at Mach 1 or better.
Our topic seven months ago was The Statis
tics of Hard Times. We talked about how our
industry was being forced into breaking prece
dents at every turn. Schedules were being cut
back and employees were being furloughed.
This time we were in Athens, Greece. Much
further from home, in most every way, than
London. If you’ve been to Athens you know
that it is a very foreign place.
Even street signs, something we normally
take very much for granted are strange to a
mind that associates the Greek alphabet with
a series of two or three letters over the en
trance to a fraternity or soroity house.
This trip to Athens was never proposed as
an extended visit. It is just as well.
The first day we were properly awed by the
Parthenon and the Acropolis and were begin
ning to adjust to the atmosphere of the city
which initially seemed so alien to us.
All that changed, overnight.
The next morning as we strolled through
the shops around Constitution Square we no
ticed the newspapers, all in Greek of course,
had blaring black headlines. One word was very
understandable, Nixon. The news itself was set
in type that once again became frightenly for
eign. While searching for an American office of
anything we thought back to all the talk we’d
left at home about devaluation of the dollar.
Had it really happened? Would we be forced to
convert our dollars to drachma at a substantial
loss?
As we anxiously bought the last copy in
sight of the Herald Tribune we remembered the
confusion we’d found in London a few years
ago.
Then, we really understood.
Well the days of gloom and doom aren’t
filled with wine and roses yet. But even
through these heavy August clouds we can
see that our industry’s affairs in general are
getting better.
Sometime in the spring all the airlines were
granted a fare increase. That was a big help.
Then the regional carriers were given their
sorely needed subsidy boost.
Traffic is up, but then so are expenses.
But Christmas! We’ve already had more
time than we’re going to have to get this
year’s balance sheet back in the black. In a
matter of days summer will be gone. The kids
will be back in school and the trees will begin
changing colors and disrobing for the winter.
Ours is a product more perishable than the
crispest of Christmas cookies. Every seat that
goes out empty on every flight every day is
lost business.
The many proverbial quotes about flying
time simply can’t sum up the reality that,
here in the midst of the dampest dog days we
can remember, “It’s almost time to start
getting ready for Christmas.”
HOW GOES
IT?
Mechanically speaking the July, 1971 statistics
revealed the following:
Mechanical Dispatch Reliability
Actual Forecast
FH-227
. 98.3% 99.4%
YS-llA .
. 98.2% 99.0%
B-737 -
. 98.4% 99.0%
On-Time Performance of flights
operated not more than 15
minutes late -
67.9%
Actual Load Factor
Quota Forecast
51.59%
51.39%
The Ten Pillars of
Economic Wisdom
Often called the "dismal science,” economics is also
the dismaying science for the person seeking truth in a
time of great social upheaval. The American Economic
Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to the task
of simplifying free enterprise economics, has reduced
certain economics fundamentals to a program of ten ba
sic statements. These "Ten Pillars of Economic Wis
dom” have been circulated to millions of people and re
printed in many languages. They are offered here as a
basic reference for economic understanding, and are
timely reminders of the cause-and-effect relationships
underlying all production and distribution activities.
1—Nothing in our material world can come from no
where or go nowhere, nor can it be free; everything
in our economic life has a source, a destination,
and a cost that must be paid.
2—Government is never a source of goods. Everything
produced is produced by the people, and everything
that government gives to the people, it must first
take from the people.
3—The only valuable money that government has to
spend is that money taxed or borrowed out of the
people’s earnings. When government decides to
spend more than it has thus received, that extra
unearned money is created out of thin air, through
the banks, and, when spent, takes on value only by
reducing the value of all money, savings and in
surance.
4—In our modern exchange economy, all payroll and
employment come from customers, and the only
worthwhile job security is customer security; if
there are no customers, there can be no payroll and
no jobs.
5—Customer security can be achieved by the worker
only when he cooperates with management in doing
things that win and hold customers. Job security,
therefore, is a partnership problem that can be
solved only in a spirit of understanding and co
operation.
B—Because wages are the principal cost of everything,
widespread wage increases, without corresponding
increases in production, simply increase the cost of
everybody’s living.
7—The greatest good for the greatest number means,
in its material sense, the greatest goods for the
greatest number which, in turn, means the greatest
productivity per worker.
8—All productivity is based on three factors; (1) nat
ural resources, whose form, place and condition are
changed by the expenditure of (2) human energy
(both muscular and mental), with the aid of (3)
tools.
9—Tools are the only one of these three factors that
man can increase without limit, and tools come into
being in a free society only when there is a reward
for the temporary self-denial that people must prac
tice in order to channel part of their earnings away
from purchases that produce immediate comfort
and pleasure, and into new tools of production.
Proper payment for the use of tools is essential to
crcstion
10—The productivity of the tools—that is, the efficiency
of the human energy applied in connection with
their use—has always been highest in a competitive
society in which the economic decisions are made
by millions of progress-seeking individuals, rather
than in a state-planned society in which those de
cisions are made by a handful of all-powerful peo
ple, regardless of how well-meaning, unselfish, sin
cere and intelligent those people may be.
PKomomm
Piedmont Aviation, Inc.
Smith Reynolds Airport
Winston-Salem, N. C.
Betsy Allen, Editor