Sidelights of Business |
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t
3
;
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BENCHES under
A BUTTON-WOOD TREE
WERE THE EQUIPMENT
OF THE NEW YORK
STOCK EXCHANGE WHERE
IT STARTED IN 1799.
ACCORDING TO THE
1 WOOD OFFICE FURNITURE
§ INSTITUTE. _ j
WOMEN COLLEGE
GRADUATES
BECOMING CLERICAL
WORKERS OUTNUMBER
THOSE ENTERING THE
TEACHING PROFESSION.
HEAVy BOOK... S
CHARLES LAMB, -(<
! FAMOUS ENGLISH
| AUTHOR A CENTURY ■
AGO, WROTE THAT P
C®V\MERCIAL LEDGERS B*
AT THAT TIME WERE H
SO BIG THAT THEY ft
REQUIRED TWO MEN (I
TO CARRY ONE. LI
DOUBLE ENTRY
book-keeping was
INAUGURATED
IN 1340
FOR THE
MUNICIPAL
ACCOUNTS
OF
GENOA,
ITALY.
Social Insurance System Makes
Provision for Young Widows With
Children and for Old People
uiic ouvitti ocuuniy aul
was amended in 1939, provision
was made for monthly benefits not
only m old age but also in the
event of the . breadwinner’s death.
Old-age insurance became old-age
and survivors insurance. This in
surance might well be called “fam
ily insurance,” because sixty per
cent of the montuiy Beneficiaries
are women and children. Preserv
ing the family is a prime objective
of '.e program. To keep families
tog^her to keep families inde
pendent to keep children in school,
to give brothers and sisters the
chance of growing up together, in
normal home surroundings, under
the care of their own mothers are
r -
me "met advantages of old-age
and survivors insurance.
At present the system operates
only for wage and salary earners
in private industry and business.
Even though an individual or bu
siness concern has only one em
ployee it is subject to old age
and survivors insurance provis
ions. The number of employees
in the firm makes no difference.
Who can get monthly survivors
benefits?
Dependents of a deceased work
er who was insured under old-age
and Survivors Insurance provis
ions, listed as follows:
1. Children under 18.
2. Widows with children under
18 in their care .regardless of the
widow’s age.
3. Widows 65 or over.
4. Aged parents—if the worker
leaves neither widow nor an un
married child under 18, and if he
previously supported his parents.
Before any one can receive pay
ment of Old Age and Survivors
Insurance he or she must file a
claim for benefits, with the Social
Security Board.
The claim—or application— for
benefits should be filed at the field
office of the Social Security Board.
In this area the office is located
in Rocky Mount, N. C.
Will Conduct
Mission Here
The Very Rev. Leonard M.
Henry, O. F. M., of the Fran
ciscan Monastery of Mt. Sepulchre
in Washington, D. C., will con
duct a wek’s Mission at St. John’3
Catholic Church from Sunday,
April 28, to Sunday, May 5. This
Spritual Retreat is for the general
public, and there will be no col
lection at the exercises. The morn
ing Masses will be at 9:00 on
Sundays and at 6:45 and 7:30 on
week-ciays. The evening services
will be at 7:30 with a Children’s
mission on Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Jay William Sanders will direct
St. John’s choir while the servers
will be Donald MacKensie, Jr.,
Thomas Mayton, Robert Mac
Kensie, Jack Stradler and Ben
Stadler . Benediction of the Bless
ed Sacrement will terminate the
evening service.
The Mission Sermons will be a:
follows: Sunday, April 28, 9:0(
A. M.—“Why a Mission?”; 7:3(
P. M.—“Giving God a Chance.”
The evening sermons will be
Monday, “Sounding the Depths”;
Tuesday, “Indecision”; Wednesday
“Peace Attained”; Thursday, “Abn
dant Life”; Friday, “Limitless
Love"; Saturday, “Highway tc
Eternity”; and on Sunday morning,
9:00, May 5, “Rewarded Christian
Ritual.” -
he morning instructions will em
brace Prayer, Temptation, the
Seven Sacremants, Boath, Morti
fification, Devotions and Visits tc
the Blessed Sacrement.
War Veteran
Activities
Increasing
War veterans activities have
increased to such an extent that
nractically two-thirds of all visits
made to local offices of theUnited
States Employment Service dur
ing March were made by former
service men and women.
R. Mayne Albright, State Dir
ector of the USES, announces
that of the 233,098 visits to uocal
USES offices in March 154,361 r
66.2 percent, were veterans. Many
of the veterans were repeaters,
however, since numbers of them,
seeking employment, report each
week to file their claims for
Servicemens Readjustments Allow
ances.
Of the 13,932 new applications
for jobs last montn, 3,512 were
made by veterans, which formed
70.4 percent of the total.
Of the 18,628 referrals to local
jobs, 8,376,or 45 percent, were
of veterans.
Of the 9,318 workers whose
placements on jobs were verified,
3,942, or 42.3 percent, were vet
erans.
The large increase of veterans
contacts, rising from 104,062 in
January to 123,871 in February
and to 154,361 in March, indicates
Mr. Albright points out, the ex
tent to which local USES office
activities are devoted to services
tor discharged service men and
women.
That increase also explains why
local USES Offices have under
taken a long-range and increas
ingly intensive “Job Developmen
Program”, promoted through em
ployer visits and contacts in the
effort to seek out and uncover
iobs for war veterans. In March,
Mr. Albright reports, 2,918 visits
to 2,361 different employers in the
State were made by personnel of
local USES offices, primarily to
try to get additional job orders
for all types of workers, veterans,
espicially.
Director Albright and R. C. God
win, Sate Veterans Employment
Reprrsentative, join in an appeal
to ali employers, large and small,
to review their labor needs and
list their openings for all types
of jobs with the local USES
offices. Most any type of job
opening can be filled from the
list of applicants, veterans and
others in the local Employment
Service offices.
Sometimes, although an idea is wrong, it does no harm. Like the
idea that a square jaw is the sign of will power. That winters
aren’t as severe as they used to be, or that red hair denotes quick
temper.
But there are other wrong ideas, which are definitely harmful to
public confidence in and understanding of industry. One such
idea is the current "guessing” about profits made by large busi
ness organizations.
Many people are apt to grossly exaggerate the money made by
business. So Opinion Research Corporation (an independent
organization) made a survey to learn just what the public thinks
about profits. Compare these guesses and yours with the Inter
national Harvester profit figures given below.
©©©©©©
Public guess on war profits.. 30.0*
In this survey, the average of the
guesses by the public of the war
time profits made by industry was
. . . thirty per cent (30%).
But in the four war years of
1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945, the
profits of International Harvester
Company averaged only... 4.9%
on sales. Less than one sixth of
what the general public "guessedP*
for all industry.
For this period, the year by
year per cent of profits on sales
was: 1942—7.34, 1943—5.59,
1944—3.95, 1945—3.93.
©©©€>
Public guess on peace profits 18.0£
In the four peace years of 1938,
: 1939, 1940, and 1941, the profits
of International Harvester Com
pany averaged ... 7.17%. This is
well under half of what the puttie
"guessed” for all industry.
©“"© ©■*©
Majority think fair profit
in normal times is.19*
11 ten-year average is lass than It
The survey indicates tbs public
knows that in our economy prof
its are indispensable- And the
i ^ 'majority regard 10% as a fair
rate of profit in normal times.
Many large businesses, including
ourselves, would consider it a
banner year if we could reach
this figure. Our average profit for
the last ten years—four war and
six peace—was 6.43%—more than
a third less than what the public
considers fair.
All these figures show that our
profits are not high. As a matter
of fact, the entire farm machinery
industry is a low profit industry.
In 1944, the Federal Trade Com
mission published a list of 76 in
dustries ranked in order of their
ratio of profits to sales. The farm
machinery industry was 57th on
the list.
What About Current I H Prices?
When the War ended and we
.planned our peace-time produc
tion, we had hoped to be able to
serve our farmer customers at the
same level which has held since
1942, regardless of war-time in
creases in costs of wages and ma
terials up to that time. But re
cent developments have forced a
change in our plans. .
Wages and materials consume
nearly all of every dollar Har
vester takes in from sales. A Gov
ernment board has recommended
and the Company has agreed to
pay a general wage increase of 18
cents per hour for Harvester fac
tory employees. The Government
has also allowed price increases
on raw materials which we pur
chase in large quantities. Steel
has had an average increase of
8.2%.
There has been no general in
crease in our prices since they were
frozen by the Government early in
1942.
So our situation today is that
what we BUY costs us 1946 prices.
We will be paying average hourly
wages 56% above 1941. For what
we SELL we get only 1942 prices.
This condition cannot long be
met out of our present low rate
of profit.
Future Prices on I H Product j
It is plain that price relief will be
needed to meet the increased
wage and material costs which
we must carry.
We regret this necessity. We
prefer to lower prices, when pos
sible, rather than raise them and
we know our customers prefer to
have us do that. We had hoped to
be able to "hold the line,” at least.
But we do not see how we can
avoid operating at a loss if our
prices continue to remain at their
present frozen levels. Wc will
NOT "cut corners” on any of our
products, because QUALITY IS
THE FOUNDATION OF OUR
BUSINESS.
Our customers can be certain
that we will seek no more than a
moderate profit, both because of
our policies and because we have
approximately 300 competitors
fighting us vigorously for your
business. Our request for price
relief will be no more than is nec
essary to insure continued service
to our customers, continued work
for our employees, and a reason
' able return for our stockholders.
INTERNATIONAL
HARVESTER
**+ atul-mui iii tnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmrnmm
*
BURTON & JUSTICE
BLOCK CO.
? —HAVE—
CONCRETE BUILDING
, BLOCKS FOR SALE
0
FOR INFORMATION
CALL R-560-1 or R-650-6