The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1940-12-19
"BEHIND THE SCENES IN
AMERICAN BUSINESS"
By John Croddock
NEW YORK., Dec. 1e. BUSINESS - The

other way around-but ~nobody's kicking, least of all
folks with Christmas merchandise to sell. Highlights
on the job situation: In mid-October the total
number of workers employed in the U. s. was at
the highest level since good old 1929. Further pro-
gress was made in November, reports the National
Association of Purchasing Agents. OF course, this
news must be tempered by the fact that We have
an estimated 1000, 900 more potential workers
now than we had in 1929. As for prospects of alb
sorbing some of those: On the basis of actual de-
fense-goods orders already ION the books" as Of
November 1, nearly 1900, 600 additional jobs will
be provided-to turn out those goods-by next
June. Remember that's for defense goods alone; and
the payrolls these jobs bring will step up demand
for peacetime ~goods-clothing, food, amusements-
SO that there surely will be additional unemployment
in many of those lines, too.
MILLIONS o served
by New York City's "antiquated" market system
which in large measure sets food prices for the
nation-are paying $500, 900 too much every year
for their fresh fruits and vegetables, a special re-
port BY the Department of Agriculture shows. Costly
and Unnecessary landings have inflated the pro-
duce bill to the point where the total costs OF
distribution-after fresh fruits and vegetables reach
the city-are 'almost as much as the costs of pro-
ducing and transporting them to the city" Govern
ment officials commend construction of a new
market which would permit adoption of direct hand
ling methods such as have been developed and
perfected by chain store distributors-methods which
"cut every possible unnecessary operation within the
marketing system" Eliminated or reduced, they say,
would be such charges as carriage, congestion, spor-
terage, dealer margins and many others.
NEW NOTE O 41-Ordinarily around this
time of year the business folk would be asking
themselves, as business going to be good in the
next year," But a tip-off on the present situation
is that this year the yearend question is diff
ferent. 1t runs something like: "Are available capacity
and man-power sufficient to meet the production
burden of the defense program and expanding peace
time demands?" The answer to that is hard
to dredge up, out of the weller of current produc-
ton questions-about whether we can hang onto the
five-day week! about how to train large numbers of
workers for tasks requiring special sknls; about
whether to reward overtime workers by bonus, or
modified overtime, or by straight wage increases,
and so on and SO forth Main point, though,
is that 1941 will start off on a new note, with
businessmen not worrying so much about whether
1hihSo VIII " up as U eUH Lney VIII
be in position to handle the big production job that
has to be done.
STRIKE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS recourse to
arbitration for settling disputes that might disrupt
production and stem he follow of defense materials
has been noted by Cornelius v. Whitney, new pre-
sident of the American Arbitration association. In
a single week of December, Whitney said. more
than 200 firms and unions havo Sorohf information |
on procedure in arbitrating disputes-and a majority
o. these requests have come from parties engaged
N important defense projects This signi-
ficant trend toward prevention of strikes and stop
pages by voluntary means may be interpreted as a
heartening sign of labor-management cooperation
in the interests of national defense. During recent
weeks, the Associations president pointed out, more
than a score of unions have been added to those al
ready using the facilities of the voluntary industrial
arbitration tribunal of the organization to settle
their controversies with employers
THINGS TO WATCH FORA new line of 49,
cent phonogaph records, mostly of the lighter classics
variety and recorded by anonymous" orchestras. to
go on sale in drug stores -. Color in doorknobs-
getting away from the old black, white, metal or
glass routine is a new line of knobs nodded in bake.ite
in pastel colors or shades to match the furnishings
Another new plastic, of the same family as the
interlayer in automobile safety glass, to be used as
a textile substitute, especially for shower curtains
and window shades A translator to be
attached to a standard radio to bring in the static
free ~broadcasts of a frequency meditation" sta
ton, without having to buy a whole new receiving
set A special barbershop calendar, printed
to read correctly when seen in the mirror a
bright idea had by a young fellow over at American
Airlnes (now if Seth Thomas or Mr.. Telechron or
somebody would fix a clock to do the same, every
thing would be dandy.