The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1940-11-07
"BEHIND THE SCENES IN
AMERICAN BUSINESS"
By John Croddock

New York, Nov. a. Observation-Disclosures
way back when we used to say: swell, business is
always slow in a Presidential election year,? That's
one old saw-that never was any too soundly based,
anyway-that has disappeared from the conversation.
Business is by no means slow, but it's the war and
rearmament situation we have to thank for it, almost
completely submerging the election itself as an i'm
mediate factor in business. Newest shot-in-the-arm is
launching of the housing phase of the defense drive,
with President Roosevelt giving go-head to a $751;
DOC, 900 program for immediate construction of dwell
ing units in So vital defense-industry areas. Projects
approved in the first leg of this job run to about
sat, 100000 worth, the units to be completed in four
to IL months. Co-ordinator Charles F. Palmer plans
to get facilities and fixtures on a mass-purchasing
plan, and has circularized manufacturers and suppliers
in many parts of the country with a questionnaire
about prices and quantities of materials now avail
able.
WHITTIER EXPORTS? A SOLDERING thought
amid current upswinging is seen in figures showing
that British Empire took nearly ~twothirds of our
total of 1926, 600, 600 in merchandise exports for
September 1t reminds us that, although our over
all exports for first three-quarters of 1910 are 81
per cent ahead of 1889, the fact remains we have
lost such customers as Belgium, Netherlands, France,
Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Switzer-
land and Poland. Also, of those sales we still are
able to make to the rest of the world, about two
fifths have come to be in category of war materials
not WHAT you couid call an enduring, nor an endearlng,
business. Meanwhile, the terrific pace of the present
buying by our one big, good customer, the Empire, is
using up assets that otherwise would let her CON
tinue as a valuable customer after the war.
ANTI-SPIRAL Informed circles in industries
most actively concerned with the defense program
are confident that industry, mindful of years of
'price7spiraling' born in the 1914-18 war, will itself
set up stiff resistance to any runaway price move
ments, having learned that in the long run these
movements prove unhealthful. One concern. Alum
mum Company of America, a producer of material
essential to the aircraft program, has actually re-
duced its price for ingot three times this year, in
line with the policy it announced three years ago of
avoiding price increases and sharing with the public
any economies it could make through larger produc-
ton and research, and increased facilities. At the
start of 1910 the company's aluminium ingot sold for
20 cents a pound; the latest reduction, made in the
face of unprecedented demand and coming on the
heels OF an announcement that the company would
itself finance $15o,oo0,OoO worth of expansions for
defense purpose, brings the price down to II cents
a pound, effective November Is.
y
BITS o. BUSINESS-First $50 industrial com
pahles reporting earnings at three-quarter post of
OF I94O had a net, aggregate income gain of 31.9
per cent over same period of 1889 Dun's Review
barometer shows that in September general bust
ness" was up IL per cent in Florida, and 11.6 per
cent in Iowa and Nebraska In Ohio, employment
gained 8 per cent in September over previous wears
The quit rate" or percentage of employees
voluntarily leaving their jobs because of opportuni-
ties elsewhere, in August was IL per cent: which
doesn't sound very high, but it was higher than for
any month since September of 1937-and will go
higher as relative scarceness of skilled workers acts
as boost to wages Retail sales volume indicates
the draft is causing little or no curtailment in de-
mand for retail goods.
THINGS TO WATCH FOR - University of
Texas engineers have a fruit and vegetable Quick
freezer to help farmers preserve their produce for
an aifyear market; they foresee community plants
where produce can be quick-frozen and stored away
under the growers name, for releasing 70 rarket
when demand situation is better Reducing
candy, a special carmel; you eat one Is minutes be-
fore a meal and it cuts your appetite for meat and
potatoes, SO the theory goes