Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-07-03
On the
Business
Front
BY WARD SCHULTZ
Detroit tunes Financial Editor


RECALLING THAT Detroirsl
own Bill Stout told me last De-
cember that most of the nations
freight would be transported by
air in a few years. read with
interest that air freight transport
deserves much credit for General
RommelS Libyan successes,
Paradoxically, as Rom m i
heightened his supply lines he
shortened them and made them
safer.
Truck lines were often cut and
transport was slow But when.
the distance became long enough
to utilize giant air freight car
riers. service became safer, faster
and more efficient.
A cargo plane travels just 10
times as fast as a truck on the
average.
The famous Burma road offers
the most graphic illustration.
Last November, 4,500 trucks car
| ried- 1880 tons of military sup
plies over the 726-mle route. BY
air that route was only $50 miles
and fleet of only Il cargo planes
of 9i2 ton capacity could have
handled the entire assignment.
Monthly capacity of the road is
about 10000 tons, utilizing 100
trucks. The job-ceuld be better
done with 35 cargo planes.
Bill Stout'S another Of those fell
lows apt TO be overlooked by their
own people. As he once said
laughingly:
you've got TO have a long,
foreign-sounding name and an
accent to get attention"
A FORETASTE of just what
Detroit will face when nation
wide gas rationing is put into
effect is offered by New York.
Output of arms plants in that
area is suffering greatly because
some workers can't get to work,
while others arrive late.
The situation is so critical that
the United States army air force
has made strenuous efforts TO see
that aircraft workers get gasoline.
However, even it has been handi-
capped because of the fuel short
age in certain areas.
In one plant in the metropolitan
area. employment over two-day
period dropped as much as II
per cent.
The decline was traced directly
TO the inability of the workers tC
get to their jobs.
I WONDER how Mayor Jeffrie
feels now about the statement h,
made some months back that "th'
lefty wouldn't sell another refund
ing bond carrying an interest rate
of more than 2 per cent"
The city has asked for bids or
I the final parcel. A previous sale
also made since the mayor
made his classic statement-car'
ried an interest rate of 2.72.
It's an odds-on bet that the
present offering will be at be-
| tween 2la and 3.
! What's that old saying-speak
in haste, etc.
! GRISWOLD STREET is ex-
tremely apathetic toward Homer
Martins new investors crusade.
Ill-timed. it followed closely or
the heels of a similar movement
by B. c. Forbes.
That the several million stock.
holders of this country merit pro.
lection and must find some way oil
making their influence felt. goes
without saying. But whether
Homer Martins the man to do it
is another matter. Personally,
doubt il.
l recall that Maj. George Berry
well-known head of the Press.
mems Union. pointed out recently
that cooperation between invest
r ors. organized labor and man
: agement was essential TO the
, preservation of the free enterprise
4 syStem.
: Martin, ousted head of the ole
:; JAW. hardly seems the man tC
. win the cooperation of labor
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