The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1948-03-18
Behind The Scenes In
AMERICAN BUSINESS
BY REYNOLDS G

NEW YORK, March 16-Industry's
spending for plants and equipment
to expand production and improve
manufacturing efficiency is still an
important part of the nations &C.
onomic foundation.
The argument that new and more
efficient equipment cuts down jobs
and payrolls has been pretty well dis
proved during the past few years. In
dustry right nov is spending at re-
cord levels for plant and equipment
expansion. Yet labor has been OBJ
tanning an increasingly large share
Of corporate revenues. In 1929
workers received about "a per cent
of the total sales dollar. That share
jumped to 27.6 per cent in 1947. Dur
ing the same comparable period the
share of the sales dollar paid to
stockholders in dividends slid from
AZ per cent of corporate sales in 1929
to 81 per cent in l947.
AUTOMATIC AGE-Modern tech
nology is rapidly making the push
button era "old-fashioned," according
to Harold W. Sweat, president of the
Minneapolis : Honeywell Regulator
Company. The next stage is going
to be completely automatic opera
ton of home and factory.
The day of the wholly automatic
factory is still far off. Mr.. Sweat
said, but there is a marked trend in
that direction, particularly in the
chemical and petroleum products
fields. He added that the last few
years had seen a greatly accelerated
use of automatic instruments also in
the food, textile, tobacco and era
mic industries because of the demand
for greater production efficiency.
Because mo one wants to bother
with pushing a button anymore"
homeowners and apartment jewellers
are demanding more automatic con-
trolls for everything from dish wash
ers to heating plants, he said.
THINGS TO COME-Taking a cue
from bubble gum, a plastics company
has developed inflatable manikins
for window display of dresses. The
forms can be inflated and debated
like balloons 80. You can give
your customers cash awards a la
radio give-aways through a new de-
vice which can be attached to cash
registers to turn up jackpots every
200 to 600 sales -. Plastic kitchen
cabinet doors that operate like win
dow shades are now available in a
| variety of colors A pagoda-like
| device which may solve the problem
of protecting crops from early frost
heats vegetation in a 100-foot radius
| through infra-red rays Eleven
| Indiana and Illinois newspapers have
| joined to build a new paper mill for
retaining newsprint from de-inked
| used paper A hardwood bicycle
trailer is being marketed by a Chica-
60 firm Newly engineered troll
ling propeller for cupboard motors is
lsaid to bounce over underwater rocks
and elude weeds
ENDORSEMENTS-The fact that
"the customers always write sparks
many a successful merchandising
idea, particularly when the custom
ers' writing is fright" Unsolicited
owner endorsements provided the
basis for a major advertising theme
| of Crosley Motors, Inc, the nations
| sole producers of lightweight, low
cost automobiles and trucks. The is
toners letters highlight in realistic
fashion the company's principal sales
message economical automobile
transportation, at low first cost and
low operating cost.
Correspondence received by the