Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 November 1949 — Page 30
1950
‘Than Expected;
Ans 5
i
of Opt
{orizon
Current Year Turned Out Better
Dividends Up
. “By HAROLD H. HARTLEY, Times Business Editor .: EXECUTIVES were craning necks last week, trying to ek around the year-end corner.
good mood, for 1949 had turned up more business than they
: possible. Up to June their theme, song had been “Mood Indigo" | with only the listless hot summer months ahead. They had braced themselves for the long side down, | where, they feared to guess. | had overlooked something The people stil had money in| "savings bonds and real estate. Payrolls were still func-| tioning, turning out good bread| and butter money. There was au-| dible whimpering but citizens were far from broke. Fhe sales of refrigerators, ad instance, had been swooping down |
Some Cut Too Far
ready know a few of the things
at a suddenly they
pace. Then
reversed. = People| decided they could afford electric] coolers
after all. And manufaeturers haven't been able to catch up since, °° The stock market, the biggest guess game on earth, began to get short of breath, avoided climbing stairs to higher prices, just
sat. watched, wondered, and wait-| 1
ed too long, In the fourth quarter profits began to bubble to the surface. Extra dividends popped up like cro-
|cuses almost everywhere, proof
that it hadn't been such a bad year after all
Executives who are trying to see around the year-end corner alto come. One is the $2.8 billion
veterans insurance refund, Another is the still well-padded public
pocketbook. And they also know
would admit they almost ruined
their businesses by cutting in- in, yivid,
too low, They thinned to the point where they c ly .;ost business by not beable to fill orders. They are
ot fikely to. step into that fear~/o; 0 55 billion more than it Is . again. ‘taking In,” he explains,
ted trap “Credit. buying is crawling up,
but’ even with $17 billion on the billion? fr, the ratio is still about one- stream, lifts the price water line.
with earning power. Credit say that isn’t bad.
money,
Days Alea
to hold on
re
s always good. It is the most
Bh
‘of General Motors, said:
are telling us with in-|
frequency about vehicles; have passed the millionth dl
1“Some of our Diesel units a. driven a million miles in less t years. And one eleven-| id unit now has covered than 1,700,000 miles." | iLet's think of passenger car mileage. We trade In our cars
year or two. ‘We seldom do be run much longer than they are| mu, prices Friday zoomed to| He
i ec dome they are worn out. We; it to take advantage of im-| vements new ideas, comforts, ling. i i We drive only 10,000 to 15,000 les a year. And even if we ve 50,000 miles a year, It uld take 20 years to put a million miles on a *The obvious “question to the shitomobile industry is this:
car to go a million miles? What a saving to the mo-|
The truth is that the auto in-|
} 1
dustry thrives on promotional ef-|
pen House
perity. We have to pay it back, Another factor is inflation, al</but most people forget that, It Sure to comé next ypar.igives us a false sense of prosmeans the moving up. of perity. , the union tug for higherienjoying it without worrying too and the faster movement much about the day we have to pay it back.”
is that 1850 is a congressional year, and it is easier for a the feeling of prosperity, even If it is and paid for out of the UV. 8. Treasury. 80 ‘the business weather after Jan. 1 doesn’t look bad. And between now and Jan, 1,“ ES Sem
GED Sm a pis : faa
the motor industries are gearing)
"One of the city's bank presi dents paints the inflation picture
understandable lan- ~ He ‘links the degree of
inflation to the Government de-|
ficit. “The! government is spending]
“What becomes of this $5.5 It goes into the money
“It is a kind of borrowed pros-|
And we are capable of
What the bank president, an unwavering non-partisan, didn't
Stores are their gayest, tinseled
time f. There's 20d sprinkled with star dust, and warmth ag] nore counters are heavy laden. fellowshi
For the rest of the year the
more of kindness than at any business world will ‘be in free |Wheeling. ' |
It will be a pleasant journey, |
the with carols in the air, a few, buying season and the snowflakes on the shoulders, and
under the bed, or tucked!
high excitement of giving shatter the housewife's dreams of
I the athe. hog receipts in 18 weeks may The ; (and getting) ‘already is in the lower meat prices next week. air . i
Most of them were in|
From now to Christmas, look Tun since 30.991 ‘went to market pe one. for business at its best,
| ony
Independent Rock Island new yields 10,000 barrels of petroleum products a day, largely from Indiana crude. “ Independent Refinery Could "HES - Operate All Cars in County
Fast-Growing Rock hslond With New $2 Million & ‘Cat Cracker’ Turns Out 10,000 Barrels Daily
Against the almost rural background of the far northwest + section of the city, there rises against the gray-blue of a cloudless « autumn sky, giant silver-hued test tubes. : From these silver tubes flow 10,000 barrels of independently produced crude oil products per day. From what once was a clump of distillation equipment has
grown a small forest of refining iy sixth well. Indiana fields are echanien, Teputediy the finest producing a high quality Crude de You see this nearly nine-year-ipor FIO Bg . an Rock refining genius on! : old wonder of {Island receives about 1500 barrels a 110-acre tract at 5000 W, 86th, 4,y grawing from wells near St., about 12 miles from the cen- pe, Portiand, Terre Haute, BE ter of =. 2 has hécalig & | Princeton, Sullivan, Evansville . mecca 10 COME and Mt. Vernon. L. E. Kincannon, vice president across the Atlantic to behold #8" g2 Million ‘Ont Cracker’
; » efficiency. : The pride of Rock Island is its Drop in Pork The Rock Island Refinery WAS new “eat cra Prices Slowed
LE Winkler, president
” unit which J1a°1" born in 1040 under the leader-| jumped’ production from 5000 [Iti ares ship of L. E. Winkler, L. B./10000 barrels a day. Installed] Simmons and L. E. Kincannon. lat a cost of $2 million and com-| - Mr. Winkler is now president of ated last August, the unit }I3 the corporation and Mr, Kincan-| rejuggles petroleum molecules, - edr Ig non is general manager and vice under extreme heat with the use
Demand president. of silica alumina as a catalyst : . Be a ’ Light : Rock Island selected the site {5 speed reaction without chang- Other Major Sections ‘Receipts Blamed northwest of Indianapolis, near ing the physical nature of the Of List Decline
By MARION CRANEY four transcontinental pipe lines product.
Soft Goods Squeeze
“Rise in Soft Goods Sale Should
By 1. A. LIVINGSTON YOU CAN'T TELL a department store merchant that has been a good year, ny He'll point to the coal strike, the steel strike, and the mild autumn weather throughout the country.
to the sales This year—in contrast to the Thirties when hard goods, as well as soft, ~— householders
collapsed ¢ have i: able SO0te. Mak. . ing up for what » depression-—from 1937 |during and immediately after the war, Automobile sales hit an allpercentage ;,... high, as families replaced ‘older models. Not only that, been just what; levision set sales boomed. In the first 10 months of "49, d durable goods accounted for 31 gh. And that, per- per cent of all retail sales, as a key to 1950. What will against 20 per cent in 1948, and Householder do with 25 per cent in the prewar year of 11939. ne :
£
i 1
fi 581 i i th
FF 5a%s g lit sEFEE:: Foden i Fai
H :
-
¥ + 7
That cut into the type of goods department stores largely sell—men's suits, shoes, women's dresses, furnishings, and 80 on, for the first time since the end of the war, Until this year consumer income had risen rapidly. Ditto retail sales. So even though the proportion spent on hard goods increased, the actual
amount t on soft goods also ™ muti Sales rod the following table (In it Slee Percentage j [shows:, + (Year Hard Soft Hard Sofy As a result of the consumer 1939 $104 $31.7 25% n% splurge on hard goods this year,(1940 124 340 29 especially on automobiles, total 1941 1568 39.9 28 = consumer debt outstanding is up 1942 108 474 3 = $1.5 billion from a year ago to 1943 99 535 16 84 % an all-time high of $16.8 billion. 1944 108 582 15 8s Of that increase, $1 billion was 1945 123 635 16 84 for the purchase of automobiles. 1946 - 226 71.7 23 n But charge account credit, re-[1947 32.1 863 1 3 {fleeting the drop in purchases at|1948 380 920 2 n department stores, was off $100/1949* 3938 882 sl a million to $3.1 billion. | *Estimate.
CONSUMERS IN DEBT-49 vs. 39
_ - They owe 120% more than in ‘39, but only 8% of their income versus 10% then 20
! OW RS I a a AT a Tw
of: Dep't of Commason Pod Res. Board Proporsd for J. A. Livingston
Now and Then
The consumer is better able to assume
and close to the expanding Indus-| The next production wonder of By ELMER C. WALZER Strong demand and lghtestiiry of the community. Rock Island 1s its graphie flow] _ Ustied Prom Pinaseel Bator Sell to Indapentunte panel, an instrument board 25 There was no ery here, and | feet long which charts the proc-| shares edged up to a three-year with the independent jobbers Iniegses and volume from start to high during the past week while Only 36,735 porkers, lightest ming they thought there should| finish. One man with some train. other major sections of the stock the week ending Aug. 6, boosted Yoead. 3 |Ing can watch over the whole are de or. Set the, . - jt quotations: $2 per hun weight, They discovered that al {refinery in production. Instru
in two days of trading last week ojine and fuel ofl under their|to finish. | While the main stock list was after prices on Tuesday tied « 41- welcome a local independent Te- being an Indiana industry em. Scribed as a technical correction Grocers _anticipaied Poultry- supply.” p J {enough gasoline to operate all jconscious Thanksgiving buyers: he corporation rapidly be-iof the cars (about 134,000) in Average, market operators turned and continued to feature ham and came “Hooslerized.” Top officials Marion County 26 miles a day their attention to special issues. pork sales to bolster sagging re- took up residence here, Mr. Wink-|the year round. The liquor shares were given a tall prices. Orders from large in-|jer living at 5014 Washington What It Produces dustries for Christmas hams Biyd., and Mr. Kincannon at 5886 added strength to the ham mar-/N, Delaware St. cials point out, is striving to rase *PProaching their best sales time ket, | In addition the refinery uses|the quality of iis products, stresses 0 the year. “obaccos alse tuisd Beef Prices Steady, |Indiana crude extensively. It also progress in research, and pays its" ne eat ings ‘ 4“ A report trom Whole.|DuY® ofl from Texas, Okishoma, (taxes Marion County. |Site MOVE. Loo on ou - — amthiy 1 POF ; Hole Wyoming, Montana and Iinols.| Its approximate yield per day is 5°04 iy Uns URNA. potk loins {Rock lsland 1s now operating|212,000 gallons gf gasoline, 128. GM Gains Slightly
; know the time of day. And shouldn't they? These | fg They boon be ine of di. And vy dade ther? Tha iven Hamilton watches, a steak Henle thow, Ls E. Craig, Chevrolet presentation fo the parts and service sales contest winners,
{in its latest report, said many J sed n fed to the i ack Carr Lists | The truck industry is boasting public at retal prices more = Named Manager | | erations. Fuel oil stocks on hand
dinner and seats at the 0ne manager, made
“Operators from all over the
———————————
fort. It is bringing out 1950 cars| which are the last word in motor-
Ing sclenay and luxury. ut by 1951 designers and engineers will have had to think up something to make the 1950 cars seem pretty old-fashioned. Thus new cars are turned out and the 1950's start their jaunt to junk,
American passenger cars can
with care. But they aren't built to run a million miles. And if they were the automobile industry would probably be about onetenth the size it is today. It is our insatiable appetite for the newest and the best which keeps assembly lines humming,
SENRer car. millions employed, and buys bread THE FEMININE TOUOM
and butter for stockholders.
| We doubt if the millior-mile i | \ woman, Mrs. Mary Posner, runs of directors. It you can build a truck to go passenger car would help the nnl"oe” godin MILLIE Cl o million miles, why not build a country much. And it would put men's shops.
a big dent in American pride of ownership, Think of what your paint job would look like 20 years from now,
Yesterday International Harvester had a family party.
It invited employees to bring
families to the plant at 5565 Brookville Road to “see what
daddy does at work,”
2 A. M. Bowers, works manager at the truck engine works, was at the party, met the families and showed them how engines made,
On Tuesday International Har-! ter will repeat its open house ¥, this time to show its new!
:The company has invested shout $30 million in developing) new line of trucks and pur-! new manufacturing ment for the Indianapolis Rd Shen a1, 1%. Wayne ana) N |
“’ = 0» ot FOUR INDIANAPOLIS insurmen have been appointed to chairmanships for the, Leaders Round Table of Indiana,
Ee : committee;
os Pruden-
‘committee.
honor group for underwriters
than 370,000 GM employees during the walkout. ”. » CHRISTMAS SAVINGS clubs will soon pay off, adding to the funds to go into the yuletide trade. About 30 per cent of the payoff, however, goes right back into savings accounts, .
THERE'S GooD NEws in the air, Machine tool orders are on
to 10 cents a pound lower andi, 4 eveloping its own wells in 000 gallons of domestic fuel ofl, Motors held their own. Chryswhole hms five to 10 cents al iy western Indiana. This sys-/80,000 gallons of industrial fuel ler ran tp early in the week and pound lower. Scarcity of cholee ,... ni duces some 100 per cent ofl, 14,000 gallons of naphtha and lost all its gain on Friday. Genbeef continued to hold prices . petroleum products. {9000 gallons of liquid petroleum eral Motors gained a trifie. The
steady on lower grades, { down | steel Tr stained by a shar The American Meat Institute, Tecently Rock Island put ¢ Le Niee's UIs Hp y y
irise in steel operations. Oils fell on curtailment of op-
: record high, llion-Mile Cars that it is not uncommon for one tractive than at any time in re-| Pr operty Sales hive pled Rua demand gh, the Big swaying carriers to pass the million-mile mark on its|cent years. This is particularly. 8 5 true of pork chops, sliced: bacon f Concrete Firm Jack C. Carr, realtor, yesterday cause “of unseasonally warm © * MM, D: Douglas, general manager of the GMC Truck & Coach and whole smoked hams, the insti-| reported the sale of 44 properties. Weather.
Fa snd Gun 08 snsonal shu), T°, 478 OTed ahead and
sales have been slower than usual geveral issues responded to highsnd may be expected to continue er dividends or extras which conthis pattern until January. [tinued to flow in fair volume
He predicted the increases in/during the week.
{| In the utilities, sales In January due to dividend tered around Southern Company,
; : | Ready Mixed Corp. Picks Ernest Horne
tute said. 41-Month Low
Cause of the current pork price) §
drop was attributed to the larg-| Ernest Forne, associated with | est national peacetime hog crop
on record. The 41-mohth low, set|th® building material industry for| ’ i Nov. 18. and tied Tuesday, is 45 Years, has been named general... Christmas presents and tered around Souther Company. $15.75. This is 50 cents below the manager of the Ready Mixed Con-| sh weal last OPA ceiling; $16.25, but still orete Corp. ; {an improvement in employment. Southern, and strength in Peo|above the earlier- $14.85 cefling 1100-block Burd: NE Properties sold this month are: ples Gas which made a new high. of June, 1946. sal Pkwy. N 6161 N. Park, 4010 Guilford The latter helped sustain the 15634 Guilford, 315 Hampton, 106th 2VerageSand lift it to a new high |8t., 4422 Ralston, 723 Northview, since 1946. {3119 N. Capitol, 2038 Princeton| Iosses in the railroad issues |Place, 3551 N. Olney, 3047 Forest axtended to more than two points. [Manor, 925-27 KE. 11th St. afd) Business news for the week {2614 E. 9th St. {was featured by a sharp recovery 1713 N. Emerson, 2010 S. Bel-/In steel operations which are re{mont, 1634 Carrollton, Fletcher turning to normal after the re|and State, 4649 Young, 4021 By-|cent strike. iram, $17 Villa, 3446 N. Sherman| Steel mills scheduled their op- { Drive, 2515 8. New Jersey, 7449 N, erations at 78.2 per cent of rated [Meridian, 3684 Central, 4120 Rose- capacity against 57.4 per cent in lawn, 4617 Sunset, 4455 Carrollton, the previous week. The industry sr. Morne joined the Readylser7 N. Delaware and 6121 Michi-|did not observe the holiday. ixed Corp. in 1931 when the gan: Road. | Auto Output Off
building material department pf] - 2 the Johnson-Mass ber Co. 848 Berkley Road, 2620 East, Automobile production fell to a
solved.
$17.25, up $2 above the Tuesday! the late C. Dolly low, : no market Gray, owner and Thanksgiving Day. Vealer, cow founder of the (and steer prices remained ever company. His ap{with quotations of the previous pointment was week. Bull prices rose 50 cents.!made by Lamb sold 50 cents to $1 higher. Edna D. Gray, = . {president of the {fim and chair-(UP)-—A man of the board
BOSTON, Nov. 26 Mr. Horne
Shows Gadget
material division of the A. B.[Ind.; A Millersville and Rucker production was cut sharply by the Meyer Co. in 1904. Four years Roads, 2343 4» 4142 Byram, holiday. In the previous week
activity ecen-|
dis-|4oth, 36th and Bancroft, 3624 Lin- new low for the year at 74,946 wood, 5612 W. Washington, 852 cars and trucks, according to He started with the buldingiEastern, 44 8. Bolton, Geneva, Ward's automotive reports. The
obligations than he was in prewar
NEW YORK, Noy. 26--Utility| days. Disposable personal income is running at an annual rate of
$195 billion or 12 times the amount of debt. In 1939, consumer ine come was only 10 times the outstanding debt of $7,250,000,000. The general assumption is that consumer expenditures on dur
fable goods will drop in 1950. Aft-| sea As merchandise becomes
er a 5 million passenger-car year| pientiful, not only do department
{dependent jobbers marketing gas- ments tell the story from start Thanksgiving Day holiday. the biggest on record—some let-| storey vie with one another and
down would be understandable. | with other types of stores, but
in the Indianapolis Stockyards, separate brand names would This refinery prides itself on S0INg through what traders de-| General Motors off , tak-laiso one type of
ling this into account, have intl- competes with other types of
ifinery as a “dependable source of |ploying 177 le an ing after a rise last week to a new mated that auto sales in 1950, goods: Autos with clothing; washe pe (Pp g people and produc DE: hree-year high In the industrial | though still good by any previous gon machines with dining room
standard, will be down about 15 gyrnjture; sheets and pillowcases per cent. The question is: Willl with foodstuffs, and so on. consumers use the money not| Retailers, incidentally, must
whirl and several made new highs spent on durable good to PUr-'a1s0 fend against the The “Hoosier refinery,” its offi- for the year. The companies are/ chase soft goods?
as a competitor. As rent controls Department store and appar- (are relaxed, as new housing el merchants, ever hopeful, comes on the market, consumers count on a return to prewar [will be torn: Shall they spend on relationships between durable rent or on autos or clothes, etc.? and nondurable sales. In which Nevertheless, the prospect for | case, some Increase in depart- |1950 is that total sales will con- | ment store and gemeral mer- | tinue at a high level. Employment | chandise sales can be expected {remains high, the soldiers’ bonus | fo offset the drop in hard goods [in the spring will give retail vol- | expenditures. ume a fillip, and the fear of a | “All this is in keeping with a deep depression has abated. Bo | post-war readjustment pattern. people ought to be willing to {Competition for the consumer spend a fairly liberal proportion {dollar now embraces a wider of their income.
rrr rrr P+ "DAILY SHOPPERS' SPECIAL"
| | ! i !
. — Reena
Sd - Xe
| For MONDAY, Nov. 28 »* ILLUMINATED TREE-TOP ANGEL * ym * ) Ee GZ »* . »* * * »* » » % » D * »
§1.|
Offset Any Slackening in Durables =
later he joined the Coal Co. and served as manager of their building department 14 He worked for the Lone Star Cement Corp. for two years beginning in 1922 before association with the Johnson-Mass Co.
Plant at Cincinnati DETROIT, Nov, 26 (UP)—Mar
Tomorrow and Tuesday E. P, |Cthcinnat), R was announced toCohn of Kelley-Koett Institute, day. : Covington, Ky. atomic energy | Mr, Katke was hired from Genequipment makers, will demon- |e : strate the new “Pr
1216 Alten, 5003 by and 3037 output amounted to 115.152 units, | N. Colorado, Rosslyn Addition, |and a year ago it was 89,482 cars
Realtor to Talk Constru i
~ Sorry, No Phone
FOR ONE DAY ONLY Construction fell off by 58 per|
or Mail Orders 1 cent, also because of the holiday. _—— es
b Maing 10 por cont ever Taek! ! Aiding 18 11 per r last Slips easily onto top of tree. Halo ted year for the year fo date, “Electricity pro re on tick C74 lamp — Cord with tri-plug — Individually
week and was slightly above a . Gains were reported in J ofl
* %* REGULAR $175 * *
year ago
Offer Good This One Day Only 2 Xk hk k k hk hk hk k hk ¥ ¥
Wateh For Our
“DAILY SHOPPERS’ SPECIALS” From Now Through Christmas
4 BEGoodrich
x x x X¥ X X
i
Ht Hil
Just kidding, the top. ..ts getting old. DePauw « + + S0phomo have seat 1, Soldiers Mon well. . . Boo¢ right idea, s a symphony girls up here student, Lea: show people symphony fr seem friend! aso OULE Lo, What's tl upper balcon ridian. St., sl 15 years and years. . .yes batter... (c in row R sl Instructor R lovers are i better. . . hi she thinks sc up... Sevitz is. . .is the
Rare
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He's Tang AMONG gled with la the educatio egal welfare
"practical pol
old-age pens not a matte administered the state to When Mi inherited a where the J trolled booze patronage. Mr, Lee } was .in the agents to se He also sen charging the the agents r
Wire WASHIN management last week in You may being en ro then for fo paper. The with cablegr touch with |} long distance I heard him mimble. Tox
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