—Lancaster Farming, Saturday r September 2,1972—1
10
Unremitting attack on basic U.S.
business institutions by educators,
professional politicians, students and
others is taking its toll of public confidence
in the entire American system. One of the
latest surveys of the situation by Opinion
Research Corporation has been sum
marized in a national magizme feature
entitled “America’s growing antibusiness
mood.” The magazine prefaces the findings
with the observation, “Since the mid
-1960’5, Americans have been turning sour
on America—on its dreams, its promises,
its leaders . . . m increasing numbers,
Americans are focusing their new,
European-style cynicism on the profits,
prices, and policies of the country’s largest
corporations and on the workings of the
entire economy.”
The ORC survey shows that business
support has dwindled while miscon
ceptions about business have multiplied.
Since 1965, the percentage of the public
expressing low approval of business has
climbed from 47 per cent to 60 per cent. In
the words of the report, “Even more
worrisome, perhaps, the ranks of the
traditionally strong supporters of
business —Republicans, professionals,
managers, college graduates, the affluent,
and ‘initiators’ (thought leaders and
people most active in public affairs)—have
been cut in half ” Incredible as it may seem,
even in this age of advanced com
munication technology, the myth of
exorbitant business profits persists
The public believes that the after-tax
profits of corporations average 28 cents on
a dollar of sales Whereas the actual figure
is but 4 cents Even company stockholders
believe that corporate profits range in the
neighborhood of 23 cents The average
person, according to the survey, considers
10 cents a fair return —a figure that is over
twice the actual corporate return! Mix
conceptions exist in other areas such as
consumerism and product quality and
Most of us do our shopping in super
markets nowadays which often means
chain stores Therefore a few facts taken
from a study published by the Cornell
University Department of Agricultural
Economics on the profit margins of food
chains should help dispel the economic
illiteracy that leads to the tendency to
blame high prices on profits
The study covered food chains which do
$lOO million of business per year or more.
Profit margins of these chains have moved
steadily downward for over five years In
1964 and 1965, such stores made an
average of 125 percent net profit on sales
The next year that figured dropped to 97
percent, then to .91 percent, and then to
45 percent In the 1970-71 year, it was
down to 14 percent The mfaltion which
everyone has been experiencing and which
METROPOLIS, ILL, PLANTET
"Everyone in the United States has an
opportunity now to help stamp out heroin
President Nixon has announced the
establishment of a nationwide, toll-free
telephone number to provide American
citizens with a quick and convenient way to
report information on heroin pushers The
telephone number is 800-368-5363 The
telephones are manned at a center in
Washington around the clock, seven days a
week Trained operators on duty are under
the supervision of experienced Federal
agents. The caller need not identify himself,
and the rights of all callers will be fully
protected. Anyone with information is
urged to call the number to help in the
crackdown against heroin trafficking now
.underway across The. ppunhy.-’.’,.
Business Profits
Nonprofit Industry
Grassroots Opinions
taxes. Judging by the ORC survey, a
growing number of people believe that
companies are doing very little about
pollution. Moreover, a majority of the
public is unwilling to pay for the cleanup. In
the matter of consumerism, an increasing
number of people evidently want more
product laws for health and safety.
The report says, “Corporate price in-
creases rank only second in ORC polls to
the Vietnam war as the major cause of
inflation. Even stockholders (6 out of 10)
believe competition cannot be counted on
to keep prices at fair levels and govern
ment controls are necessary. One third of
the public believes Washington should set
ceilings on profits. Another one third
believes the most practical way for workers
to improve their standard of living is for
them to get more of the money companies
are making rather than for the workers to
increase their productivity.”
Based on the survey findings, Opinion
Research Corporation officials see certain
portents for business. The magazine sums
them up in this way: “Pressures will
continue for a limit on corporate profits...
The push to sell the public on the necessity
to increase productivity will remain one of
the toughest public relations jobs of
business for years to come. Consumerism
will continue to force companies to deliver
what the public legitimately expects of
them, while the environmentalist thrust
pushes up the companies’ costs and
prices. If, by word and deed, business
cannot dispel public mistrust, further
government intervention is certain."
What the surveys appear to show above
all else is that through a misunderstanding
public opinion and the American economic
system of representative government and
free enterprise are on a collision course.
The public has apparently been led to
expect more than perhaps business can
deliver.
has led to a squeeze on family budgets has
also squeezed the earnings of business—
such as food chains.
In an effort to bring the matter of profits
into more understandable perspective, the
chief executive of a large chain store
pointed out that, “If we took all the profit of
all of the retail food chains, cooperatives
and voluntary groups for a year, and
distributed them back to the customers on
a per capita basis, the average per capital
distribution would be less than one cent
per day. If we cut this industry so that it
made no money at all, an average family of
four would get back 28 cents at the end of
the week." For all practical purposes—so
far as consumers are concerned—mass
retail food distribution is virtually a non
profit industry.
EKALAKA, MONT., EAGLE; “Among the
most enthusiastic advocates of withholding
the ‘news' sometimes are those citizens
who get into trouble with the law and feel
they would be avoiding some measure of
disgrace if somehow the information is
kept out of the newspaper columns We
have come more and more to question the
advisability of this course of thought, even
in so-called juvenile matters, but it has
done us little good through the years to
point out that where arrests are kept
secret there is the ever-closer possibility of
the gestapo and the spiriting away of the
citizen on the q.t. to an unknown and
unheralded, but nonetheless catastrophic
fate. From little mfngements of liberty,
mighty repressions grow "
>"■ - ' ,,Q V
“Think on these things”
I have always counted it for
tunate that as a ministerial stu
dent I had to study the Bible.
Forced to plumb its depths by
academic requirements at semi- (Based on outlm „ copyngh „ d by th.
nary, I learned to love tins Book Division of Christian Education, National
:$ S
'S
NOW IS
THE TIME . . .
Max Smith
County Agr. Agent
Telephone 394-6851
To Be Careful
With Alfalfa Cuttings
There is some confusion con
cerning the best time to cut
alfalfa during the fall; we have
refernece to the removal of the
third or fourth cutting and the
possible damage to the plants for
maximum yields the following
summer. Current research work
reveals that in the southeastern
part of Pennsylvania the alfalfa
should not be cut during the first
half of September; it is during
this period that the plants are
developing crown buds and
rhizomes for the following year’s
stems. Harvesting during late
September and early October has
done less damage to the plants
than the early September cut
tings. Work in West Virginia
reveals that crops cut in the
immature stage (before
blossoms) in early September
showed more damage than
mature crops (30 to 50 percent
blossom) cut at the same time.
We urge alfalfa growers to give
some attention to these facts at
this time of the year if they are
interested in keeping their alfalfa
stands for another year.
To Beware of
Silo Gas
Silo filling time is at hand and
many acres of corn will be en
siled in huge tower silos. This
great concentration of silage
creates a larger problem for
dangerous silo gases. Prior to
filling the silo it is difficult to
BECAUSE OF A
BOOK
Lesson for September 3,1972
Background Scripture Joshua 1 I*9,
Isaiah 40 6 8, Daniel 1, John t 12
Oevational Reading Psalms 119 17 27
Somewhere I heard of an old
man who saw a little boy carry
ing a Bible to Sunday school and
said to him “Carry that book
when you are young, son, and it
will carry you when you are old ”
At forty-two. I’m not sure into
which of those age
categories I fit,
but I have already
learned the truth
of what the man
said: that Book
has often earned
me Because of
that Book I have
gotten through
Rev. Althouse some tight places
and endmedsome
fearful storms In the midst of
defeat, disappointment, death,
sorrow, fear, danger, temptation
it has spoken to me when I
have allowed it to do so Al
though it is not reflected in my
life neaily so much as it ought
to be, it has, neveithcless, shaped
its course
know whether or not gases will
develop; however, corn from
heavily fertilized fields, or corn
that has been slowed down by dry
weather, could produce larger
amounts of gas. Farmers and
custom silo fillers are urged to
use extreme care in and about the
silo at filling time and for at least
10 days thereafter. All members
of the family should be urged to
stay away from the silo.
To Apply Lime
in Winter Grain
Fields that are to be seeded to
winter grain this fall and then
seeded down to alfalfa or clover
next summer, should be limed
this fall if they need more
alkalinity. A complete soil test
will reveal the needs both for
lime and for fertilizer elements.
If the lime is worked into the
topsoil this fall before seeding the
winter grain, the small legume
plants will get off to a better start
next spring or summer. Time
should be allowed for the lime to
sweeten the soil. When it is
worked into the topsoil, it will be
much more useful than if it is
broadcast on top of the ground
next spring or summer. Lime is
still needed on many of our soils
to continue to grow profitable
crops of clover and alfalfa. In
many cases the stand of alfalfa is
not lasting long enough because
the soil is not sweet enough.
Legumes like a sweet soil and
will be more profitable when it is
provided.
passion of which so many of the
Bible writers themselves spoke. I
know the tremendous benefit that
comes from meditating “on it
day and night,” and I wish so
desperately that I could persuade
others to make this discovery for
themselves.
Unlike myself and other cler
gymen, most people do not have
to study the Bible, and, because
they don’t have to, they don’t. If
they read it, it is often with a
sense of painful obligation For
the fact is that you cannot prove
the Bible’s worth to another per
son; they can only discover this
for themselves.
The promises seem rash: “for
then you shall make your way
prosperous, and then you shall
have good success” (Joshua 1:8).
Yet ; if we rightly understand
prosperity and success in their
deeper sense, it is true; study of
the Bible does bring us this full
ness of life that goes beyond
sheer material wealth and social
success
The word stands forever
One of the indications of the
Bible’s value is the way that it
stands the test of time. To be
sure, it’s language and thought
forms are often archaic and out
moded, but the basic ideas and is
sues in it seem never to grow out
of date It has an amazing capa
city for remaining contemporary-
Despite its apparent antiquity
—an antiquity more apparent
than real—the Bible is a book for
just such a complex in which
nothing seems to endure. “The
grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of God will stand
for ever” (Isaiah 40.8). Because
of this Book, men today can find
the strength to endure.
Vr