Happy Chorus

"Sales and earnings for the second quarter," crowed Johns-Manville Corp.'s Board Chairman Lewis H. Brown, "were the largest for any quarter in the company's history." He did not crow alone. In the spate of second-quarter reports that came out last week, many another businessman sang the same happy tune.

Of some 300 corporations reporting, only eight were in the red at midyear. More than 70% of the rest showed gains over 1947. As expected, the oil industry kept its lead by pumping out profits even faster than it pumped up record supplies of oil. Gains ranged from 33% for Jersey Standard (to a record of $210 million for the first six months) to 143% for Atlantic Refining (to a record $16,281,000).

Puff, Puff. The big surprise was the railroads which, thanks to rate increases, were by & large chuffing along from slim profits into fat ones. For example, Baltimore & Ohio, with a half-year net of about $9,000,000, was up 73%. The Denver, Rio Grande & Western, with a net of $3,583,395, was up 260%. A major exception was Robert R. Young's Chesapeake & Ohio (see below), whose profits were nipped a third by the mine stoppage. Even the small, potato-hauling Bangor & Aroostook, which had not made money in any June since 1935, showed a profit of about $20,000 last month.

However, a few industries were already feeling the effects of competition and the buyers' market. With the backlog in trucks about gone, profits fell for such smaller producers as Mack Trucks (down 50%) and Autocar (down 90%). Colgate-Palmolive-Peet's half-year profits dropped more than 50%. Bendix Home Appliances also felt a sag in sales, reporting a profit of $900,550 for the second quarter v. $2,565,-208 for the corresponding period last year. Profits of shoe companies were down; International Shoe was off 19%.

But these were more than made up for by profit increases in food, chemicals, coal, paper, utilities, manufacturing. Some typical nets: $3,543,627 for National Cash Register (up 35%); $24,041,851 for Union Carbide. & Carbon (up 41%). Some exceptional ones: $5,742,000 for General Foods (up 290%), $706,887 for radio-making Admiral Corp. (up 180%).

Second Wind. The worrisome question of whether profits were keeping up with the overall increase in sales got some mixed answers. For H. J. Heinz Co., whose net dropped 18% despite a 17% rise to an alltime high in sales, the answer was no. But profits far outdistanced sales in other cases. For example, with sales up only 36% over the same period last year, General Portland Cement's six-month net jumped over 75%. In this year's second quarter, Willys-Overland had a 29% rise in sales, a 70% rise in profits to $2,019,029. Perhaps the best part of all this rich news was that backlogs, in general, were as big as ever. The prevailing optimism was expressed by Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., whose profits are running 66% over a year ago. Obviously undisturbed by coal-mine wage boosts, the company expected the second half to show "an even greater improvement."

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