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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1917-07-27, Page 7A WO AN'S FAITH AND PERSISTENCE IT HAS ITS DUE REWARD AFTER MANY DAYS.. At Sight of Her, Speech and Memory Returned to the Sorely - Stricken Soldier. In London I met a woman—a rough, uneducated woman —whose husband was scheduled among the "missing:" For weeks not one woyd had come from him, and then one day a dirty, trench -stained Tommy . arrived at her home with the 'information that the husband was wounded and in a hospi- tal somewhere in England—probably London, he couldn't say for certain, 'writes an English woman. Buoyed up with at new hope, the wo- man hurried immediately to the War Office.. The authorities there told her they had no record of the man be- yond the one word, "missing." They could not help her at all. The good news had only proved an unfounded rumor, For a time she gave way to utter despair. Then some one advised her to go to London again and visit the hospitals in search of her husband. Any one who knew the enormous number of war hospitals and homes and con- valescent places in London will realize the difficulty of her task. But once this woman became pos- sessed of the idea, she could think of nothing else.Her friends tried to dissuade her—in vain. She had deter- mined to visit every ward of every London hospital and see each patient personally. Search of Hospitals. The woman came. to London and visited all the hospitals in turn. The authorities permitted her to walk slowly through the wards. But in the admittance book of no hospital could she ever find the name for which she sought. "Perhaps he's forgotten his name," she told the nurses hopefully. So many heads on the pillows were swathed in bandages that they proved unrecognizable. Ap t!' the hospital . staffs. ointed, ae,;=1N .�u Allege 191n awn, Profits of Tc Willia as Iniic..it e Five Ce t C t 1 Profits T W ©= b i r THE statement issued by the Department of Labor concerning the business of The William Davies Company Limited has been given widespread circulation throughout the country and - provoked public unrest. ` ' Whatever the technical wording of the report was, the effect has been that the newspapers have published that "the profits on Bacon alone" of this Company "for 1916" were about "five millions of dollars." This interpretation of the official Deport is not surprising in view of certain statements that the Commissioner of the Cost of Living makes. The Commissioner is .reported as saying that " There were two individual cases of . profiteering in 1916 and that had these cases occurred since the passage of the . cog of living Order -in -Council, he would consider it his duty to recommend that MINNS For the last fiscal year ending March 27th, 1917, The William Davies Com- pany bought and killed 1,043,000 head of Live Stock (Cattle, Hogs and Sheep.) This, plus purchases of outside Meats, produced 160,000,000 pounds of Meats. The Company handled 6,550,000 pounds of Butter and Cheese, 5,650,000 dozens of Eggs, and manufactured `Z6,500,000 tirs of Canned Goods. The net profits on these were .68 cents (or two-thirds of a cent) per pound on meats, 1.04 cents on Butter and Cheese, 1.04 cents per dozen on Eggs, and .47 cents (or slightly less than one-half a cent) per tin on Canned Goods. These profits include profits on all By -Products derived from these accounts. During the year the Company served at its retail stores 7,500,000 customers, the average purchase of each customer Was S5c., and the net profit upon each sale was 5-8 of 1 cent. -The turnover of the Company from all its operations for the last fiscal year ending March 27th, 1917, was $40,000,000. The net percentage of profit upon this turnover, after deducting war tax, was 1.69 per cent., or including war tax avies Nsy in DlimJB i' ' ai lr Wry' "v' t of trrr Cent er the facts be laid before the Attorney -General for consideration as to their criminality." The situation created by such erroneous and damaging statements is serious as emanating from a Govern- ment official, from whom one looks for not only accurate statements but correct conclusions. The William Davies Company, being a private concern, has fol- lowed the practice of all private corporations, except when it made a bond issue in 1911, in that it has not published reports of its assets and liabilities or profit and loss. The present circumstance, however, in which a Government Official has led the public to false conclusions, makes it advisable for'this Company, for both the public interest and its own interest, to publish particulars of its business as well as point out the error of the statement of the Government Official. 3.45 per cent. The William Davies Company has assets of $13,385,000 of which $3,865,000 is tied up in fixed investments. To provide the necessary facilities for the increased volume of business the Company expended $750,000 in buildings and equipment during the year. Companies of other character present no more reasonable statement of profit and loss based upon the investments made in the business. The William Davies Company offered to the Imperial authorities, as well as to the War Office Service (which represents the Imperial authorities in Canada) to place"the output of its Factory with respect to Bacon supplies, Canned Beef and Pork and Beans at the service of the authorities, on the basis of cost plus an agreed percentage. These offers were successively declined as the authorities evidently desired to purchase in the open market, and on this basis The William Davies Company has secured War Office business by open competition with the world. Respecting the Report o! the Commissioner on the Cost of Living:— Last Winter the Commissioner, under authority of Order -in -Council, . required packers to submit statements • under oath for some years back and up to December lst, 1916, of incoming stocks of Meats and the cost of such, as well as statements of outgoing product and the selling value. This. Com any represented in writing at the "lime:': that the information as: specifically frequircd ns not in accordanee "IR Pt lv1l e a. o et now at once if your husband is found," they told her. But she shook her head and answer - .ed, "I am sure my man is somewhere in London. I am going on until I find . him." Once she saw a soldier whose face *closely resembled the one she sought, andshe hurried forward. The sol- dier smiled. But it was not her man. And so she went on. Into the wards of the great Char- ing Cross Hospital was carried a much -battered Tommy, of whom no- body knew anything. The shock of battle had robbed him of his speech. His identity disc was missing from its place about his wrist, and there was nothing about him to show his regiment or his native place. Memory and Faculties Gone. He lay there for weeks in pain, ap- parently deaf and dum. His memory, too, was absolutely gone, for when the nurses brought him pencil and paper he, could not write down anything about himself. There are thousands of similar cases in Landon to-day—cases which need special treatment to effect a cure. He could eat and drink and sleep, and was perfectly conscious of all that went on about him—but as far as memory and voice and hearing went he was dead to the world. Into this ward came the lonely wo- man who was looking interminably for her husband. She gazed wistfully at the row of beds, where relatives sat . talking and laughing with the cheerful Tomrnies. She was getting rather tired of watching other people's hap- piness. Then she saw one bed where a man lay alone. She stopped to look at the face of this man, for it seemed famil- iar. But disappointment again :greet- ed her, for the face was years and years older than that of her husband, wrinkled, with gray .hair and deep -en- graved lines around the eyes and month. The man stared at her vacant- ly --and she l.aased on, On her return through the big ward, she heard a sudden sound. Her name was being shouted at the top pitch of Rome one's voice. It was the man who had stared at her so vacantly but a few minutes before, but who now was sit- ting up in bed, with flushed face and eager voice, calling her to come to his bedside. "Why, he can speak now," said the sister of the ward, hurrying up. But the man in the bed and the wo- roan whose name lie had called were not listening. For they had found each other! G ' :pan lr to'.examine.the books for way information desired,` and to secure a viewpoint as to the best way of collecting data which would be of use to the Government, This offer was declined, and there was nothing to do but fill in the in- formation required as literally as we could determine it. For example, there was no recognition of the fact that a raw product may enter a factory under a specific classification and leave the factory as a finished product under some other classification. We submitted a series of accurate figures based upon our interpretation of the official requirements which made no provision for charges of any description other than incoming freight and unloading charges to be included in the cost or to be deducted from the selling price. There was nothing in the report which could be read so as to determine a profit and loss statement. The very fact that with only a statement based upon cost of raw products and value of sales in Great Britain a Government Official has deduced "Large margins," "Profiteering" and "Criminality" if it had occurred since the passage of a recent Act, shows too dangerous a tl-ifiing and incapacity to be permitted to deal with any important situation. The statements of this Company have been treated by the author of this report as if the out -going product was identical with the. incoming product, and from the series of reports he has singled out two items—the Bacon and Egg reports—and from thele deduced an erroneous ".margin" which the newspapers have interpreted as "profit." The author of the inquiry shows a strange lack of even a funda- mental knowledge of simple bookkeeping and a dangerous inability to co-ordinate figures. The following are specific and outstanding errors in the report: The principal item that is causing excitement deals with cold storage bacon. The term "cold -storage" is not defined, and the public is allowed to make its own definitions. As all Bacon in a packing house is under refrigeration it is really all cold -storage, and therefore this Company's figures of cold storage Bacon represent the complete quantity of Bacon handled in its entire Plant, whether in freezers main process of cure for immediate shipment. That some coin- 1101 om- paries interpreted cold -storage product as "freezer" product only is evidenced by the smallness or entire lack of figures on the .$aeon list for some Plants, indicating that many Firms did nor submit statements of their complete stocks, as did this.Cempany. An -Official of this Company pointed out this cold -storage distinction to Mr. O'Connor"aud.Miss; McIKenxnai. )tta.mvaafewweeksago, and ilur�etomake yy trtV of desire fo "aCettacy, of the real infermatiou .desired. It is true LA. aVilliam Davies Company, in 1916, exported 97,79L000 p nods 'of Bacon, but we do not know how the margin of 5.0 :cents per pound is arrived at by Mr. O'Connor, as there wer no figures to justify such a conclusion. The probabilities ie that the margin is arrived at by taking the average cost pa:pound of incoming product from the average selling price per pound of outgoing product. This may be a rough wayf - estimating the gross margin when dealing with small fi res, but when dealing with figures the size that Mr. O'Connor has to deal with, a very small fraction of a cent per pound of error makes a very important difference in the total, and one must be careful to make sure that the outgoing prod let is the same finished merchandise of the incoming prodtiet reported on. Allowing it to pass, however, as a rough estimate, we wish to point out—(first)—the inquiry of the Commissioner allowed only kr incoming freight and unloading charges, and made no provision whatsoever for operating charges of any kind, such as labor, curing materials, refrigeration, et cetera. Such actual charges on the 97,701,000 pounds exported were 89,162,000—or 1.2 cents per pound. This amount covered all charges -up to the point of placing the Bacon on cars f.o.b. packing -house. In addition to this was the actual cost tel land and sell this 97,791,000 pounds in Eng- land after leaving the packing house, which involved charges of 2.9 cents per pound—or $2,836,000. Thus 2.9 cents per pound included inland and ocean freight, landingcharges, war and marine insurance, cables, and selling commission to agents. The ocean freight and war risk alone would make up 2.4 cents of the charge of 2.9 cents per pound. This 1.2 cents, phis 2.9. cents—a total of 4.1 cents—must be deducted from Mr. O'Connor's margin of 5.05 cents per pound, leaving a margin of .95 cents, or slightly less than a cent per pound, which still has to be reduced because of the error of premises and because of further factors which have to be considered to determine net profits. It is quite evident some of the other packers did not show selling values in the country in which the goods were The Company does not challenge either the legal or moral right of the Govern- ment to investigate business enterprises when public interests directs such an investigation should be made. If an investigation". of the packing and meat business is ordered, the Company- will place at the disposal of the Government not only the data it would be required to supply under Order -in -Council directing that inquiry be made, but will place the experience of its officers at the disposal of the investigating committee, if it is considered they can render any service which will be of value. The Company has not now—nor. at any time during the fifty years of its operation—anything to conceal in method or practice of carrying on its business. It does, however, claim the right to con- duct its export business ,without abusive comment from Government civil servants—especially when the conclusions drawn from the data asked for are improper and false. One of Canada's chief export industries is the packing business. It is essential to the live stock industry, and, along with other export industries, it maintains the financial stability of this country, and should, providing it is on a sound basis, receive encouragement and not slanderous abuse. In view of the publicity given to the report of the Commissioner on the cost of living, the Company demands the same publicity in ,having an official Government investigation of this report to determine the truthfulness or untruthfulness of its conclusions. We do not seek public consideration as a company, but we do say that untruth- ful official statements, or statements the effect of which is to create an untruth, 'sold—a proceeding quite proper, as the forms submited to be filled in were indefinite and ambiguous, thus permitting with- out charge of evasion a variety of interpretation as to the information required. It is thus possible that of all the figures submitted by the different packers that no two sets, pf �"wigls it 1 Sales prices are deterrdined at the saltie nom ion', wan..' at i this ' iiferer�ce of intern +e .hat" M , -• •; � ce f, . late t d en +o i n r lf. eI aec "f. e �ff t- �Cips o "margin" made by the different companies. Coirennon conclusions, however, have been drawn,by the -author or -the report from varying bases of premises. The figures of the Egg business were submitted on the same basis as Bacon, and similar deductions must be made. (Second)—The above margin is further reduced in that the author of this inquiry singled out the Bacon figures as an item in which the selling price shows an alleged improper advance. over cost, but he did not give us credit for the statements of other products, of which figures were submitted the selling prices of which were under cost. The reason of this was that through failure to inquire the Department entirely overlooked the fact that product may come in as pork and, through the process of manufacture, go out as Bacon or, in another instance, enter the factory as beef and go out in the form of canned meats; for example: much of the product which came in as pork, and which was entered on the pork sheet submitted to the Commissioner—about which he makes no mention—was cured and left the factory in the form of Bacon, and was, therefore, entered on the outgoing side of the Bacon sheet—the result is that the Bacon sales are increased by this amount over the incoming stocks of Bacon, and, like- wise, the sheet showing sales of pork is reduced by the amount that went out in the form of Bacon. If the Department takes one set of figures that show favorable to the Company they should take another set of figures that show unfavorable, as the principle in either case is the same, and failure to do so looks as if the author of the report was exercising more enthusiasm than sound judgment in his investigations. (Third)—It is queried in the report, that "if the margin of 3,47 cents," alleged to have been made in 1915, "was satis- factory, why was it necessary to show increased margin in 1916?" Assuming again for the moment the soundness of the premises in asking such a question based on an erroneous "margin", it will be found that the increased margin is chiefly absorbed in increased ocean freight rates and war risk in- surance in 1916, of which apparently the author of the report was in ignorance. adversely affect the live stock industry of this country, which is so valuable and essential a wealth -producing power and, in the long run, are harmful to the very people that the statement seeks to benefit. , If the passing out of existence of a 'corporation such as The William Davies Company, or if nationalization of packing houses would materially and per- manently reduce food prices, then in view of the present world tragedy it ought to be consummated without delay. The fact of the matter is, however, that with inillion.s of people in Europe turning from producers into consumers because of the war, and the tremendous destruction of food products incident to war, there is no remedy for the high prices of food while such conditions last, except the remedy of thrift and increase of production. Long before there was talk of a Food Controller in the United States or Canada The William Davies Company urged the Government at Ottawa, .in writing, to appoint a Food Controller with full power to do what be saw fit, as we realized at that time the upward tendency in the price of food commodities unless checked by official effort. At the most a great deal cannot be done in reducing food prices while currency is inflated and until the scale of prices of all kinds of commodities declines also. What can be done can only be done by a Food Controller. We wish to point out .that nothing at all can be neeomplished unless the data secured are accurately and clearly made and the deductions therefrom sound. Only public harm arises from dangerous incompetency in the haphazard collection and careless use of important figures. As far as The William Davies Company is concerned this terminates all public statements of the Company, and it will pay no more attention to speculative and haphazard statements made either by newspapers or civil servants. The only further statement that will be made will be at an official investigation,. To .,met , Jidy 17th 1917 enc THE ILL/ rsca,ai,arti:enco ittarm r,raimammma . six; v*I-s,ua.+u+tommt. m rem re crlaxit E C. FOX, General Manager M DAVIES C ?t tP Y, LIMITED . _ _. .. actin:.tix.:�w�ra..•aK::,wkamoa--,• . -"'am,�raaimcaam,..M_-mmmssm� arm,men+wemvniw+�,.n.ew.mma�.aum.e�a•••�x,y,e:,•,•••,• 11