Galveston Isle, Volume 3, Number 1, July 1949 Page: 2
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guilty conscience.
I have been reasonably well off
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at times myself
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of cigarettes without having a
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By C. R. GREENING
COLONEL, U. S. A. F.
JULY, 1949
• BUSINESS
The course of business activity in Texas con-
tinued its steady drift downward during May, the
University of Texas Bureau of business Reseat ch
reported.
With very few exceptions the Bureau’s barome-
ters were lower in May than in April. After ad-
justment for seasonal variation, the Bureau s com-
posite index of Texas business dropped 1 per cent
from April to 216 per cent of the 1935-39 base.
This was one half of one per cent below the level
of a year ago and down 7 per cent from the high
point reached by the index in August 1948. May
was the first month the composite index has been
below the corresponding month a year ago since
the reconversion decline in business at the end
of 1945 brought the index for 1946 below the
wartime level of the preceding year.
Miscellaneous freight carloadings rose 1 per cent
and pay rolls gained 2 per cent, while the other
four components declined from April. Department
and apparel store sales were down 10 per cent;
crude runs to stills, 6 per cent; electric power
consumption, 2 per cent; and employment, I pei
cent.
The course of business activity in Texas is
merely a part of the general downward movement
in business all over the country. The trend of con-
sumer income, industrial production, and prices
of industrial goods has continued steadily down-
ward throughout all of 1949, since the aim of all
business purchasing has been toward the cutting
down of inventories and reducing orders outstand-
ing. This shift in business practice has resulted
from the easier supply situation, which has made
unnecessary carrying as large inventories or out-
standing orders as was simple wisdom when prices
were rising and production bottlenecks made de
liveries uncertain. This reduction in inventories and
forward orders has been felt all the way from the
retailer back to the manufacturer, with each state
of the distribution system trying to reduce its in-
ventories at the expense of its suppliers. This pres-
sure for reduced inventories has pushed back to
CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
“e*
.—a.
Please excuse me for relating personal experi-
ences to tell you what I want to tell. You can
skip the first part if you want, but please don’t
miss the ending!
To begin with I’ve been kicking around this
globe, giving my good mother unnecessary gray
hairs, for 34 years. I’ve been kicked more than
somewhat in the process and have delivered a few
well-placed kicks of my own. There were a num-
ber of “ups and downs” in my life, all of which
were important to me, important because they all
had a definite place in putting the picture of life
together. Maybe I can illustrate a little and give a
few examples.
My Dad was at one time a well-to-do banker,
and later so broke he could hardly buy a package
and I have also been broke, most of the time
broke! I can now appreciate being broke more
than most men who were broke, but never well off.
I can also appreciate “the chips” better than men
who have had a lot more than I ever did but
never have been broke.
In school I failed an English class, a few years
later I published a book—not much of a book,
but it was printed. I’ve had to hitch-hike to vari-
ous destinations on the path of destiny, and later
traveled along skyways at speeds of from 300 to
400 miles per hour in the finest fighters and bomb-
ers in the world. What a gratifying feeling of ela-
tion these flights gave me, mosly because I could
look down and see others creeping along as I
had done before.
Two years in prison camps served to make me
realize what a truly wonderful thing freedom is.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
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Maceo, Sam & Llewellyn, Edwin E. Galveston Isle, Volume 3, Number 1, July 1949, periodical, July 1949; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1427495/m1/4/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rosenberg Library.