The "let your hair down" column

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The "let your hair down" column
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume XXVII (Issue No.5) May 1951
Year: 1951
Rights
Fulltext: 172 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL May, 1951 New 1951 EVEHSHARP SCHICK INJECTOR The — “LET YOUR HAIR DOWN” - ----------- Column BLADES Distributors PHILIPPINE EDUCATION CO. MANILA Thia Journal is one of the best media for advertising addressed to business and plant managers THE Chamber will have to buy a copy, for its library, of “First Ma layan Republic, The Story of the Philippines”, by former Associate Justice George A. Malcolm. The editor came back from a luncheon given by Justice Malcolm at the Manila Hotel, with the book under his arm, but he said that was his personal copy, and he proved it by an inscription in the Justice’s hand writing on the fly-leaf. ' The luncheon marked the occasion of the formal launching of the book, which, Justice Malcolm said, was taking place on that day,’ May 5, not only in Manila but “all over the world”. The editors, book dealers, and critics present, who had just partaken of a fine meal, applauded heartily. The book is a publication of the Christopher Publishing House, of Boston, con tains 14 illustrations, mostly portraits, and the jacket bears high recom mendations from such personages as Vice-President Fernando Lopez and Mr. Frederic H. Stevens. The book was written during the past two years in Hollywood, Cali fornia, where Justice Malcolm makes his home, and in Manila, and is therefore well up-to-date. The whole story of' the Philippines is told in 460 pages, with chapters on the physical features and the climate of the country, on the origin and the characteristics of the people, and on the historical background, with a following, more elaborate treatment of the American regime, the Commonwealth, the war period, and the Republic, the Constitution, etc. Additional chapters deal with the economic resources, trade, finance, etc. of the country. Fact-studded, yet highly readable, entirely friendly, yet sufficiently outspoken, the book is the fruit of the knowledge and experience of the Philippines gained since the year 1906, when Mr. Mal colm first came to the country, a law graduate, whose first job here was a clerkship. Rising to Assistant Attorney General, he was the founder and first Dean of the College of Law of the University of the Philippines. In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson appointed him as an Associate Jus tice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, a position which he held until shortly after the inaugura tion of the Commonwealth, when he joined the staff of the American High Commissioner. Four years later he left the Philippines to become Attorney General of Puerto Rico. “First Malayan Republic” is the most comprehensive, informative, and interesting one-volume work on the Philippines available. q peaking of books, the Standard^Vacuum Oil Company, Philip pines, sent us a beautifully illustrated and printed, 136-page book, entitled “Oil for the World”, written by Stewart Schackne and N. D’Arcy Drake, and published by Harper & Brothers. The book covers the history of the industry, the geology, also the drilling, the refining, and the transportation (including a descrip tion of the over 150,000 miles of pipe-line in the United States), with a chapter, too, on the organization of the industry, and is full of truly fascinating information. We devoted a whole afternoon to reading this book and studying the maps,—the more interesting because of the recent developments in Irak, and an odd coincidence was that that same after noon there was delivered to us another oil-book, the “Diamond Jubilee Book” of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, published in The Hague, 208 pages, cloth-bound, and sent to us by courtesy of the Shell Company of Philippine Islands, Ltd. This book also is handsomely printed, finely illustrated, covers much the same ground as the other, perhaps a little more fully in some respects, but deals more specifically, of course, as the title indicates, with the history of the Royal Dutch Company, founded in 1890 with a concession in North Sumatra. In 1907 it formed the famous alliance with the “Shell” Transport & Trading Co. Ltd., Lon don, which has remained until the present time the basis of the socalled Royal Dutch/Shell Group. The history is recounted in some detail and we look forward to a careful reading of it. May, 1951 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 173 'i YOU WANT ■ ■ ■ 1 ... to eliminate timeconsuming, separate pay roll postings? 2 . . .to eliminate eostly copying errors? 3 ... to have an easyto-check, faster, more accurate payroll system? 4 ... to cut your over head with a machine that’ll pay for itself. . . in valuable lime and mo ney savings for you? 1 5 IF YOU DO,... THEN YOU NEED AN UNDERWOOD SUNDSTRAND THE PAYROLL MACHINE THAT SPEEDS THE Ask for a FREE demonstration NOW! We'll show you how you can cut your overhead.'... save time and money! St:iTH.BELL^CO..LTD. TRADE AND COMMERCE BLDG MANILA Tel. 2-69-71 Wf. were in a friend's office the other day when he asked his secretary to get a local banker on the telephone. The girl came back a moment later and said the banker was ‘‘in conference”,—as, of course, she had been informed by his secretary. Our friend exclaimed: “If there is any thing that makes me angry, it’s this reply you often get from a business house that the man you want is ‘in conference’! What do such fellows thinlc they are? Diplomats? “How much more sensible it is,” he went on to say, “when you are told that he is busy with a customer or client and the girl then asks politely whether she may call you back when he is free.” “Dear H: “Having been deeply touched by reading your subtle SOS in the ‘Let Your Hair Down’ column of the April Journal, and as I have two bottles of whisky and you apparently none, I am. sharing mine with you, lest I be deemed a hoarder. One herewith. “Perkins.” Reply: “Dear Mr. Perkins, “My first reaction to your (1) note and (2) bottle was a laugh that brought tears to my eyes; I appreciated especially your ironic use of the word ‘subtle’, for while, as you have proved, the paragraph was effective to a degree, it was certainly not deft. "Next, sheer joy at having actual posses sion of a bottle of prime Scotch. “Then, shame at having been taken so literally with a blush mantling my brow at the crude mendicancy it might be supposed I was guilty of. “A flash of panic at what the Chamber Board of Directors might think about the use of the Journal columns for such personal solicitation. “A half-decision haughtily to return the bottle with a statement that I had been misunderstood. “But at the thought that this might offend the giver, a moment of stark terror. “A 'blank. I re-read the note. “Then, suddenly, pity for the giver who, having only two bottles, deprived himself of half of his total supply for my sake. “A grinding sense of being wholly un worthy of such a sacrifice on the part of another. “A half-decision to return the bottle with a note affectionately chiding him for such unheard-of self-sacrifice. “By that time I had the bottle open and was sniffing the contents (N.B. I don’t drink during working hours). “The thought that now I couldn’t return the bottle. Actually, I could, of course, but the giver might only suspect me of having watered it, and that would be an insult on his part and, if I had, a crime on mine. “Certainly, I could not allow so happy an incident to come to so dire a conclusion, Oh, nay! “You a hoarder, Mr. Perkins? If a hoarder, Mr. Perkins, only of the admiration and esteem and love and adoration and venera tion of your fellow-men, Mr. Perkins. Skoal!” Second note: “Dear H. “I used a certain amount of poetical license when I said I had only two bottles. But thanks for your letter just the same. “Perkins.” Reply: “License cheerfully conceded and with profound relief. Thanks all the same.” YOU i WANT EMPLOYERS !p BRADMA FOOLPROOF PAYROLL SYSTEM AND THE 1 ... to eliminate cal culating your employees’ earnings every payday? 2 ... to eliminate typ ing or writing all your payroll forms every pay day? 3 ... to eliminate time consuming typing errors? 4 ... to eliminate doubt in the accuracy of ydur payroll system? IF YOU DO, THEN YOU NEED ADDRESSING MACHINE! for a FREE demonstration NOW! We’ll show you how you can cut your overhead!... save time and money! SMlfli JELUCO'lTD. TRADE AND COMMERCE BLDG MANILA lei 2-69-71 174 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL C. F. SHARP & COMPANY, INC. STEAMSHIP OPERATORS—AGENTS SHIP BROKERS GENERAL ORIENTAL AGENTS: WATERMAN STEAMSHIP CORPORATION Mobile, Alebeme THE IVARAN LINES-FAR EAST SERVICE (Holter-Sorenten—Oslo, Norwey) PACIFIC ORIENT EXPRESS LINE (DITLEV-SIMONSEN LINES) (TRANSATLANTIC STEAMSHIP CO., LTD.) Sweden GENERAL STEAMSHIP CORPORATION Sen Franciico SIMPSON, SPENCE t YOUNG New York V. MULLER Kobenhavn, Denmark Head Office: 5TH FL., INSULAR LIFE BLDG. MANILA, PHILIPPINES TELEPHONES: 2-69-56 2-69-57 2-69-58 2-69-59 2-69-50 Branch Offices: SAN FRANCISCO—SHANGHAI SINGAPORE-PENANG TOKYO—YOKOHAMA NAGOYA-OSAKA SHIMIZU—FUSAN (KOREA) Cable Addren: ” SUG ARCRAFT" all officer How’s this? “My dear H: “Article in TIME, May 7, 1951, ECA policy on remitting dollar profits. 'To encourage U. S. investment abroad, the Econ omic Cooperation Administration provides that any profits earned in Marshall Plan nations may be converted into dollars. Last week, to lure still more foreign investments, ECA boldly broadeqpd its insurance. It announced that in the future, for a yearly fee of 1% of the amount involved, it will insure U. S. business ventures in Marshall Plan countries against expropriation (but not against war damage or normal business risks).' “The above item suggested an idea to me. I do not know how Marshall Plan assured American investors of the remission of profits in dollars. A similar plan could be adopted here much easier to enforce. “Let every American citizen who wants to withdraw dollar profits register his invest ment with ECA, supported by proper evi dence that the investment had been made prior to the adoption of the proposed system. , “Upon ECA’s certification, the peso profits could be deposited to the credit of ECA in a local U. S. depository bank. ECA in Washington would then draw dollar checks payable in the United States, at the official exchange rate. The pesos accumu lated here would be transferred to Veterans’ Bureau and other Federal agencies making peso payments, and these agencies in turn would reimburse ECA in dollars at Wash ington. “In other words, instead of the United States turning over all its dollars to the Central Bank for free, they would be ear marked for paying profits to United States citizens. Central Bank wouldn’t like it, but it would certainly stimulate American investments in the Philippines. If the dollars available are not sufficient, priority should May, 1951 be given to profits from new investments, and the profits from previous investments could be pro-rated. “It’s about time the United States should look after its own people. “I do not have the sources of information to enable me to judge the possibility of the idea. So I am passing it on to you to use if you wish, without attribution. “Yours truly...” Here’s pretty high praise! “Mrs. Marie Willimont American Chamber of Commerce “Dear Mrs. Willimont: “Thank you very much for your letter of March 10 advising me that my application for active membership in the American Chamber of Commerce has been approved, effective May, 1951. “It is indeed a pleasure to become a member of this organization which is doing such good work for the American business community in the Philippines, and has also been of great assistance to me personally in the past. “Your bulletins, as well as the monthly Journal, are the ‘bibles’ of many business firms here. I assure you that we use them daily, and find that your releases are the best way of keeping abreast of developments in this country. “Enclosed please find our check for P310.00 which covers your Statement No. 2963. This is one statement which we enjoy paying. “Very truly yours, "A. R. CUMMINGS Vice-President “Vick International, Inc. Manila” EVERETT STEAMSHIP CORPORATION GENERAL AGENTS ‘ AMERICAN MAIL LINE To and From Portland Seattle Vancouver Tacoma PACIFIC TRANSPORT LINES To and From California Philippines BARBER-FERN LINE Service to U.S. Atlantic Via Straits, Suez, Mediterranean FERN LINE To and From North Atlantic Ports Gulf Ports—Philippines EVERETT ORIENT LINE Serving the Orient Philippines to China, Japan, Korea, Straits and India Ports PHILIPPINE STEAM NAVIGATION CO. Serving the Philippine Islands 223 Dasmarifias St., Manila Tel. 2-98-46 (Priv. Exch. All Lines) Success and Failure . . . (Continued from page 142) as well as so inefficient in economic production as to deepen the general poverty, was not clearly enough understood, and for that reason mainly, communism constituted a terrible threat to democracy and was greatly to be feared. For if the error persisted until it was too late to rally the forces of democracy, then all freedom and all it guarantees now and for the future, might be lost. Fortunately for mankind, com munism in practice is destroying itself. Communism as an actual governmental regime in Russia and in those countries to which its iron yet blundering rule has been extended, is itself serving to expose the error and to clarify the true nature of democracy. Communism’s appeal to idealism is everywhere rapidly fading. As a form of state organization it is demonstrating, for all men to see, that it is a poverty-stricken slave regime under a few dominant men who rule by terror. The only remaining strength of communism, therefore, is the strength of evil, and, as we wrote in these columns some months ago, the ata vistic evil in man’s nature is still demonically powerful. Yet all civiliza tion is proof that it has always in the long run been overcome. So long as communism could appeal to the good in man, it was greatly to be feared; proved to be evil, it may be feared much less. And when the representatives of our democracies, in international con ferences, face the spokesmen of the Kremlin, it should be no matter of dismay, but rather a source of refresh ment and renewed strength, that they can not agree. That such con ferences have failed to lead to concord between the democratic and total itarian states does not denote failure on the part of the representatives of the democracies, but their deter mined maintenance of the great values of civilization. Individualism and communism, democracy and tota litarianism are irreconcilable. The only outcome conceivable as suc cessful could never be a compromise; it would have to be a Kremlin sur render.
pages: 172-174