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 XXX (Issue No. 6) June 1954
Year: 1954
Rights
Fulltext: June, 1954 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 247 The^ “LET YOUR HAIR DOWN” A SPLENDID illustration of the concerted cooperation the Jour nal is receiving from business men is supplied by the following letter from Mr. H. A. Suess, Second VicePresident of Conrad & Co., Inc., which runs as follows: “With the enclosed report, we will have supplied the American Chamber of Com merce Journal with data on Manila Hemp for one year. Prior to that time, the Colum bian Rope Company furnished the reports for approximately a year and a half. Accord ing to an agreement between the Columbian Rope Company, Macleod fis Company, and ourselves, the three firms will alternate yearly in furnishing this information and, therefore, for the next 12 months the reports will be made by Macleod & Company. Yours very truly, etc.” The editor, of course, is highly pleased by this arrangement as it spreads the burden of the work and makes for some variety of presenta tion which, in turn, may lead to a greater freshness and increase reader interest. The passing of the years has only tended to show what a happy invention “The Business View” department was when it was insti tuted in the first issue published under the present editorship. It is indeed a unique thing in business journalism that a publication such as the Journal should be largely made up of regular first-hand con tributions, all of them of the highest authority, prepared by leading bus inessmen themselves instead of by a staff of reporters who at best write only at second-hand. At the begin ning, there was some doubt that the Department could be kept going, but the interest in the Department, both of the writers and readers, is so great that it has kept going almost automatically in so far as the editor is concerned who, generally, merely sits back and waits for the monthly column contributions to come in. “Oh, is that so!” Said the editor. “And don’t you go and put ideas into people’s heads! A regular alternation of column editors is a fine thing, all right, in such a column as ours on Manila Hemp, but it would not work so well with some other col umns, especially with such columns the conduct of which is not so easily distributed airiong a number of firms in the same field. I am well satisfied with all our column editors and don’t want any of them to get the idea they might turn the work over to someone else. For heaven’s sake! That makes me tremble all over.” 't'he criticism expressed in the A following letter from Mr. Frank S. Tenny, Executive Director of the Philippine Safety Council, with respect to the relatively small weight given to the security factor in the “investment climate” tables pub lished in the April issue of the Journal and taken from the magazine World (New York), appears to be well taken: I Here’s the modern way to screen cane juice Screen juices the low-cost way—cleanly and effectively—with LINK-BELT Liquid Vibrating Screens. This preferred method gives greater screening performance with less maintenance. It’s equally effective for the fine separation of raw mill, secondary and hot clarified juices. Many screens are now in service in leading sugar mills throughout the world. We invite you to send us your capacity requirements for study and recom mendation. See your LINK-BELT representative for prompt, expert service. Exclusive Representatives for LINK-BELT COMPANY, U.S.A.: THE EARNSHAWS DOCKS & HONOLULU IRON WORKS Main Office: Cor. TACOMA & 2nd STS., PORT AREA, MANILA • TEL. 3-35-41 Branch Offices at: BACOLOD CITY • CEBU CITY P. O. BOX 282 LINK-BELT liquid vibrating screens are fast becoming first choice in mills everywhere “As a member of the Chamber, and being in the safety business, I was very much interested in the article entitled ‘Philippines Ranked as to Investment Climate’ which appeared on page 127 of your April issue. “I cannot agree with the low comparative value put on ‘security’ in the tables presented in the article. Without seeming to be critical of our host country, I make the following comments on the ranking method in general: “(1.) Perhaps the classification of ‘Prop erty Security’ (Number 4 in the table) is meant to include all phases of security, such as efficiency of police protection, poten tial dangers from dissident or strike violence, criminal tendencies of some elements of the population, prevalence of pilferage and the like, general efficiency level of private security guards, etc. If not, then most of these 248 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL June, 1954 important factors are not included in the complete rating table. "(2.) The classification referred to only comprises 3% of the total rating scale. It seems somewhat disproportionate, when one considers that poor security factors may well be the deciding factor when it is being decided whether or not to establish a plant in a given foreign country. In other words, this ‘minor’ factor of 3% may outweigh the other 97% under appropriate circumstances. So, should it not be given more than a 3% value? “(3.) Further, no mention is directly made of general safety conditions in the country in question. It would seem, at least to me, that such things as the vehicular accident rate, the prevalence of fires, the industrial accident rate, and similar elements would have their place in such a rating table. Or do our present United States businessmen place the entire burden on insurance in these cases? If so, they may expect high premium rates. “Of course, I admit to being somewhat prejudiced on the subject of safety-security A Worthington For Air Jobs Like These I I Air-jet cleaning... tire inflation ... light sandblasting... paint spraying... pneumatic controls ... agitating, blowing and clean ing with air... boiler tube clean ing. .. operating pneumatic pres ses in laundries or in baling, me tal-forming, concrete block-mak ing, etc. ... operating pneumatic clamping and feeding devices, etc. Compressor Is Your Best Bet for Long, Efficient Simple, compact and quiet, qua lity-built throughout, Worthing ton Balanced Angle Air Com pressors will give you a new outlook on economy and effi ciency in many compressed-air uses. Let us tell you more about the advantages these thoroughly modernized compressors can bring to your own particular needs... Our address is: Edward J. Nell Co., Arzobispo, Intramuros. and am frequently stressing its importance to businessmen and industrialists. However, it did come as something of a shock to see an apparently responsible survey take such a light attitude toward this vital (I think) subject.” 'r'o universal cheers, President Magsaysay on June 3 issued a proclamation restoring standard time the next day, cutting short the period up to June 30 during which “daylight-saving” time was to be in effect as decreed by him in an earlier proclamation which went into effect on April 12. The main idea was to afford workers more time for recrea tion in the afternoons, but numerous protests were received from persons, and especially parents, who objected to the earlier rising hour. We wrote Low-Cost Service a “piece” on the subject which was crowded out of last month’s issue but which is possibly still of interest, at least, so we hope. «As if we did not have enough of controls,—up to here,” the editor said with a gesture signifying satiety, “now they have started trying to control our very hours, our lifetime habits of working and eating and sleeping. This so-called ‘daylightsaving’ nonsense is the most irritating of all. As for me, I shall continue to keep precisely the hours I have been observing, regardless of all the clocks that have been tampered with and all the factory whistles, which now are all an hour off. “You know, daylight-saving laws were first enacted in the United States as a war-measure in 1916 in order to utilize for work, in summer, the earlier morning daylight hours, this being done by moving ahead all timepieces generally by one hour. There might be some advantage in this in the northern hemisphere, but with us, in the tropics, there is no great difference in the length of the day, summer and winter. “Daylight saving here requires everyone to get up an hour earlier in the morning, and this necessitates •DUMP YOUR TRAVEL WORRIES for carefree travel at its best... consult "Your travel agent in the Orient" • TRAVEL COUNSELORS • BOOKING AGENTS/or oH oirl/ner 217 Dasmarlnas, Manila • Tel. 2-69-56 Exclusive Philippine distributor: THE EDWARD J. NELL CO. Anda corner Arzobispo & Sta. Lucia, Manila P. O. Box 612 TeL 3-21-21 June, 1954 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 249 going to bed an hour earlier every night, but, as we all know, during this season it is too blooming hot to go to bed any earlier than we do. The coolest hours now are from past midnight to early morning and those are the needed hours for sleep. So this daylight-saving time means sleep losing time. I can see the whole country dragging its feet from sleep lessness and ending up in collapse from nervous exhaustion. . . “At home I have a fine old grand father clock, six feet high, with a great, slow-moving brass pendulum and beautiful chimes every quarterhour. It is a very accurate clock, and I would no more [think of setting the hands of that clock forward and making it falsely ring out the hours, than I would tell my grandchildren that it is the thing to do to tell a lie with every tick of the clock. Twelve o’clock is not eleven o’clock. Noon is when the sun is on our meridian. Why, besides the old grandfather clock, I have a sun-dial in the garden! Imagine the sun-dial saying one thing, and the clock something else. That way madness lies. I want my time, the local time, with noon, noon; midnight, midnight; and all the beautiful hours in-between in that grave an unalterable order deter mined by the majestic motions of our earth in the light of the sun. EVERETT STEAMSHIP CORPORATION Owners-Brokers-Agents Manila 155 Juan Luna St., Tel. 2-79-31 General Agencies AMERICAN MAIL LINE Portland Vancouver Japan Straits To and From Seattle Tacoma Philippines Indonesia PACIFIC TRANSPORT LINES To and From California-Japao-Philippines BARBER-FERN-VILLE LINES To -U.S. Atlantic Via Straits. Suez, Mediterranean FERN-VILLE FAR EAST LINES To and From North Atlantic Porte Gulf Ports-Philippinee Via Panama MESSAGERIES MARITIMES To and From Europe and Mediterranean Porte EVERETT ORIENT LINE Between Philippinee, China. Japan Korea, Straits, and India Ports EVERETT STAR LINE Between Japan, China, Straits, India, and Persian Gulf Porte PHILIPPINE STEAM NAVIGATION CO. Serving the Philippine Islands UNITED STATES SALVAGE ASSOCIATION UNITAS OSLO THAI AIRWAYS To and From Bangkok, Singora, Singapore Hongkong, Taipeh, Okinawa, and Japan “And speaking of our proper local time,—you know that the Japanese, during their late stay here and for their own convenience, decreed that the Philippines observe Tokyo time, —which is exactly equivalent to the present ‘daylight-saving’ time! That alone raises my bristles! “This tampering with standard time actually falsifies history! Most of the ex-Santo Tomas internees, for example, will tell you that the supreme moment of their lives, when the American Army tanks crashed through the gate on Calle Espana, "...we have experienced continuous smooth running" “We have been using exclusively your Rotella Oil 30 in our engines in Dipolog for some years now, and must confess that we have experienced continuous smooth running in the plant. “This fine lubricating oil, coupled with the technical assistance that you make available to us in the way of periodic analysis of engine oil, indeed aid us in our objective—to give the people of Dipolog reliable service.’’ VISAYAN ELECTRIC COMPANY, S. A. (Sgd.) GIL GARCIA Vice-President & Manager SHELL ROTELLA OIL SHELL TECHNICAL SERVICE offers you Planned Lubrication— detailed study and complete analysis of plant and machinery, advice on lubricants application, oil change periods ... facilities of SHELL Laboratory, Manila, are available to all customers. For full details, telephone or call yowr nearest SHELL Office. Offices in Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod and Davao. J»1 LEADERSHIP IN LUBRICATION came at nine o’clock that unforget table Saturday evening of February 3, 1945. But that was ‘Tokyo’ time. It was really eight o’clock, Philippine time.” uvuthat makes me feel so damn w hot?” we asked rhetorically the other day, not expecting an answer. But we should have known that no one can ask a question around here without getting some sort of answer from the editor. The poor fellow has professionally had to play the pundit for so many years that he 250 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL June, 1954 seems to think he must produce an answer for everything anyone can ask. It must be a terrible strain. But he popped out with an answer to our question about the heat right away. “The sensation of warmth which you feel, is due to the bombardment of air particles; the hotter it is, the greater the velocity of these parti cles.” “Is that so!” said we, fanning our self (or should we say ‘ourselves’?). “How interesting that is. It already makes me feel cooler.” “Yes,” he said. “Of course, I am speaking only of the sensation of warmth. Why it is hot, you know as well as I do. Isn’t this the hot season, summer-time, in this hemi sphere, when the sun’s rays come down upon us most directly, with the least slant?” “Yeah,” said we. “But it seems to me that it is getting hotter every year.” "That is the fact,” he replied. “Temperatures all over the world have shown an upward trend during the last century. Especially during the last four decades, glaciers have been in retreat all around the world. The explanation has been suggested that this is due to an increase in the carbon dioxide in the air as a result of expanding industry...” “No offense,” we said, “but how do you come to know so much!” “I was going to tell you,” he said. ‘*What I have just told you, and much more, may be learned by all from one of a very informative series of articles in Life on ‘The World We Live In.’ “If you took the trouble to read those articles you wouldn’t always be asking so many questions.” That rather made us feel hotter, and it wasn’t because of air particles either. . . We reddened and the man read our mind. “Pique, anger, resulting from in creased secretion of the adrenal hor mone and heightened blood-pressure!” But we hadn't asked! “In hot weather you must keep cool,” said the insufferable fellow. Unsurpassed in durability! SANKEY FIRE BRICKS B. M. Scotch - resists intense and intermittent temperatures. Medium thermal conductivity. 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pages: 247-250