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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1960)
MAIL TRIBUNE, Mtdford, Or. Sunday, Feb. 7, 1960 JiuiiniDir AelhDvmn)iri)ti Pirogiromro Pssnblle Heir 14 Companies Make Goods As Regular Business Firms By GREG NOKES Mail Tribune Staff Writer The management and em ployees of any company, even a Junior Achievement com pany, cannot bear to stand idly by and watch their firm "go bankrupt, and chances are they will do everything in their power to bring it back T to a profit-making enterprise. At least the members of the Wood Products Co. of Portland did. This Junior ; Achievement company found ; itself with a product that : wouldn't sell and was in dan ', ger of going out of business. . '. The company had been manufacturing wooden nik nak shelves, for which there seemed to be no market. The company found itself with lots of shelves but no money. The management and em ployees put their heads to gether and decided to make a few modifications in the shelf and sell it as an entirely different product in a last ditch attempt to save the j firm. Table Decoration They drilled three holes in the shelf putting a candle in the center hole and a Christ mas tree ball on each side and sold the converted shelf as a Christmas table center decoration. The change-over succeeded and by the time the Christ mas season was over they had made a substantial profit, which they put to use making another product. This product too sold, and by the time the company vol untarily quit operating, the stockholders had received a sizable dividend, and employ ees a good profit. This company no longer ex ists, but it is an example of how serious the teen-agers are when they group together to form JA companies. There are 3,842 J A com panies comprised of students from high schools in 252 com munities in the U.S. and Canada. Speaks at Assemblies To get students interested, ' a representative from the lo cal JA organization speaks at school assemblies and tells the students about JA and the (-business training that high school students get while working in their own compa nies, sponsored, but not run by normal adult businesses. JA started in Springfield, Mass., in 1919, when several industrialists got together and and thought it . would be a good idea if youths living in urban areas could have a pro gram comparable to 4-H and FFA agricultural programs for rural youths, except that it would be business oriented. These men were worried about the many students grad ;. uating from high school who ;. knew nothing about business or practical economics even : though they lived in a coun ! try dependent on the free en- terprise system. I Worried Businessmen If youths didn't know any thing about free enterprise and good business practices by the time they graduated from high school, they rea soned, what mght happen to a country whose very success and high standards of living are attributed to the success of a free enterprise way of life? They decided to do some thing about it, and contribut ed some money to a special fund with which they pur chased a building, bought some machinery and reciuit- ed some high school youths to use these and start their own businesses.' Today, the 3.842 Junior Achievement companies oper- ; ating in communities all over the U.S. and Canada are each sponsored by regular busi nesses, preferably manufac turing firms, which offer ad vice on good business meth ods and practices as the jun ior organization proceeds to .: form and run its own com panies. Serve as Advisors Other than providing three men to serve as advisors in the sales, management and production fields, the spon soring firm keeps hands off of the youths and allows them to make their own decisions and conduct their own busi ness operations. j" . The sponsor is under no ob ligation to see that the junior company makes a profit, nor are they allowed to have any financial interest in the com pany itself. The point is not whether the company makes profit, although no , one turns one down if it is made, but that -youths set practical experi- yW(:l.i.iii,li ii i in lull , ,ll),-iin,ni.ju. JJIIJMUII ''"''''',W''''I? CHECK HURDLE University of Oregon track coach, Bill Bowerman and Hurdler Dave Edstrom, are shown above looking at a new kind of track hurdle, made and sold by Webfoot Products, a Eugene Junior Achievement company. The hurdle has an elastic bar for hurdles to use while prac ticing, but it can easily be replaced by a wooden bar for track meets. This is one of the variety of products made by 2,842 JA companies in the U.S. and Canada last year. ence in and knowledge of business enterprises, and the work it takes to run one. Even if a youth never en ters a business profession for a career, he will neverthe less be in contact with the business world in some way. Student interest in the pro gram is high as was revealed in Portland last year when over 2,000 students applied for participation in JA. There was room for only one-third of them. Criterion for Selection The criterion for selection among the applicants is not one of ' school grades or achievement, but one of abil ity and potential. When JA is making their ' selection they want to choose those students whom they feel will stick with the com pany if the going is rough. . JA cooperates with the schools in choosing the stu dents. They often discuss the merits of each applicant with his respective high school counselor or instructor. Students in JA meet once a week for 32 weeks from Oc tober through May, and each meeting lasts for two hours. All production is done at the regularly scheduled meetings although selling is done on the student's time. First Meeting At the first meeting the students are divided into groups of from 15 to 20 per sons. It is at this time the members of the prospective company notice another nice attraction of JA companies, tliev are co-educational. At the first meeting, stu dents are introduced to advi sors and with their help se lect a name, decide on a prod uct, elect company officers and apply to JA national for a charter to do business. Each student takes home from the meeting a number of shares of stock which he tries to sell. He usually has little trouble because of the excellent reputation of JA. Each share of stock costs 50 cents and no company can sell more than 200 shares. Limited to Purchase No one customer can pur chase more than five shares and this limitation includes company members. This pre vents any one or two persons from buying up the stock and making that part of the busi ness easy for the student. At subsequent meetings pro duction starts. The machinery which JA companies use is rented from the local JA headquarters. The companies also rent of fice space, pay for utilities, pay taxes, and pay themselves wages. . All of these costs are not high but they are paid so the student will $,et the experi ence of having to meet the same kind of expenses that normal companies must meet. Selling Methods JA companies can' sell house to house or through lo cal stores if they can get them to handle their products, but they cannot sell across state lines. The companies are free to switch products at any time during the eight months they are in business. i Most JA products are sim ple, usually, but not necessar ily, using wood in their con struction, and the unit cost seldom runs more than $2. There is no limiation on the kind of product or maxi mum price at which it can be sold, but the restriction on the amount of capital a com pany can have, discourages highly priced goods. The company is not allowed to undersell a comparable product on the market, even if it can make it cheaper. JA does not seek to take business away from established firms, and seldom does (its influ ence on the economic life in a community is never felt). It must keep its prices competitive. Each JA company is re quired to close operations in May, pay stockholders divi dends, if there are any, divide up the profit among mem bers and prepare a profit and loss statement both for the stockholders and for the na tional organization. Award Presented An award is given to that company preparing the best stockholders' report ' for the year. The award is given by the New York Stock Ex change, which also does the judging. Under no conditions may a JA company operate longer than the specified eight months, nor may a student participate in the program for more than two years. Most students who have participated in JA feel that it is a lot of fun, giving them a chance to be their own bosses in a worthwhile, interesting and often profitable activity. JA is popular in the Port land area where in its 10th year there are 38 JA com panies in which 687 students participate. Executive Director James D. Tomlin, execu tive director of the Portland group, said they would like to have accommodated all of the more than 2,000 students who applied, but the number of students that can be han dled is dependent on the number of companies. There are never more than 20 persons in a company so the organiaztion will not get so cumbersome as to detract from its original purpose. They are also kept small so each student will get experi ence in each of the three (management, sales, and pro duction) branches of the company. The number of companies is dependent on the number of sponsors which can be ob tained, the amount of work space available and amount of equipment that can be ac quired. In Portland this year, stu dents in JA have nearly cre ated their own distinct busi ness community. Various Companies One company runs a bank ing establishment which han dles the individual JA com pany accounts and can loan these companies a limited amount of money. Another company devotes itself entirely to auditing the books of the other companies and there is even a foreign import-export company which is' reportedly quite successful. Eugene started a JA organi zation two years ago which, in that short time, has proved very successful, according to William E. Eaton, the execu tive director. There are six companies in Eugene this year and one in Springfield, operating out of the Eugene organization. The most successful JA company in Eugene last year was . the Artistic Products company which made and sold boxes of bottled spices. Over 1,000 units were sold at SI. 25 apiece so more than $2,700 were handled by the company and a substantial profit realized. New Track Hurdle Another of last year's Eu gene companies manufactured and sold a new kind of track hurdle. This hurdle had elastic bars instead of wooden ones so trackmen could practice without fear of injury. They were convertible so wooden bars could be used when there was to be an official meet. The Portland JA organiza tion has spread across the Columbia river to Vancouver, where there are four compan ies and to Camas where there are two. When Richard A. F. Ballou, western regional representa tive for JA, came to Medford from San Francisco last De cember at the request of a number of civic leaders and businessmen here, who were and still are, interested in JA for Medford, he told them that Medford is not too small to have JA. Could Have Four Firms At a breakfast meeting at the Rogue Valley Country club he told those attending that Medford could have four JA companies for an approxi mate cost of $3,150. This money would cover the initial cost of renting a building in which JA com panies could meet, buy all the machinery that companies need to manufacture their products and pay. for many other miscellaneous expenses. Ballou said four companies is tne minimum neeaea 10 make the program, worthwhile. He said the money for the program would probably be raised, as it is in most other cities, from local business and manufacturing firms. Are Not Obligated Those companies contribut ing money are not obligated to become sponsors nor is it necessary for sponsors to con tribute money. All money raised for or made by the local JA organi zation stays in the community where it is raised, going for future JA expansion in the community, or should the pro gram never get off the ground then it will be refunded to its donors. The JA organization is non profit, and doesn't stand to make a cent, Ballou pointed out. The staff of the JA organi zation in, a community is made up entirely ol commu nity people. JA's national headquarters in New York will train these persons and help to get them started, he said. Over 85 per cent of all JA companies make a profit, Bal lou said, but the profit is in finitesimal compared to the educational value that both the community and the indi vidual participants receive. Safety Factor in Electric Fences Said Sufficient New York - (Science Serv ice) - The safety factor now used in the design of electric fences seems to be sufficient, shock tests on 32 men indi cate. Widely used on farms to keep cows out of cornfields, to stake off temporary pas tures or to keep hogs from rooting under permanent fences, electric fences deliver pulses of high voltage at low currents to animals or human beings touching them. The electric pulse is strong enough to cause a person to "freeze" while touching the wire. The time lapse between pulses is a safety factor and is required to be at least three-fourths of a second in length. Can Release Wirt This time lapse, during which the fense is dead, is long enough to let a man re lease the wire, Prof. C. F. Dalziel of the University of California, Berkeley, told the American Institute of Electri cal Engineers meeting here today. In carefully controlled tests, three of the 32 men took nearly four-tenths of a sec ond to let go of the wire after the electric shock. Others could "unfreeze" in less than one-tenth of a second. So the safety factor is about two for the men with the slowest reaction, Prof. Dalziel said. "This off period has been used for a number of years and is considered satisfactory because of the lack of report ed accidents involving com mercial fence controllers," he said. The time lapse is im portant because "death is to be an expected result" if puls es come so rapidly the victim cannot let go of the wire, he said. Charges Recorded The engineers also were told that researchers at the International Telephone and Telegraph Laboratories at Nutley, N.J., have developed a device tnat automatically records time and charges on toll calls. It switches on when it "hears" a voice answer the telephone. The Answering Signal Detector may eventu ally replace the recorder, now used on some systems, that automatically switches on 20 seconds after the last digit has been dialed whether the phone is answered or not. Pure Food Campaign Will Get Into Accelerated Gear March 6 (Editor's note: The "Great Cran berry Scare" just before Thanks giving made the general public more acutely conscious than ever before of government efforts to guard the country's food supply against contamination. Enforce ment of pure food laws enters a new phase on March 6 when an amendment on food additives, adopted by Congress last year, comes into full effect.) School News McLoughlin Junior High By SUZIE LIND Torch Honor pins arrived last week for honor society members. The pins are minia ture torches, symbolic of high scholastic achievement. Washington - A stepped-up pure food campaign, which brought a crisis for the cran berry industry shortly before Thanksgiving and has since thrown millions of dollars' worth of tenderized chicken off the market, will move into high gear on March 6. That is the date when the Food Addi tives Act of 1958 becomes fully effective. The new leg islation forbids food suppliers to use any non-food substance in their products unless they have proved the substance safe for human consumption or have been authorized to use it in a way that will not be injurious to health. A special provision of the new legislation makes unlaw ful the presence in food of any substance which has been found "to induce cancer when ingested by man or animal." That clause reinforced exist ing authority on whi:h Health, Education and Wei fare Secretary Arthur S. Flemming relied when he warned housewives, Nov. 9, not to buy cranberries until certain that those offered for sale had not been contaminat ed by aminotriazole, a weed killer. Aminotriazole had been found to cause cancer in rats, and traces of the substance had been found by food and drug administration inspec tors in certain lots of cran berries. An emergency check of all cranberries on the mar ket uncovered 27 contaminat ed lots, but the great bulk" of the supply was cleared. How ever, fears aroused by the widely publicized affair cut deeply into normal cranberry sales. Confidence Shaken The furor over cranberries had not subsided when public confidence in another staple food was badly shaken. FDA announced Dec. 2 that it was studying the possible effects on health of using stilbestrol to fatten cattle and poultry. Stilbestrol is a female hor mone known to cause breast cancer in men when given in large doses. The poultry in dustry voluntarily agreed to stop using the drug and to withdraw chickens so treated from the market. It was em phasized that residues had been found only in the skin and internal organs of chick ens, not in white or dark meat. And Secretary Flem ming announced Dec. 22 that the weight-building hormone would not be banned in the case of cattle feed, because new tests showed no residues in the flesh of food animals. The American public had little protection against con tamination of its food supply until 1906. The first national pure food law, enacted that year, was directed primarily against adulteration and false labeling, unsanitary practices in food handling, and unregu lated addition of known pois ons to processed foods. Large-scale introduction of packaged foods at a later date made for better sanitation but increased possibilities of de ception. New enforcement powers were finally granted by Congress in the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Soon, however, the regulatory powers were made inadequate again by introduction of new chemicals for use in agricul ture and food processing and by extensive growth of the frozen food industry. The Pesticide Act of 1954 and the Food Additives Act of 1958 were put on the books to pro vide necessary additional safeguards. The 1954 law improved control of chemical residues on agricultural produce by PT&T Operators Honored at Lunch Report cards were distrib uted to Mac Junior High stu dents Wednesday. Honor rolls will be published this week. Seventh grade students who have 3.5 averages and meet other qualifications will now be eligible for Torch Honor membership. Mike McDonald, Terry An derson, Betty Lou Hatch, Cas sie Large, Carole Leon, Shir ley Epps, Ann Jensen, Karen Hugdahl, Sharon Hugdahl, Susan Gordon, Jim Elliott, Susan' Fox, Cynthia Taylor, and Carolyn Cole are seventh graders who are in the final selection for entertainment to be presented at the seventh grade party Friday, Feb. 12, in the cafeteria. Students are to come in costume dressed as someone or something they would like to be. Railroads handled 43 per cent of all freight in the na tion in 1958 and trucks 20 per cent The rest went by ship and air. Judy Zack is chairman for the ticket sale this week for "Cupid's Folly," F.H.A. dance to be held Friday, Feb. 12, in the girls gym. The naming of the King and Queen of Hearts will highlight the evening's entertainment. Architect Moves To New Location . Architect R. J. Keeney has moved his offices from 210 Fluhrer building to 310 Med ical Center building at 33 North Central ave., Medford, he announced Saturday. Keeney has been an archi tect in Medford and Jackson county for 25 years. While expanding the offices the firm has added the ser vices of F. Jerome Hunter, who, like Keeney, is a mem ber of the American Institute of Architects and is a regis tered architect. Hunter is a former Medford resident and graduate of Medford High school. He comes to Medford from Redding, Calif., where he worked in the architecturl I al firm of Smart and Clay baugh. "We needed more space due to the pressure of work," Keeney said. "Our new office will be more ample and more adaptable for services re quired." The new offices include a large drafting room and in dividual conference rooms. Keeney was formerly associ ated with the late Frank C. Clark, Medford. architect. Two operators with the Medford office of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph of fice were honored during a recent luncheon given by fel low workers. Frela P. Hiatt completed 35 years with the telephone company in January with a near perfect attendance rec ord. She has been with the Medford office since June, 1948, when she was transfer red from Grants Pass to Med ford. The Grants Pass office was switched to a dial office at that time. The veteran operator com mutes each day from Grants Pass and usually works the 5 to 11 p.m. shift. During her telephone career she worked in Ashland, Klamath Falls, Yreka, Grants Pass and Med ford. She was presented with a service pin honoring her 35th year of service and a white orchid. She said she has no plans for retirement. Also honored was Colleen Tokar who recently completed 5 years service in the Med ford office. She was present ed a light blue carnation cor sage by fellow workers and was given a service pin indi cating the completion of her fifth year of service. authorizing the food and drug administration to establish safe tolerance levels for toxic chemicals that may remain on food crops after harvesting. The law applies also to dele terious substances in animal feed and forage crops, if resi dues will be left in the ani mal product sold for human consumption. Enforcement Change A highly significant change in enforcement practices is made by the 1958 law on food additives. Formerly, the food and drug administration could seize food products con taining substances known to be harmful and could ban their continued use in foods. But it was up to the govern ment to prove that inclusion of the substance in question constituted a hazard to health. Now the burden of proof is shifted to the producer and user of a food additive. Un der the 1958 law. a product containing an additive cannot be legally marketed until the producer has demonstrated its safety. Under the additive law, FDA is authorized to estab lish tolerance levels for par ticular additives and to ban use of some of them entirely; banning of cancer - inducing agents is required however minute the quantity,. More than 700 different food addi tives are in use today. Many of them are harmless and may be so listed by FDA. In the case of additives not known to be harmless, producers have to petition FDA for a regula tion specifically setting forth the amount that may be pres ent in a particular food prod uct. -- ; ' Applies to All The law applied in the first instance only to additives in troduced after Jan. 1, 1958. Starting March 6, it will an ply to all additives. Because the food industry has lagged in applying for clearances. some familiar food products may become suddenly un available after the first week of March. This will not neces sarily mean that the product is harmful, only that it con tains an ingredient not yet cleared. One-year extensions on clearance may be granted for additives whose use does not involve undue risk to health, but in the case of other additives extensions will be granted only on a show ing that reasonable efforts have been made to develop data on their effects and that more time is needed to com plete necessary tests. 122 Flu Cases Reported in City Influenza cases reported in Medford totaled 122 for the week ending Feb. 5, Dr. C. I. Drummond, county public health officer, reported Sat urday. Ashland was second with 34 cases reported. Shady Cove reported 20 cases. Central Point 10, Phoenix 1, and Rogue River 2. Evans Valley topped the list in number of cases of chicken pox reported, 16. Gold Hill had 4 and Ashland and Medford 1 each. Other cases reported during the week were 12 cases of measles in Ashland, 2 in Cen tral Point and 1 in Gold Hill; 1 case of scarlet fever in Ash land, 1 case of mumps in Medford: 2 cases of measles in Gold Hill, and 3 cases each in Ashland and Medford. Central Point reported 1 case of infectious hepatitis. Medford 1 case of tuberculo sis and Medford and Central Point 1 case each of pneumo nia. Ashland had 1 case of whooping cough. Man Charged With Negligent Homicide Salcm-drii - Charles Lynn Foland, 18. Hubbard, wa charged with negligent homi cide Friday in a traffic crash which claimed the life of a Portland man. Killed in the accident wai George H. Wolfe, 66. The crash occurred on Highway 99 near Woodburn New Year' a day. Foland entered a plea of innocent and was released on $3,500 bond peding trial. RENTALS AND SALES Hudson's Pharmacy 613 E. Main Ph. SP 3-S34S Open Sun.-Holidays 1 0 am to 9'pm Weekdays 9:30 am to 10 pm . Mac students were surprised when they received the third publication of the Junior Quill this year. Printing proc esses have been changed and students are now receiving a newspaper comparable in style to high school papers. Printed on newsprint. Junior Quill now boasts an extra column and two more inches in height. With this bigger and better paper, also come problems for the reporters. More stories are needed to fill the required number of inches reporters need toward getting their journalism pins. First year reporters get cub pins, second year, journeyman pins, and third year reporters. star pins. Deadline for Dog Licenses Nears Last date for buying dog licenses without paying a S2 penalty is Feb. 29, Chris Hag- ler, county dog control offi cer said Saturday. License fee for male dogs and spayed females is $1.50 and S3 for unspayed females. All tags must be on the dogs this year, he cautioned, or the dogs will be picked up and held in the dog pound at 2872 Howard ave.,, Medford. Licenses can be obtained at the county clerk's office in the Jackson county court house in Medford, at the dog pound, and at Phoenix, Tal ent, Jacksonville and Ashland police departments. Licenses may also be bought at Jacksonville's Ras mussen's Super Service gas station, Applegate Shopping Center, Gail's Market, Gold Hill; Rogue River Feed and Farm Supplies, Eagle Point city hall, Butte Falls city re corder's office, Cove Valley Supply at Shady Cove, and Boothby's Sporting Goods at Prospect. Local Trailer Park Listed in Guide Aldrich Trailer ranch, 4425 Jacksonville highway, Medford, is listed in the 1960 61 MHMA Travel and Va cation Trailer Park guide published by the Mobile Homes Manufacturers' association. "This is the second guide of its kind pinpointing and describing locations coast-to-coast where travel trailer en thusiasts may park their trailers overnight or for short periods." according to Edward L. Wilson, MHMA managing director. The trailer ranch is one of 1,697 privately owned travel and trailer and mobile home parks listed in the guide which serves the travel trail er public. Parking sites at 815 national and state parks, monuments and forests are described also together with parking areas in Alaska, Mexico and Canada. CORN REMOVER mttaiti foKof from pM om Ireohr nwtti Kord corn v. soft bttwosn teas, collovus. war, papilloma, club noik. It contains sow rot difforont oik mat soften. In mm Whoa of do strong odd mixtures. omors now foiled try tWt our Ivmoa Roliof. wKidt pom, soranots, swelling first or socond eppftcotion Bath romsdios sold oa if bock guarantee Exclusively at WESTERN THRIFT 2100 to Ui 111 ui X r- O 5 175 Our Beautiful New MORTUARY Now Open! JOE HOSICK Funeral Director OUR CHAPEL Seats 120 persons in beautiful new, com fortable pews. Away from ihe street noises, this peaceful location lends the reverent atmosphere intended for this solemn occasion. Investigate and Save SISKIYOU FUNERAL SERVICE PHONE il SP 2.5488 O Siskiyou Memorial Park ONLY MEMBER OREGON INTERMENT ASSOCIATION IN MEDFORD ALL WITHIN 605 HIGHLAND
