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CHAPTER VI - HAROLD PLAYS THE RAVEN.
Mason Compton, president and general manager, sat in his private office in the
works of the International Machine Company, chewing upon an unlighted cigar
and occasionally running his fingers through his iron-gray hair as he compared
and recompared two statements which lay upon the desk before him.
"Damn strange," he muttered as he touched a button beneath the edge of his
desk. A boy entered the room. "Ask Mr. Bince if he will be good enough to step in
here a moment, please," said Compton; and a moment later, when Harold Bince
entered, the older man leaned back in his chair and motioned the other to be
seated.
"I can't understand these statements, Harold," said Compton. "Here is one for
August of last year and this is this August's statement of costs. We never had a
better month in the history of this organization than last month, and yet our
profits are not commensurate with the volume of business that we did. That's the
reason I sent for these cost statements and have compared them, and I find that
our costs have increased out of all proportions to what is warranted. How do you
account for it?"
"Principally the increased cost of labor," replied Bince. "The same holds true of
everybody else. Every manufacturer in the country is in the same plight we are."
"I know," agreed Compton, "that that is true to some measure. Both labor and
raw materials have advanced, but we have advanced our prices correspondingly.
In some instances it seems to me that our advance in prices, particularly on our
specialties, should have given us even a handsomer profit over the increased cost
of production than we formerly received.
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