Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current, July 22, 1977, Image 10

Griffin daily news., July 22, 1977, Page Page 10, Image 10

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Newspaper Page Text— Griffin Daily News Friday, July 22,1977 Page 10 ...X', "*****'*’■ ■*: ** ' . r -.. Z • • kZ'• ■ Good year AUGUSTA, Ga.—Worm infestation, blamed on lace of rain, may help aerial applicators have a good year financially. Pilot Robbie McMillan and Robert Harden fuel and ready plane in preparation for a Burke County flight. (AP) These companies examples of business uncertainties NEW YORK (AP) - The un certainty of business is no more vividly illustrated than in the fortunes of two Memphis, Tenn., companies — Cook In dustries, Inc., and Union Plan ters National Bank. The directions taken by those two concerns — both well known nationally and internationally — are good examples of the fact the nothing is predictable in corporate life. CATFISH CABIN Highway 16 East Jackson Road Griffin, Ga. 228-7620 All You Can Eat Friday Night FRIED SHRIMP (Reg. $4.95) $395 Saturday Night BOILED SHRIMP Reg. $5.95 $395 Monday Night FROG LEGS (Reg. 2 Prs. $4.25) $395 Wednesday Night FLOUNDER Reg. $3.50 $ 2 95 Sunday Sunday Luncheon (l-plate servings) S2»O (Drinks Extra) Hours: Mon.-Sat. 5-10 P.M. Sunday 12 Noon -10 P.M. We are ready to dispose of five of our used school buses. The buses listed below are in running condition and can be seen at the school bus shop on Flynt Road in Griffin from Monday, July 18 through Friday, July 22, from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The buses will be sold by sealed bids. The minimum acceptable bid on any one of the buses shall be at least $1500.00. Bids will be accepted on individual buses as indicated below. AU bids must be at the school superintendent’s office by 12:00 noon on Tuesday, July 26. Successful bidders will be notified by mail or telephone. The Griffin-Spalding County Board of Education reserves the right to reject any or aU blds. Your Bid Year Model Body Size Chassis Make Bus No. $ 1967 66 Ford 73 $ 1968 66 Ford 80 $ 1969 66 Dodge 83 $ 1969 66 Dodge 86 $ 1969 66 Dodge 87 Just a few short years ago, the concerns were speeding full steam in opposite directions. Cook, under the tutelage of chairman E. W. ‘Ned’ Cook, was a high-flying commodities company that had grown to be come one of the five-largest grain exporting firms in the country. The company’s young, ag gressive staff, said to be among the best-paid in the industry, came up with coup after coup in arranging huge grain sales abroad. Between 1972 and 1974, Cook’s pretax earnings sky rocketed to SBO million from $4 million. The company was the pride of the city. At the same time, there also was another company in the city that was attracting head lines in newspapers around the country. But most of the space being devoted to Union Planters — UP — was dealing with the $742.5 million deposit bank’s financial troubles, and the ple thora of lawsuits implicating members of the bank’s man agement were involved in fraud and kickback schemes. While observers were prais ing the successes of Cook, they were wondering out loud when UP would go down for the third time into the nearby Mississippi River. The bank had a loss of nearly sl7 million in 1974 and a deficit of $2.8 million a year later. It hasn’t happened. In fact, now, just a few short years lat er, the situation is reversed. UP apparently has pulled itself up from the basement — at one time it had been labeled by the U.S. Comptroller of the Curren cy as the No. 1 troubled bank in the country — and Cook is being' hit by financial chaos that threatens its very existence. Business watchers attribute the shifts to the company’s top officers — Cook, and UP’s chairman and chief executive officer, William M. Matthews Jr. They say that as Cook In dustries’ successes mounted, Cook delegated more and more authority to his top manage ment. With that delegation of authority went the internal con trols that could have prevented Cook’s current status. The situation at Union Planters is different. Matthews’ 16-and 18-hour days already are legend in the area. And his one- Wife wants love— at home or abroad By Abigail Van Buren © 1977 by The Chicago Tribune-N.Y.News Synd. Inc. DEAR ABBY: I’ve been married for 14 years. I love my husband but I’m thinking seriously of having an affair. It’s been years now since he’s said, “I love you.” He can go three or four weeks without making love to me, then it’s Oldest art group The National Academy of De sign is the oldest art group in New York City and the second oldest in the nation to be organ ized and administered by art ists for the advancement of the arts in the United States. man-rule manner has turned off many townspeople, as well as colleagues. But in the three years he has spent at the Mem phis bank, he has been able to turn a nearly hopeless situation around. Just last week, Union Plan ters reported its second quarter results, and the numbers gave further proof that the bank is, indeed, on its way to financial recovery. The company’s par ent, Union Planters Corp., re ported net income of $471,193, or 15 cents a share, for the quarter. That put the firm’s first half earnings at $784,559, or 25 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $2.7 million, or 86 cents a share, a year before. Though the profit figures are small by major bank standards, they nonetheless are significant advances by UP. First of all, they represent operating earnings. And secondly, they look extremely good when com pared with the massive deficits that had been commonplace at the bank. The turnaround hasn’t been easy, Matthews says, citing a 33 per cent cut in employes and a key trimming in the savings account interest rate last De cember. But so far, his deci sions have been accompanied by a Midas touch — everything is turning to gold. “I had to be aggressive to turn this bank around,” the 44- year-old executive says. “The situation when I came here was just unbelievable. “We had low-level employes, making $12,000 a year, who were wearing diamond rings and driving to work in Conti nentals. Nobody in the previous management ever thought to ask how they could afford it. Now we have enough ex-em ployees in jail to open a bran ch.” Matthews’ aggressiveness also is paying off in the elec tronic banking area, where UP has taken a huge lead in Mem phis that augurs well for its fu ture. Matthews claims, as do some bank analysts, that UP is in the forefront of banks in the country in electronic banking. Across town, at Cook In dustries, things aren’t as rosy, and information is much more difficult to get. The apparent demise of Cook Industries began a few months ago, when in the period of few weeks, a corporate empire was nearly brought to its knees. The company was required to disclose information about questionable payments abroad to start things off. Then, in rap id succession, it announced that it had a loss of $27.4 million, or $7.47 a share, in the first nine months of its fiscal year; that its expected a deficit of S6O mil lion for the fiscal fourth quar ter; and that the top two officers in its agriproducts group (the one responsible for the huge losses) were resigning. Trading in Cook shares on the American Stock Exchange was halted and the company began to sell off many of its assets and lay off employes. Rumors began to circulate that the company would scale back sharply and become basically a cotton firm, leaving the much more volatile grain business al together. "De/vt Anniversary Sale GAS WAR Anniversary Sale Prices Effective Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday July 21 July 22 July 23 July 24 Corner 6th and Taylor 7 Across From High School Self-Service 16 PUMPS TO SERVE YOU!! COMPARE OUR OCTANE!!! ...With All The Others only because I’ve suggested it, and I don’t really enjoy it when I have to beg for it. He gets off work at 4 p.m., goes to a bar with his buddies and doesn’t come home until 6 or 7. He eats, and then falls asleep in front of the TV before 8. Then he gets up around 10 p.m. and goes to bed. He’s a good father and a good provider, but I can’t take it anymore. I need love and attention. A friend of ours asked me to have an affair with him. I had never even thought of anything like that. Now I can’t think of anything else. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but if you print this, maybe my husband (or other husbands) will see it and change before it’s too late. I really love him and I’ve tried to get him to a doctor but he refuses. He says he’s only 35 and there’s nothing wrong with him. Well, I’m only 31 and I need love. I don’t really want to have an affair, but I’m slipping. HUNGRY FOR LOVE DEAR HUNGRY: Here’s your letter. I hope your husband (and other men who can identify with the above routine) see this and wake up before it’s too late. DEAR ABBY: Our dog will be going to doggy heaven any day now. Frisky is 90 in human years and he’s in awfully bad shape. He’s nearly blind and he’s so weak he keeps falling down. We can’t bear the thought of putting him to sleep, but want to know where to bury him when the time comes. We can’t afford a plot in the pet cemetery, and he’s meant too much to our family to just put him out with the trash. The children want to bury him in our backyard, but I hear there’s a law against that. Can you help us? FRISKY’S FAMILY DEAR FAMILY: When Frisky dies, phone your local animal shelter. They will come and pick him up. Under no circumstances should you put an animal’s remains in a trash can that you intend to use again. And in most areas there are laws against burying an animal in a residential section. DEAR ABBY: My girlfriend doesn’t shave under her arms or even use a deodorant, and she just plain smells bad! I can’t understand how she can go around offending people that way, and then blaming them because she doesn’t get invited places. She’s a very sensitive person (all except for her nose), that’s why I can't tell her what I have just told you. Any advice? OFFENDED DEAR OFFENDED: You can and must tell her how she smells. It’s the friendliest thing you can do. CONFIDENTIAL TO W. 5.8.: To succeed in business, stay awake! Spend too much time in the arms of Morpheus and you’ll wind up in the hands of the receiver. Everyone has a problem. What’s yours? For a personal reply, write to ABBY: Box No. 69700, L.A., Calif. 90069. Enclose stamped, self-addressed envelope, please.