Lebanon Daily News from Lebanon, Pennsylvania • Page 52

Shoe Firms In Co. Among Our Oldest Lebanon Daily News, Wednesday, January 22,1975 1974 Wasn't Too Bad For Some Industries Shoe manufacturing still is a major Lebanon County industry, proven by the fact that there are seven county plants with a total -employment of about 1,400 workers. In spite of problems caused by imported shoes, the president of W. L. Kreider's Son Manufacturing Inc.

of -Palmyra, is optimistic about the future. The company's president. William F. Kreider, feels there is enough growth in the present markets. "All shoe factories, inclusive Calcite Quarry Important Draw up a list of firms that helped to build and modernize Lebanon County and the name Calcite Quarry Corp.

will be in a top position. The same boast can be made for many areas outside of County. Calcite Quarry can also boast that it is one of the most of all Lebanon County Its product comes 'out of the Lebanon County soil. The Calcite firm deals in crushed stone and limestone secured from quarry along Route 422. Lebanon and Myerstown.

These products widespread uses in the 'construction and steel industries. The firm's fluxing limestone is used in the manufacture of steel and cement. The latter product, along with concrete block, is used in the construction of homes and buildings, roads and driveways. Aggregates produced in the quarry operations are used in some of these construction projects also. Another Calcite product is high temperature bonding mortar for the steel and foundry industries.

William L. Patton is vice president and general manager i of Calcite. John J. Haley Jr. is comptroller and Elmer L.

Moyer is secretary-treasurer. Patton's father, the late George E. Patton, was president of the firm from 1951 until 1963. Patton succeeded the late Seely B. Patterson as president of the firm.

Both men, along with Raymond A. Zimmerman became with the firm in 1925. Zimmerman served as president from 1963 to 1968. The quarry operation was founded in 1905 by A. G.

Stauffer, H. T. Johnson, I. K. Urich, Albert Herr and R.

T. Sherman. The latter later became the majority stockholder and was instrumental in the formation of the Calcite Quarry Corp. of those in Lebanon County, have become specialists in their own fields and we no longer try to be all things to all people. We fare best when we produce on a daily basis items that we have our best experience with." Kreider says.

The 79-year-old Kreider firm's production line comprises shoes from cradle to grave. The firm's brand name is Foot-Traits, and about 95 per cent of the plant's output is sold through independent shoe retailers. The company employs about 214 persons. Myerstown's Durable shoe firm, which has a plant at 19th and Center Streets in Lebanon, turns out products for infants to men. which are sold to major chain store firms.

Dura- Welt is the name of a line of work shoes produced by Durable. The Myerstown company had its beginning in the early 1930's when George Karsnite. president of Durable, bought a deteriorating Harrisburg firm which manufactured soft-sole shoes for infants. In 1952, Karsnitz acquired the Durable plant in Palmyra. He moved the plant to Myerstown and housed it in the former silk mill building at the south end of town.

Today, the firm employs about 175 persons. The story of the Steffy Shoe 1316 King Avon, is that of Harvey C. Steffy who had been employed in the office of the Durable Shoe firm when it was located in Palmyra. He left the firm in 1947 to found his own firm which now has 189 employes. The firm's product is shoes that range from those for infants to those for children about three years old.

A large part of the firm's output goes to chain stores. The Richland Shoe a division of H. H. Brown Shoe at Curtis and Apple Streets, has been in operation since 1955 and has 250 employes. The area plant produces shoes and boots for men, women and children.

They are sold throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The J. Landis Shoe Palmyra, is owned by the Kinney Shoe Corp. and employs about 350 persons. The plant dates back to the 1880's.

The company's product is men's shoes and they go to Kinney stores and others. The Q. T. Shoe Manufacturing 555 E. Walnut was launched in 1960 by E.

J. Casavant and his wife, the former Carrie Maulf air, a Palmyra native. The parent plant of this firm is in Paterson, N.J. where it was opened about 1959. The firm has about 250 employes and produces mainly soft-soled non-conventional casual women's footwear.

Earl Boyer is general superintendent of the firm. The smallest of the county's NEW YORK (UPD With notable exceptions, 1974 wasn't a bad year for business. Some companies never had it so good. Figures are not in for the last three months of the year, but based on the first nine months, it is apparent oil, steel and sugar companies in particular did very well. In some cases, profits were at record levels.

According to the Wall Street Journal, tabulation of 578 companies, after-tax profits increased 25.6 per cent in the second quarter and 29.6 per cent in the third quarter. Some did extremely well. In the third quarter, profits of Western United, a major beet sugar refiner, rose more than 1,100 per cent and those of Amstar. the nation's largest sugar company, climbed 250 per cent. The profits of a smaller company.

Michigan Sugar soared 2.000 per cent. Meanwhile, consumers were paying 400 per cent more for sugar off grocery shelves. Profits of the nation's major steel and oil companies also scored sharp gains. Despite a 25-day coal strike and drastically reduced auto production, the steel industry produced about 109 million tons last year, breaking the 100- million mark for only the second time in history. An industry spokesman said domestic steel production should hit about 102 million tons in 1975.

U.S. Steel's profits were up 145 per cent in the third quarter and 109 per cent for the first nine months. Both were records. Sales rose 38 per cent. Steel prices rose 30 per cent during the year.

U.S. Steel posted price increases of 4.6 to 8 per cent for the first six months of 1974. but reduced the hike by 20 per cent under pressure from President Ford. The profits of the nation's 12 largest oil companies were up 80 per cent in the aggregate, with some reporting increases in the 200-300 per cent range. The four largest Exxon.

Texaco. Mobil and Gulf averaged profit gains of 76 per cent in the first quarter. 67 per shoe plants is the Roy Shoe 25 N. Race Richland. The firm, in operation since about 1935, had been headed for the last year and a half by Bert Rahm.

It employs about 30 persons. The firm produces shoes for infants which can be purchased through the United States and also in Puerto Rico. Honduras and Argentina. Imports had been hurting domestic shoe sales for several years as they increased their share of the domestic shoe sales from 9.4 per cent in 1963 to almost 40 per cent in 1973. Imports have slowed down and may even decrease in the future, mainly because worldwide inflation changed monetary values and no longer are imports as important to the average shoe retailer in this country as they have been for the past 10 years.

Calcite Quarry Corporation Along Route Halfway Between Lebanon and Myerstown The Calcite Quarry Corporation A Forty-nine Year Old Firm Specializing in: Flux Stone Crushed Stone Building Block Sand Cement Transit Mixed Concrete cent in the second and 24 per cent in the third. Fourth quarter earnings are expected to be as high or higher, although the windfall profits brought about by higher oil and gas prices appeared to be dwindling. The profit outlook for oil companies is uncertain. The Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries has established a new pricing system that OPEC claims will require the companies to absorb crude oil price increases in the future. But most oil companies have indicated higher crude costs eventually will be passed on to consumers no matter what OPEC does.

Nonetheless, high profits were expected to continue at least through 1975. Exxon, the world's largest oil company. was expected to return earnings of $10 and $11 a share in 1975 compared to an estimated $13 for 1974. Oil company supplies have benefited from the increased exploration activity. The net of Baker Oil Tools and Hughes Tool Co.

rose about 35 per cent. Reed Tool's was doubled. The coal industry had a good year, and 1975 is expected to be even better. Standard Poor's, a financial reporting service, says "the outlook for coal industry profits is better now than at any time in the past century." Coal prices have more than doubled since the Arab oil embargo made coal an attractive alternative energy source. In the first nine months of 1974, earnings of many bituminous coal companies were more than double earnings for the same period in 1973.

For example. Pittston Company's net went from $16 million to $73 million. Even Hollywood has profited. The Motion Picture Producers Association said gross income from theaters in the United States was up 24 per cent in 1974. Ticket prices were up an average 8 per cent.

"It doesn't take as much gasoline to drive to a neighborhood theater as it does to a ballpark." said a spokesman for the association. A PLANT OPERATION READIED L. G. Kreiser (left), mechanical foreman, and J. M.

Lippert, a fabricated steel construction engineer, check the alignment of gears on the grinding mill as refurbishing work progresses at the iron ore concentrating and pelletizing facilities at Bethlehem Steel Cornwall Mine. The facilities are scheduled to be reopened for ore processing by March 1. (BS Photo) LEBANON'S OLDEST ALUMINUM PRODUCT DEALER ALUMINUM IF YOU'RE THINKING OF HOME IMPROVEMENTS, YOU SHOULD BE THINKING OF ACE ALUMINUM, LEBANON'S OLDEST AND MOST RELIABLE ALUMINUM PRODUCTS DEALER! ALUMINUM'S ALL-LOCAL SALES FORCE: James Meluskey President, Manager Ralph Tice Herb Benninghoff Alden Renaud Howard Light UNLIKE SOME FLY-BY-NIGHT DEALERS, ACE ALUMINUM HAS MAINTAINED A LOCAL ESTABLISHMENT FOR 28 YEARS! WE GUARANTEE WORKMANSHIP! ACE ALUMINUM HAS MANUFACTURED DISTRIBUTED: ALUMINUM SIDING PATIO COVERS AWNINGS PRIME WINDOWS PELLA WOOD FOLDING DOORS RAILINGS, POSTS, COLUMNS PORCH ENCLOSURES CARPORTS STORM WINDOWS AND DOORS MARQUEES JALOUSIES MEMBER OF LEBANON COUNTY CHAMBER OF LEBANON CO. BUILDERS 1 CREDIT BUREAU Aluminum, Ihc; 731 South Lincoln Avenue, Lebanon Phone 273-8516 NATIONAL REMODELERS ASSOC..