Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 13

v- DETROIT FREE PRESS Sunday, August 28, '66 Getting Down To Business mmmmmmmmmammmammmm i iiuliij imiu Jliu. Hi A minnwi in mm Burton Abstract Officials See Land Values Gaining Borrowers Turn To Uncles, Dads For Their Loans Need some money at a low cost? A growing number of borrowers are turning these days to fathers, uncles, friends and neighbors for funds. Banks and other lenders have become increasingly selective about who gets loans as money grows tighter. In contrast, one Detroit salesman recently made the down payment on a house with a $2,000 loan at 5 percent interest from the real estate broker, bridged the costly gap between purchase of the home and sale of his old one with an interest-free $20,000 loan from a friend who had liquidated stocks early in the ftifiiiffii) I Real estate brokers say they can 'mat? I vijjv Free Press Photo by RAY GLONKA nuance iiic uunu poj uiciiis limy accept some sort of collateral. Five-percent rate is two percent or so below bank lending rates, bat Brooks Stevens and son Stevens, Father and Son, the Excalibur SS increased financing rates, for Burton's volume is off only slightly from last year.

Having been at the pulse of Michigan real estate transactions for so long, Burton and his chief lieutenants, H. Bryan Melvin and J. Bernard Dawsey, vice presidents, point out that land prices have been rising since 1960. They emphasize that real estate investment historically has been "a more reliable hedge against inflation than common stocks, which until this year's Stock Market decline were touted as the best hedge. Burton reports that an average of 1,200 real estate transactions occur dally in the Detroit area.

This, he says, means a daily turnover of $30 million worth of property. Wayne County contains a million parcels of property, Burton says. Subdivision developments in Macomb, Oakland and Washtenaw Counties are so rapidly cutting up tracts that a half million parcels can be added. Burton has been compiling all information bearing on real estate ownership recorded deeds and mortgages, probate matters, court cases, deaths, marriages and divorces for most of its existence. TODAY FT keeps all such Information current within 24 hours.

Its records are believed to be the most complete among the) nation's title firms. Clarence M. Burton, the firm's founder, realized in the 1880s that collecting recorded information for property abstracts also provided valuable historical records. He went beyond these to gather what is now the Burton Historical Collection in the Detroit Public Library. In 1924, the firm was a pio- BURTON EXECUTIVES scan drawing of face-lifted main office.

From left: J. Bernard Dawsey, executive vice president; H. Bryan Melvin, vice president; and Edson R. Burton, president. matches the rates on loans insurance companies are making against outstanding life insurance policies.

Use of land contracts in sales is several times more frequent than two or three years ago, real estate men guess. The land contract is an agreement solely between buyer and seller, in which the two-parties set the terms, and the buyer keeps title to the land until the contract is fully paid. In the Detroit area, land contracts generally are 10-year plans, providing for a 10 percent down payment and interest of 1 percent a month on the outstanding balance. State usury laws prevent annual interest over 7 percent, but deals, of course, can be made on much more favorable terms. Vinyl "Soundsheets" are bound in magazines, used for sales pitches by a growing number of firms.

The flexible plastic sheets bear-recorded sound on one or both sides, weigh one-sixth of an ounce. They're made by Eva-Tone Soundsheets, Deerfield, 111. September Popular Mechanics will include a insertion featuring comedians Bob and Ray advertising a Boise-Cascade Corp. 'product. Public Relations Quarterly recently used the thin-plastic film to supplement an article about government broadcasts with actual sounds from Voice of America, Radio Moscow and Radio Havana.

Oldsmobile used 600,000 "Soundsheets" to introduce the front-wheel drive Toronado, and direct-seller Amway Ada, sends out monthly pep talks on vinyl to its salesmen. The sheets cost from four cents to 6.3 cents each. Earnings Setbacks aren't disclosed fully in some earnings reports. Mny investors watch earnings results' for signs of effects from tight-money, rising costs, other problems. But some companies conceal dips in their latest quarter by lumping the quarter in with previous periods, which BY FRED OLMSTEAD Free Press Automotive Writer With all the modern manifestations of automotive verve and power, some still like to scan the classic past for a special kind of thrill on wheels.

And they're willing to pay, though the cost may be substantial. Perhaps for this reason, several historic fancies of the auto world have sprung up. Famous names like Cord, Deusenberg and Auburn have come back to life. Unfortunately, some of these fond dreams of recreating the past haven't prospered. AN EXCEPTION is a beautiful reproduction of a famous Mercedes racing car that appeared on the scene about 1927.

From 1927 to 1930 the svelte Mercedes SSK stirred automobile connoisseurs. For a lot of people, it has continued to do the same. These included the Milwaukee auto and industrial designer, Brooks Stevens, who with his two sons, David and Bill, decided to do something about The result Is called the Excalibur SS. Airport Service Firm Sees A Willow Run in Its Future Free Press Photo 6y WALTER STEIGER Co. find numerous other commercial and industrial buildings in the state are insured by Burton BURTON REPORTS that many present titles on Detroit property trace back as far as 300 years to homestead grants from the French government.

Later came land patents from the American government. Under President Jefferson, the mile section and metes and bounds system was applied to Michigan. Property outstate, in much of Wayne County and land occupied by Detroit suburbs is measured under this system. All bounds relate to Longitude 84V4 degrees passing through Lansing and Latitude 42 degrees (Eight Mile road westward through the state). Willow Run is far from dead freight and mail handling, Jet aircraft cleaning and a sightseeing operation.

.1 Launched with 100,000 -in stock, AAS now boasts assets of $1.6 million. This fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, the company expects to report profits of $100,000 on approximately $3 million in sales, up from earnings of $36,000 on $1.7 million in sales the previous year. AAS has not paid a dividend in the last three years because of its expansion outlays, but Osborn says the company will consider a stock dividend "in the neighborhood of five percent" in the fiscal quarter starting Oct. 1.

BY KEN THOMPSON Fra. Press Business Writer The southeastern Michigan megalopolis from Grand Rapids to Toledo through Lansing, Saginaw, Flint, Port Huron and Detroit will flower during the next 15 years, a title insurance authority predicts. Real estate values will soar, and interest costs In property financing will be no bar to the development, Edson N. Burton, president of the Burton Abstract and Title believes. BURTON" one of the oldest and best armed locally-operated title firms in the nation, is observing its centennial year.

The observance has not been blighted by the The aim: Production of one car a day, or up to 250 a year. This would mean a gross of about $1.5 million a year. PRESIDENT David Is enthusiastic about the cars and the small factory and Excalibur Sales a subsidiary that distributes the product in the Midwest, along with independent distributors in New York, California and Texas. David has recruited an eager and young collection of manpower. The factory roster totals 16 people.

But David has turned to automation (on a modest scale) to make output more certain in case some of the personnel is drafted. The little company makes about 100 parts itself. The tiny organization has gained some pretty worth-while customers, including Tony Curtis, Pernell Roberts and Phyllis Diller, who bought three cars. The prices range from $7,800 for the SSK, $7,700 for the Roadster and $8,000 for the Phaeton. "These cars are for the youth of America, age 55 and up." said Board Chairman Brooks Stevens, who is 55 himself.

Birmingham headquarters, reported that the highly automated Alpena plant consumes 100,000 cords of Michigan timber a year. He said the northern Michigan supply is shared with United States Plywood 2-year-old particle board plant at Gaylord and an S. D. Warren Co. pulp plant at Muskegon.

He said Abitibi buys from scores of independent cutters within a 100 mile radius. "Nearly 100 hunting clubs in northern Michigan have sold cutting rights on their lands," Cook said. "Operators use selective cutting methods, which thins the woods for deer." He said the Alpena plant consumes perhaps twice as much timber as the U.S. Plywood or Warren plant. HARDBOARD differs from particle board in that the former bonds chipped particles with the natural lignite in wood, while the latter adds glue to the ingredients.

Cook said Abitibi has been able to win increasing sales because of the variety of finishes it has found ways to print on hardboard. "We are using four-color printing now for three-dimensional effects," he said. Since 1961 the timber market in northern Michigan has become strongly competitive, he said. Energetic independent cutters now can make $10,000 and $15,000 a year, he 1 1 YPJ neer in the switch from abstracts to title insurance in establishing ownership rights. Unlike other Insurance, which protects against future happenings, title insurance protects against possible flaws in the history of a chain of ownership.

In 19B5, Burton paid out only $77,267 on claims under the insurance it has Issued. Under Edson Burton's third-generation term as president, the firm has grown to in assets, of which is retained earnings. It has established 11 regional offices in the state, and now has a total of four Detroit area offices. The titles of the Detroit Bank and Trust building, Michigan Consolidated Gas Frank Osborn: To him, ations, Osborn is bidding for a contract to operate the master fueling system at the Kansas City Mid-Continent airport. The company also runs a service operation for private and company aircraft at the Greater Southwest International Airport in Fort Worth, Texas.

ITS DETROIT Metropolitan airport operations comprise the company's largest single unit. At Metro, the company supplies either regular aviation gasoline or jet fuel to practically every major airline operating there. It aslo conducts such varied services as baggage loading, waw rrrrf may have been very, good. A recent example: Massey-Fer-guson, the big farm machinery maker, last week issued a news release saying its nine-month profits rose to $32.7. million from $23.5 million the year before.

The company statement didn't get around to saying that profits in the third quarter fell to $11.5 million from $15.3 million a year before. Wickes Saginaw, last week omitted figures for its 1965 second quarter, which had been restated, from a press release. When the fig David scan Excalibur SSK The Stevenses used a modified Studebaker frame and suspension, with a 108-inch wheelbase. They added a Chevrolet Corvette engine of 327 cubic inches and 350 horsepower. Even used disc brakes in.

front. They formed S. S. Automobiles a little more than two years ago. And first they produced the Excalibur SSK, a precise modern-day version of the famous Mercedes SSK, including the no door two -seater body, gleaming outside exhaust pipes and cycle fenders.

Since then they have added two new models; an Excalibur Roadster, with door and fenders and running boards, and a four-passenger Excalibur Phaeton, with spare wheel affixed to the rear. The latter two cars were displayed at the New York International Automobile Show in April. Then there was a flurry of orders. In the 18 months since the Excalibur line was put on the market, the company has sold 127 cars and grossed about $750,000. "We are sold out through January," said the president, David Stevens, 28, "Our problem is to get the cars built." Alan Cook, vice-president and general manager of the subsidiary, who will direct the Computer Links Ford, Germany Ford Motor Co.

will make fully operational Sept. 1 its second direct overseas link by connecting its German plant in Cologne with the company's technical computing center in Dearborn. "We have been operating the time-sharing link for some time to work out equipment and communications problems," said William A. McConnell, director of systems research for Ford engineering. "Now our German engineers will be routinely working problems and using engineering design programs in our library via our tune-shar ing system.

The Ford computer network first reached overseas to link up with Ford of Britain in June, British Ford engineers use the Dearborn computer facilities in Dearborn six hours a day via telephone. The computer time sharing! now extends to 57 remote com puter terminals in Dearborn and across the country, as well as overseas. In its overseas aspect, the system entails the use of a special tutor program in other languages, including French, German and Spanish, Wife, mother and model is Mrs. Brooks Stevens, shown with Excalibur Abitibi Expands in State ures were obtained, it was evident the company had experienced a slight decline in earnings. Special credits can be a big problem.

If a company sells an old plant, for example, the gain goes down as no-recurring profit, but it has nothing to do with earnings from the firm's day-to-day operations. Some companies lump such one-shot credits in with regular earnings; the result can be misleading. Barron's recently noted the case of a California firm, Computer Sciences, which had substantial special credits last year. In last year's reports the company combined operating earnings and special credits. The result: The appearance of an impressive gain from the previous year.

It's comparing this year's figures, though, with restated 1965 results that don't include the special gains. Again, the result is the appearance of another big gain. Comments Barron's: "Even in the computer age that's still known as having your cake and eating it, too." BY DAVID C. SMITH Free Preet Business Editor Walk through Willow Run's spacious honeycombed olbby these days and you'll find that the hustle and bustle are gone. All the action, it seems, has moved to Metropolitan Airport along with the big commercial airlines.

But despite its outward serenity, Willow Run is far from dead. While the airport probably will never again serve as a regular terminal for commercial passengers, its future as a vital base for fast-growing freight, business aircraft and private planes appears to be bright. "WHXOW RUN is needed now and in two or three years it's really going to be needed," says Frank E. Osborn, the president of Aircraft Airport Services, Inc. (AAS), which -has fueling, flight instruction, aircraft maintenance and charter operations at the air base.

AAS also maintains a Cessna dealership at Willow Run. Osborn, a crew-cut former baseball player who's an athletic 48, actually seems pleased about the move of the big airlines from Willow Run. "Until they left, we were hampered we couldn't expand at Willow Run," he said. AAS has occupied 30,000 square feet of hanger space at Willow Run for several years. Now that more space is available, the company has signed a lease for an additional 40,000 square feet and in the process will also pick up additional ramp area.

As runway capacity nears the saturation point, Willow Run should become increasingly important as a base for private and corporate planes. IT ALREADY has a hardcore of company planes, including the General Motors Corp. squadron, which is estimated at 20 planes, and those of Hoover Ball and Bearing Wyandotte Chemicals Burroughs Corp. and other' large Michigan companies. AAS, whose common stock is listed on the Detroit over-the-counter market (Friday's quote: $3.75 bid, $4.50 asked) is counting heavily on the rebirth of Willow Run, but its current expansion program is by no means limited to that airport.

Last March, the company acquired Tursair, Inc. of Miami, which services private aircraft in the Miami area. Purchase price was $325,000. At the moment, AAS is expanding its hangar facilities at Metroplitan Airport in Detroit to service corporate jets. And in a move to further broaden the company's oper- flllr WO SOME WNDk 1 "TBI RCA-naiK I The headquarters of Abitibi one of the two major competitors in the rapidly growing decorative hardboard market, have been established in the Detroit area.

Sixty members of the personnel moved finance, accounting, sales and order operations into the new Cunningham-Limp Building at 1400 N. Woodward, Birmingham. The move, providing a directing center for Abitibi's nine-year-old manufacturing operation at Alpena and facilities at Chicago and Cuca-monga, indicated additional drive in the company's challenge to Masonite the leading hardboard producer. ABITIBI CORP. is the American subsidiary of Abitibi Paper Co.

Ltd. of Toronto, one of the world's major producers of newsprint and fine papers. It supplies newsprint to the Free Press. Its invasion of the American hardboard market has been successful, accounting for a 15 percent contribution to the parent company's volume in 1965. The huge Alpena plant, employing 550 workers, also has given impetus to northern Michigan lumbering, until recent years a lagging industry.

Abitibi in nine years has captured JO percent of the domestic hardboard market, of which Masonite Corp. claimed 50 percent in 1965. It sells hardboard to the automotive, radio, television and fine furniture industries. Who Are Members Of Executive BY ALVER CARLSON Free Press-Chicago Sun-Times Wire What is the executive like, Vintage 1966? Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, published by Standard Poor's took a look and came up with a composite. To begin with, he's middle aged between 51 and 60 a fact that weakens the American-is-run-by-young-people theory, not to mention the "if you-ain't-made-it-by-35-forget-it," theme that has found its way into much of American hiring practices.

His education probably, but not necessarily, has been at one of the Ivy League schools. Also our composite executive likely to belong to at least one fraternal organization and It is likely to be the Masons. This picture came to light after a study of "71,107 company officers and directors listed in the register. The theme of talent, coupled with necessary amount of experience, returned again and again in the study. American business definitely believes In older but wiser heads.

The report shows that more than 40 percent of top-echelon corporate ficers and directors are more than 60 years old. Things That Aren't what they used to be More and more railroad ties are made of concrete, says Evans Products Co. Rice made from wheat may be answer to food problem, says an Australian miller who just sold 25,000 tons of "rycena" to a Philippine company Porches, patios, docks and poolsides in growing numbers We sporting carpets these days, say rugmakers, who are marketing a variety of outdoor carpets Polar bears and whales, with tiny transmitters implanted in their skin, may soon be tracked on their migrations by satellites, says a McGraw-Hill, publication. ROGER SIMPSON.