Masonry Magazine January 1970 Page.16
GETS YOU UP IN THE WORLD
INC.
"TRAV-BRACS"
don't cost... they pay!
the only elevating
scaffolding bracket
that permits working
UP and DOWN without leaving platform.
Now the mason can spend full time on the job... he never needs to leave the platform. Material shelf travels, too, always at the right height. No back-bending, reaching, or stooping when using Trav-Brac. Easily raises or lowers to follow the job to be done. Works on Bil-Jax scaffold set-ups, as well as other makes. Masons like it, and you'll like the way it quickly pays for itself.
Write for literature, prices.
TOP RACK HINGE PIN
SWING AWAY
CRANK
RATCHET
SAFETY LOCK
MATERIAL
PLATFORM
BRACKETS
PERSONNEL
PLATFORM
BRACKETS
CRANK MECK
HINGE PIN
GRAVITY
SAFETY LOCK
-ALSO-
Hoisting Towers
Swing Scaffolds
Shoring Catwalks
BIL-JAX, INC.
ARCHBOLD, OHIO
SALES & RENTAL OUTLETS THROUGHOUT U. S. & CANADA
16
Washington Wire
(Continued from page 15)
Government economists don't believe interest rates will keep falling indefinitely next year-certainly not back to levels of the mid-1960's. The important thing for so many business and individual borrowers, though, is the change in credit availability-the fact that loan funds are easier to come by.
A STRIKE IN THE BASIC STEEL industry is a strong possibility in 1971. Steelworkers will want a substantial wage boost and are in a militant mood. The companies appear ready to stand their ground against big union demands. They feel that they must to fend off further pressures on profit margins.
Hedge-buying against a strike possibility is certain to get under way early next year. Demand will tax the industry's ability to produce and ship. Mills estimate that they will ship 65 million tons in the first seven months well above 1969. This demand can be met if users prepare for an orderly buildup. Otherwise, many will be unable to fill their needs.
PRESIDENT NIXON IS BEING PRESSED again for action to restrain wages and prices. A growing number of business leaders are now joining Congress in pushing for a new policy change one of more direct Federal intervention. But Administration officials say that the President won't use the power given him by Congress to institute wage-price controls. A return to the guideline policy of the previous Democratic administration also seems very doubtful.
But a decision to use Presidential persuasion-the so-called jawboning policy is a possibility to get restraint. Little progress is being made in dampening the price-wage spiral.
CONSUMER PROTECTION AND ANTITRUST LAW ENFORCEMENT will come in for more attention from the Federal Trade Commission. It is all part of the tougher regulatory stance beginning to show up at the revitalized agency. On the consumer side, the FTC will crack down on misleading advertising. Billing practices, product pricing, and sales techniques will be scrutinized.
In the antitrust area, attacks on concentrated industries will be part of the agency's new enforcement approach. Conglomerate companies can also expect to come under new Commission scrutiny.
SLOWING POPULATION GROWTH may soon bring some changes in the economy. Fertility rates are falling and a no-growth pattern by the '80s is possible. The long-run effect on business of a population slowdown will be significant.
Fewer babies would mean more wage-earners and higher average income. Many firms would face slower growing markets, though with more buying power. Productivity would rise as leveling personal spending frees more capital for new plant capacity. Older-bracket markets would benefit as the population shifts.
(Continued on page 29)
masonry • Nov./Dec., 1970