Masonry Magazine July 1975 Page. 22
Cumberland
LOX-ALL
MASONRY WALL
REINFORCEMENT
FOR BEST
MORTAR BOND
Patent Nos. 198,987
and 3,183,628
EXCLUSIVE
LOX-ALL EMBOSSING
Makes the Difference!
The bond with the mortar is what it is all about. Exclusive, patented Lox-All design places the shear stress on the steel and compression on the mortar as it should be for maximum strength.
Lox-All Truss Type (shown above), Ladder Type or Tab Type, all available with Tri-Rod, Double Side Rod and Corners and Tees. Sold through stocking local distributors and dealers. Technical services from Cumberland's registered engineers or Specification Sheet on request.
Cumberland
CORPORATION
Post Office Box 1446, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37401
Telephone: 615/756-5630
Washington Wire
(Continued from page 21)
FURTHER GAINS AGAINST INFLATION ARE STILL SEEN by most analysts, despite some discouraging news on the price front in the past month or two. The experts don't minimize the impact of the sharp increases in farm prices. The 9% spurt between March 15 and May 15 is already lifting grocery prices. Nor do the forecasters ignore the impact of Ford's increases in oil tariffs, to say nothing of the boosts the oil countries threaten to impose this fall.
But there are also plus-factors in the outlook that promise progress. All those farm-price increases are believed by experts to be only temporary. The Department of Agriculture is forecasting record crops for this harvesting season.
INDUSTRIAL COMMODITY PRICES ARE NOW DECLINING, after firming earlier. This should lead to lower costs for many products and break price increases. And the recession is bound to have a cooling effect on prices... and wages. Labor unions can't win big increases in every case with so many out of work. And business won't be able to make higher prices stick with demand so weak.
No one is suggesting that the inflation rate will decline to 1-2%. But the double-digit rates of 1974 are also, hopefully, a thing of the past. On balance, economists are betting that the inflation rate will be down to a 5% or 6%-a-year rate by the end of this year and perhaps even lower during 1976.
FORD'S AID FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES IS HEADING FOR TROUBLE in Congress. Environmentalists, tax reformers, and consumers are lining up to oppose it. The proposal would grant tax breaks to spur generating-plant construction. The investment-tax credit would be lifted to 12% from the current 10% rate. Electric utilities would be able to depreciate building costs as incurred, rather than starting the write-offs only after the power plants are in use. Stockholders could defer tax payments on dividends received from a utility if they reinvest those dividends in new-issue common stock of the company.
There is strong support for the White House proposal among businessmen who are worried that insufficient electricity will curb economic expansion. Organized labor is for it.
A STUDY OF FURTHER CHANGES NEEDED IN THE PENSION LAW will soon be started by a Congressional task force set up under the recent law. Its scope would include extending the law to cover state-local government plans, the adequacy of vesting rules, and a need to encourage benefit portability. But the task force is expected to look at other important proposals as well. It may consider forbidding companies from setting mandatory retirement ages.
Integration of Social Security with private plans may be studied, too. A national goal guaranteeing 75% of income on retirement might be fixed. Social Security and pensions would be rearranged to produce this objective. In those cases where private plans finance a major portion of the objective, appropriate offsets in payroll taxes may be made.
(Continued on page 24)
masonry
• July, 1975