Word: million
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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When U.S. railroads lost $560 million on their passenger business last year, it was obvious to railmen that something was wrong-and that something had to be done. The Eastern railroads, which had already had fare increases of 28% in about three years, thought that the answer lay in still higher fares. They asked the Interstate Commerce Commission for a 12½% boost. Last week they got it. But the increase apparently did not solve everything; the news that it had been granted merely started everyone asking again: "What's wrong with the railroads...
Deadheads. On the other hand, the railroads were not doing so badly on passengers as the figures seemed to show. Of 1948's loss on passenger business, fully two-thirds-$373 million-was incurred by hauling mail, express and baggage cars, rather than passengers. Many railroaders think that baggage cars-holdovers from the days when most travelers carried trunks-should be abolished, and mail pay increased. The railroads got only $26 million last year for carrying 95% of U.S. non-local first-class mail, while the airlines got $46 million for the remaining...
...Stafford Cripps, who thought the British government had devalued the pound to rock bottom, brushed off the cheap pounds as insignificant. But exporters estimated that $60 million a year are being lost by Britain by use of the cheap pounds to pay for British exports. Britain had hoped to plug such leaks when she devalued in the first place...
...president than an auctioneer, has pleased most of the sellers who have come to him.* In eleven years he has built Parke-Bernet (rhymes with "in debt") into the largest U.S. auction house, lured buyers from as far away as Europe and South America, and sold more than $50 million worth of paintings, books, furniture, tapestries, etc. At commissions ranging from 10% (plus expenses) up to 20%, he has always shown a tidy profit (last year's take: about...
...lock of George Washington's hair. His biggest sale was in 1928, when Lord Duveen, British dealer and collector, paid $360,000 for Gainsborough's The Harvest Waggon. That auction, from the estate of U.S. Steel's Judge Elbert Gary, brought a whopping $2.3 million, the alltime U.S. record...