The high cost of doing business, as wages and prices both reached record peaks (see above), was cutting sharply into profits. Last week's outpouring of year-end reports gave some prime examples of the squeeze.
¶In chemicals, Monsanto's profits dropped 8% to $38.6 million, although sales increased almost 4% to $541 million.
Allied Chemical's 1956 sales rose 6% to a record $668 million, but earnings dropped to $47 million from $52 million in 1955.
¶In rails, the nation's No. 1 rail carrier, Pennsylvania Railroad, steamed in with its best...
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