Business: Three Years and Out

When William Bishop Warner and Lionel J. Noah became masters of American Woolen Co. in 1930, the company had lost $10,000,000 in three years and stockholders had actually thought of giving up. Dividends on common stock had ceased in 1924. Wool prices had fallen from $1.55 in 1925 to 65ยข in 1930. A thin-lipped Yankee named Andrew Pierce had done all he could to reorganize the company after a fatal post-War spending and production boom had piled up huge unsalable inventories. The year he resigned the deficit was the third biggest in the...

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