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Only reassurance Governor Earle got last week as he prepared to sign his pet bill was from the cinema chains, which are included on the same basis as chain stores. Said a spokesman from Warner Brothers, biggest chain in the State (180 theatres) : "We are submitting gracefully. Everybody's sort of getting used to this tax business. I guess we ought to be happy we aren't living in Germany or Russia."
Biggest chain store in Pennsylvania out-side of A. & P. is America Stores Co. with about 1,743 of its 2,776 units in the State. It has a heavy concentration of stores in & around Philadelphia, its home town. Founded in 1917 as a merger of five old chains, ASCO was ruled until last spring by Samuel Robinson, a chain-store pioneer who started in 1891 with Vice President Robert H. Crawford and joint capital of $1,400. He now divides his time between Bryn Mawr and Pasadena, goes in for philanthropy in a quiet way, showering funds on Philadelphia hospitals and Presbyterian bodies. In his pocket he always carries a large supply of religious tracts, each with a $1 bill tucked between the leaves. These he gives to beggars, often following them to retrieve the money if they head for a saloon.
Old Mr. Robinson's nephew William Park took over ASCO's presidency last spring when the tax fight was growing hot. He went to Philadelphia from a Michigan farm, started to work for his uncle at 20. He has been working in the same spot ever since, and though the building has changed the atmosphere has not. ASCO's general offices are as cluttered as a warehouse. President Park works in shirt sleeves behind a partition, washes his hands like the rest of the staff at an open sink in the corner. Pay telephones are provided for visitors. Placards warn salesmen against smoking or parking their cars on the left side of the street outside. Mottoes proclaim, the thoughts of pious Mr. Robinson in words like these: "Honesty and Truthfulness combined with Speed and Correctness are necessary to make good Business Men and Women."
Now 45, redhaired, earnest, optimistic, so retiring that no newspaper has ever published a picture of him, President Park lives simply in suburban Haverford, two miles from his archenemy, George Earle. He is a pillar in the National Association of Food Chains, which has been creating an astonishing reserve of good will for its members by organizing selling drives to relieve farm surpluses. Last year it started off with a nation-wide campaign in canned peaches, cleaned up the glut in short order. When last year's Drought flooded the market with cattle that could no longer be fed, the chains managed to increase beef sales 34% in the middle of summer, a poor beef season. The same thing was done with turkeys last autumn. From this type of practical relief the chain stores have gained most of their new-found farmer support. Asserting that the big chains can do more in such emergencies than the Government, President Park declares: