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Show AMERICAN BUSINESS PROFITS SHOW RISE Earning of the first 175 companies compan-ies to report their first quarter figures, according to an Associated Press tabulation, were 16 per cent higher than for the same period of last year. This is interesting but, almost at once, somebody says that the government is about to put new-taxes new-taxes on business which will destroy de-stroy their earnings. Well, some companies allowed for taxes in making their reports. Others did not. Anyway, the Associated Press writer, assuming that there will be an increase in taxes of around 30 per cent, says that this would reduce re-duce the increase in profits over last year to about 7 per cent. The prospect is clouded, however, how-ever, by recent wage increases, which makes the figures less significant. sig-nificant. Maybe we will have to wait for the companies to complete com-plete their second quarter business before trying to ascertain how they are prospering under the defense program. |