Automobile and equipment mak-suffered somewhat from reflect vitality for this important industry. None the less, a factor that the difficulty rank of the Even the comparatively recent tendency of smaller companies to broaden their lines and price ranges does not appear to have provided a solution. If one eliminates General Motors and Chrysler, Yellow Truck and Mack from compilations for the industry, the following results are jw. noted:
Twelve passenger and commercial car makers earned $159,406 in the first half of 1940: Six of them showed net losses for the period; in 1939 the twelve companies earned $2,482,458 in the second half and lost $4,226,457 in the first half of the year; in 1938 they lost $11,219,156 in the second half and $13,385,835 in the first half of the year, Nine of the smaller companies earned $77,847 in the second quarter and lost $719,551 in the first quarter of 1940; in 1939 they earned $5,521,808 in the final quarter, only partly offsetting losses of $3,587,252 in the third, $2,392,876 in the second and $1,377.140 in the first quarter of the year; in 1988 quarterly losses were $1,398,797, $8,750,382, $6,189,233 and $6,212,449, respectively, from the fourth to the first quarter.
Difficulty for Smaller Concerns It is necessary only to contrast these results with the figure for all automobile makers to see the unsatis factory position of smaller companies. Further, the following table shows how a group of smaller com-
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