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Manuscripts

[Unmarked item, but folder label reads, "Estimates of Earnings -- SPM 230-01."] Discussions of amounts paid to parent SP company; includes six-page letter from Walter Douglas, SPdeM President, to A.D. McDonald, SP President, dated 5/22/33 -- a highly lucid explanation of operating results for March 1933 versus March 1932, including discussion of main decreases in revenue coming from heavy dropoff in tomato and vegetable shipments, sugar revenues, corn revenues; discussion of arrangement with NRM regarding rate reductions of ~10% for shipping of beans, corn, cattle, rice, salt, flour, garbanzo beans, etc.; the rationale for such reductions ("to enable West Coast Producers to compete with producers in the Central Valley"); costs of advertising for 1932 [first time I've seen any info on how much SP spent on advertising for anything], including a breakdown showing how much was for radio broadcasting, how much for a Mazatlán Easter excursion ("a great success"), etc. MANY good items herein. For instance, another letter dated 5/15/33 from Douglas to McDonald, explaining increases in various items over the previous year, and thus quite revealing of pieces of the SPM's finances, because it lists the "why" for the increases as well as the types and dollar amounts. Includes some salary data, advertising expenses, stationery and printing costs, tie renewals ($19,000; apparently tie expenses were a very high cost and directly related to SP's strategy, stated elsewhere in this collection as noted above, to get the line back into the black by farming and shipping local Mexican woods both as exports for U.S. consumption and as a forward linkage for their own construction needs.)


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