LETTER TO MR. WILLIAM C. STOLK FROM(Sanitized).

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000300080120-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 7, 2003
• Sequence Number: 120
• Publication Date: April 7, 1959
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2003/05/23 : CIA-RDP80RO1731 R000300080120-2
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Distributes:
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NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
13 DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE.
AL'TH: HR 70-2
DATE g REVIEWER: I
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AMERICAN CAN COMPANY
100 PARK AVENUE
NEW YORK 17, N. Y.
WILLIAM C. STOLK
PRESIDENT
EEO
April 2, 1959
Mr. Allen W. Dulles
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
24.30 E Street, North West
Washington, D. C.
I know you have followed with interest the comments by
President Eisenhower and other government leaders on the necessity
of a voluntary price roll-back by business leadership if run-away
inflation and its attendant evils are to be avoided. The alterna-
tive quite apparently is the likelihood of a system of selective
price controls instituted by government -- an eventuality that will
produce even greater hardships for both management and labor.
We at the American Can Company have tried to give tangible
support to these convictions through two important reductions in our
can prices in the past three months. We have been able to do this
by taking the utmost advantage of the fruits of technological develop-
ment and by bringing all practical efficiencies to all our operations.
These, we believe, are time-honored practices available to all in the
business and industrial world.
I am enclosing with this letter for your information and
possible interest a preprint of an advertisement that we are running
April 3 to announce our latest price reductions. This preprint de-
scribes our program in some detail. I am sending you this material
because I know you are deeply interested in the broad problem of how
the crushing effects of all-out inflation can be avoided in this
country.
We in American Can Company regard this as one of the fun-
damental problems of our times. We believe that immediate action is
needed. We also feel that an exchange of views is a helpful prelude
to action. We hope, therefore, you will be interested in knowing of
our program. Needless to say, we would be most interested in your
opinions on this fundamental problem.
Sincerely yours,
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O.K., AMERICA
HERE'S ACTION ON PRICES
The American Can Company has announced
to customers another important reduction in
can prices. These new prices apply to the
major group of cans used for packing the
fruits and vegetables which constitute a major
part of your family food budget.
This dramatic action follows by less
than three months the can price reduc-
tions we put into effect in January for
most of our customers. The January cuts
alone will save our customers more than
$9,000,000 in 1959. The new action will,
mean additional millions in.savings.
These reductions have been made in she
face of constantly rising-costs of goods and
services. They have been made in spite of the
threat of more inflation to come.
How have we been able to do it ?
The lower prices have come as the result
of hard-headed action to cut costs in every
area of the Company's operations. They
represent action by a company on the move,
one that is conditioned to ride with the prob-
lems of doing business in this day and age,
one that faces up to present and future con-
ditions with realism and with imagination.
They have come because the Amer-
ican Can Company is alert to every
opportunity to improve its products and
services to customers, to protect the
long range positions of its employees
and its stockholders, and to serve the
public interest.
They are the direct result of many years of
study and millions of dollars spent for tech-
nological advancement and other improve-
ments in our can-making operations.
We have taken these steps :
1. Completion of the tin plate process-
ing program, pioneered by the Amer-
ican Can Company at a cost of
$32,0Q0,000, in which we convert
plate purchased in coil form from the
steel mills into can-making size
sheets.
2. Establishment of the individual pric-
ing of each can to more closely reflect
the varying costs and processes that
go into its manufacture.
3. Establishment of F. 0. B. pricing of
each type and style of can at each of
our factories.This eliminated the tra-
ditional averaging of tin plate trans-
portation costs, a practice which was
no longer in the best interests of all
customers.
4. Protecting our customers and our-
selves by making our can prices com-
petitive for those customers who
want to buy containers from expert
can makers rather than hazard the
manufacture of their own cans.
Why are we taking this action?
Why are we again cutting can prices at
this time? Why not wait a while to see what
Congress does about inflation? Or until we
see what kind of demands the unions are
going to make in the major contract nego-
tiations (including our own) that will soon
begin?
First, we are a company of people in busi-
ness to succeed, profit-and grow. We believe
it is the soundest kind of business practice to
produce as efficiently and as economically as
possible-and then price our products so.
that--our customers -and-the public share !he
benefits. Our price reductions will not impair
our earnings ability. Instead, we believe that
they will measurably contribute to a future
of sustained sound and profitable growth for
our Company.
Second, we are deeply concerned about the
clear and present danger of inflation. We
have decided that we shouldn't sit back and
wait for somebody else to act. We endorse
100 percent President Eisenhower's convic-
tion that inflation must be curbed and that
it is everyone's responsibility to help curb it
-business and the unions, as well as gov-
ernment.
In our view, the voluntary reductions
we have made in our can prices stand as
a further example of the American Can
Company's traditional policy of service
-to our customers and to the general
public. We intend to continue this policy.
AMERICAN CAN COMPANY New York ? Chicago ? San Francisco
Ad No. 10-295 This advertisement for morning and evening newspapers in Major Cities-April 3, 1959
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