What we have written elsewhere on " The Dread of
a Profit" is admirably illustrated both by the Board of Trade Committee's Report on Messrs. Coats's sewing-cotton business and by some of the newspaper comments on it. The salient facts in the Report are that four-fifths of Messrs. Coats's profits are made on their world-wide export trade, and that, but for their skilful manage- ment and the large resources which enable them to buy and hold considerable stocks of raw cotton and yarn, the reel of cotton would now cost the public more than a shilling instead of ten- pence. That is to say, every purchaser of a reel of cotton is saving at least twopence because Messrs. Coats have made good profits for many years, and have accumulated reserve funds with which to finance their business even in troublous times like these.
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