# Orangeburg Mfg. Co. v. Commissioner

> United States Tax Court · November 21, 1961 · 37 T.C. 251

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4595265

## Case

- **Full name:** Orangeburg Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
- **Court:** United States Tax Court
- **Decided:** November 21, 1961
- **Citations:** 37 T.C. 251; 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 32
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Opinion
- **Judges:** Hakron
- **Cited by:** 3 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

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## Opinion text

Orangeburg Manufacturing Co., Inc., Petitioner, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent
Orangeburg Mfg. Co. v. Commissioner
Docket No. 39249
United States Tax Court
37 T.C. 251 ; 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 32 ;
November 21, 1961 , Filed
*32 Decision will be entered for the respondent .
Petitioner, a manufacturer of products made of a cellulose fibre and bituminous pitch material, claims relief from excess profits tax on multiple bases with respect to the several segments of its business under sections 722(b)(2) , (b)(3)(A) , (b)(3)(B) , (b)(4) , and (b)(5) , 1939 Code. It manufactures underground conduit used by members of the electric light and power industry; underfloor electric duct systems used by electric contractors in the construction of commercial, industrial, and public buildings; sewer pipe and perforated drainpipe.
1. Held , petitioner has not shown that its electric conduit earnings during the base period were depressed during the base period by reason of temporary economic circumstances unusual in its experience, or because an industry of which it is a member was depressed by reason of temporary and unusual economic events within the meaning of section 722(b)(2) ; or by reason of conditions generally prevailing in an industry of which petitioner is a member subjecting petitioner's electric conduit business to sporadic and intermittent periods of high production and profits within the meaning of section *33 722(b)(3)(B) .
2. Held , petitioner's underfloor duct system business was not depressed during the base period by reason of conditions generally prevailing in its industry subjecting petitioner to a profits cycle differing materially in length and amplitude from the general business cycle within section 722(b)(3)(A) .
3. Petitioner has failed to show that had it commenced the manufacture and sale of certain products 2 years earlier than actually occurred its level of earnings would have been greater than they actually were as of the end of the base period. Held , petitioner is not entitled to relief under the provisions of section 722(b)(4) .
4. Held , petitioner has not established any facts which entitle it to relief under section 722(b)(5) .
Richard P. Jackson, Esq ., and John V. Emerson, Esq ., for the petitioner.
Arthur *34 N. Mindling, Esq ., for the respondent.
Harron, Judge .
HARRON
*252 The Commissioner denied applications for relief under section 722 , 1939 Code, pertaining to the years 1940, 1941, and 1942, and claims for refund of all of the excess profits taxes finally determined by the respondent to be due.
FINDINGS OF FACT.
The parties entered into a stipulation of various facts and incorporated in the stipulation several joint exhibits. The stipulated facts are hereby adopted as part of our findings and are incorporated herein by reference together with the joint exhibits.
The petitioner filed its returns for the taxable years involved with the collector of internal revenue for the fourteenth district of New York. They were filed within extended periods allowed by the respondent. The returns were filed for calender years on the basis of an accrual method of accounting.
Petitioner's Excess Profits Tax Liability .
The following schedule shows, for each of the taxable years involved, petitioner's excess profits net income (as adjusted by the respondent or as reported) computed under the income method, the excess profits credits computed with the benefit of section 713(f), and the *35 excess profits tax liability finally determined by the respondent without the benefit of section 722 : Year Excess profits net Excess profits Excess profits tax
income credit, sec. 713(f) liability
1940 1 $ 258,751.49 $ 145,555.79 $ 34,778.28
1941 1 587,189.34 174,970.35 199,189.45
1942 2 664,766.66 174,533.75 212,493.20
*253 The petitioner computed its excess profits taxes in its returns under the income method, and the respondent's determinations thereof were made on the same basis.
In the computation of the excess profits tax liability shown above, petitioner had the advantage of the so-called growth formula under section 713(f), whereby the statutory average base period net income under section 713(f) was substantially higher than the arithmetic average of petitioner's excess profits net income for the base period, as shown in the schedules set forth below. The application of the growth formula had the effect of making the average base period net income so determined equal to the excess profits net income of *36 1939, the highest amount in any year in the base period. Because of claims of petitioner for carryover and carryback of unused excess profits credits, the parties have agreed upon the respective amounts of average base period net income computed under section 713(f) applicable to the years 1940 through 1944.
The amounts of petitioner's excess profits net income for the base period years 1936-1939, inclusive, applicable to the years 1940 through 1944 and the arithmetic averages are as follows: For 1940 For 1941 For 1942 For 1943 For 1944
1936 $ 32,304.09 $ 32,304.09 $ 32,304.09 $ 32,304.09 $ 32,304.09
1937 15,867.93 33,731.46 33,731.46 33,731.46 35,077.53
1938 84,542.19 95,790.95 95,790.95 95,790.95 98,339.12
1939 153,216.62 184,179.32 183,719.74 184,118.21 184,179.32
Total 285,930.83 346,005.82 345,546.24 345,944.71 349,900.06
Average 71,482.71 86,501.45 86,386.56 86,486.18 87,475.02
Petitioner's normal-tax or special-class net income, or loss, and its excess profits tax net income, or loss, under 1941 law, for the years 1922 through 1939 as finally determined by the respondent and agreed to by the petitioner were as follows: *37 Normal-tax Revised excess
or special-class profits
Year net net income
income (or (or loss) under
loss) 1941 law
1922 1 $ 254,169.48 $ 264,209.99
1923 486,873.99 570,234.96
1924 571,777.25 583,264.85
1925 172,360.09 189,986.16
1926 358,480.57 398,886.16
1927 504,518.67 514,460.30
1928 558,183.89 569,321.56
1929 589,375.25 681,173.82
1930 691,538.89 774,946.49
1931 58,130.92 130,224.32
1932 (46,800.55) 22,935.25
1933 (146,881.93) (76,350.35)
1934 (125,457.71) (106,416.83)
1935 (46,047.99) (20,131.10)
1936 (16,023.30) 48,876.86
1937 137,897.64 172,720.50
1938 75,627.15 98,339.12
1939 185,515.36 184,179.32
Petitioner made no effort during the trial of this case to show what portion of its total overall profit (or loss) for any year could properly *254 be allocated to its manufacture and sale of underground fibre conduit or to its corresponding activities with respect to any other separable class or products.
The amounts of petitioner's average base period net income computed under section 713(f), applicable to the years 1940-1944, and *38 the excess profits credit under 713(f) are set forth in the following schedule, together with the arithmetic averages of the base-period-years excess profits net income: Applicable to the years -- Arith. ABPEPNI Sec. 713(f) ABPNI 1
1940 $ 71,482.71 $ 153,216.62
1941 86,501.45 184,179.32
1942 86,386.56 183,719.74
1943 86,486.18 184,118.21
1944 87,475.02 184,179.32
Applicable to the years -- Sec. 713(f) EPC
1940 $ 145,555.79
1941 174,970.35
1942 174,533.75
1943 174,912.30
1944 174,970.35
Petitioner's net income or loss for its base period years 1936-1939, as finally adjusted after audit by the respondent, amounted to the following: 1936, ($ 14,413.21); 1937, $ 139,912.64; 1938, $ 77,642.15; and 1939, $ 187,039.27 (which amounts include interest on Government obligations issued before March 1, 1941, that was properly deducted in computing normal-tax or special-class net income). Respondent made adjustments of the above amounts of base period net income in determining the amounts of excess profits net income *39 of each of the base period years applicable to the excess profits years 1940-1942, for the purpose of computing petitioner's excess profits tax liability without the benefit of section 722 . The following schedule shows such adjustments in base period excess profits net income applicable to excess profits taxable year 1942. The amounts of base period excess profits net income applicable to 1942 differ from the corresponding amounts applicable to 1940 only by reason of the deduction of base period income taxes in computing average base period net income for 1940, which were $ 17,863.53, $ 11,248.76, and $ 30,503.12 for 1937, 1938, and 1939, respectively. The adjustments in the several amounts of normal-tax or special-class net income which were made by the respondent in computing the respective amounts of the statutory average base period net income to be used for each of the excess profits tax years 1941, 1943, and 1944 were not identical in every detail for any two excess profits tax years but in each instance differed in only minor respects from the corresponding adjustments made for the year 1942 which are set forth in the following schedule. All of the varying amounts of base *40 period excess profits net income resulting from the somewhat different adjustments are of the same general magnitude and relative effect. Joint Exhibit 10-J, which sets forth the complete *255 details of all of the adjustments, is incorporated herein by this reference: 1936 1937
Net income ($ 14,413.21) $ 139,912.64
Less: Interest on Government obligations
issued before Mar. 1, 1941 1,610.09 2,015.00
Normal-tax or special-class net income (16,023.30) 137,897.64
Add: Capital loss 2,000.00 2,000.00
(14,023.30) 139,897.64
Less: Capital gain 0 0
(14,023.30) 139,897.64
Add: Net short-term gain 0 502.77
(14,023.30) 140,400.41
Less: Net loss from sale or exchange of property
other than capital assets 0 130,707.34
(14,023.30) 9,693.07
Add: Demolition and abandonment losses 46,327.39 24,038.39
Other abnormal deductions 0 0
32,304.09 33,731.46
Less: Net gain from sale or exchange of capital
assets 0 0
Excess profits net income for 1942 32,304.09 33,731.46
1938 1939
Net income $ 77,642.15 $ 187,039.27
Less: Interest on Government obligations
issued before Mar. 1, 1941 2,015.00 1,523.91
Normal-tax or special-class net income 75,627.15 185,515.36
Add: Capital loss 2,000.00 0
77,627.15 185,515.36
Less: Capital gain 0 2,127.40
77,627.15 183,387.96
Add: Net short-term gain 455.73 331.78
78,082.88 183,719.74
Less: Net loss from sale or exchange of property
other than capital assets 0 0
78,082.88 183,719.74
Add: Demolition and abandonment losses 1,532.06 0
Other abnormal deductions 1 19,050.00 0
98,664.94 183,719.74
Less: Net gain from sale or exchange of capital
assets 2,873.99 0
Excess profits net income for 1942 95,790.95 183,719.74
*41
GENERAL FACTS.
Petitioner, a New York corporation, was organized and began business in 1893. Its corporate name was The Fibre Conduit Company until 1947 when its name was changed to Orangeburg Manufacturing Co., Inc. It has maintained at all times its principal office and factory in Orangeburg, New York. It has a sales office in New York City.
Petitioner's registered trademark is "Orangeburg," and at all times its products have been sold under that trade name.
Petitioner's capital stock was $ 600,000 in 1922, and before. In 1924 a stock dividend of 100 percent was declared, thereby increasing the capital stock to $ 1,200,000. There has not been any change in the amount of *42 the capital stock since 1924.
The petitioner corporation was organized by Stephen R. Bradley and his brother. When the latter Bradley died, his stock was inherited by a son and two daughters, William C. Bradley, May Bradley, and Mrs. George L. Chapman. Stephen R. Bradley was the petitioner's president until August 18, 1925, when he retired. In about 1915, William C. Bradley's association with the corporation ended. In about 1934, and before, the outstanding stock of the corporation was 48,000 shares which were held, roughly, as follows: By certain members of the Bradley family and other individuals, John S. *256 Cravens, and the Johns-Manville corporation. Johns-Manville subsequently disposed of all of its stock and is no longer a stockholder.
In the earlier years of petitioner's business, up to 1925, the chief officers were Stephen R. Bradley, president, and A. M. Cregier, a vice president. Cregier, a graduate engineer, became associated with the corporation in the early 1900's as a plant superintendent, and remained for over 31 years. Cregier became president in August 1925; he held that office until he died, on February 5, 1936. At the time of Cregier's death, H. J. *43 Robertson, Jr., was a vice president, who was in charge of sales. Robertson became president in 1936.
Robertson was employed by petitioner in 1925, when he was 27 years old, and received thorough training in the business. He became Cregier's assistant in about 1926. His father-in-law was W. C. Bradley, a substantial stockholder. Robertson became the sales manager of the underfloor duct division of the business in 1928. In 1931 he became a vice president and a director. He has been interested primarily in the promotion of the sales, the improvement of products, and the development of new products.
Petitioner's business at all times has been the manufacture of tubes out of a material which is 25 percent cellulose fibre and 75 percent tar pitch. All of petitioner's products are made from this product.
Depending upon the end-use of petitioner's products, they are called either conduit, pipe, or duct. Conduit is a term generally applied to a tube which is laid underground and receives, holds, and protects electric wires and cables. The term pipe describes a tube used to conduct fluids. The term duct is used to describe a tubular runway or raceway for electric power and telephone *44 cables and wires. Petitioner's conduit and pipe are used in underground installations; the duct is used in underfloor installations.
During the base period years, petitioner made pipe, conduit, duct, and the necessary nonmetallic fittings such as joints, couplings, ends, caps, plugs, elbows, and similar parts which are required in laying a system of pipes, conduit, and ducts; all of such parts are made of the same pulp-bituminous material. Petitioner also made some miscellaneous items called specialties.
The material used in the making of all of petitioner's products, when dried, is a black, hard, and comparatively lightweight substance. It can be tooled on a tooling lathe, cut with a course edge wood saw, and holes can be cut through. The products called conduit and pipe look alike and except for differences in diameters, sizes, and wall thickness they are alike; apart from the various end-uses, they look like hard, black pipe; the term conduit indicates end-use. The *257 ducts differ in shape and size; they are semioval tubes with a flat bottom, some of which are fitted with metal fittings which petitioner bought during the material years.
During the course of petitioner's *45 business, it has made various developments and improvements in the basic material used, the manufacturing process, and its products. In the earliest years the basic material was made of woodpulp and asphaltic pitches. At some time in the early 1920's, prior to 1925, waste newspaper pulp was substituted. In the early 1930's, petitioner began to use an improved type of hard coal tar pitch, at the time it adopted a vacuum process for treating and impregnating the fibrous material, which is hereinafter described. Also, in the earlier years, the conduit was made in relatively few sizes and only one type of joint, a "socket joint," was made. Later, in about 1929, a sleeve type of joint with a coupling was used, the Harrington joint. Petitioner made conduit in 5-foot lengths prior to 1930. In 1930, it added 8-foot lengths; after 1930, the major part of its conduit was made in 8-foot lengths. In 1929, other manufacturers of fibre conduit and petitioner agreed on certain standard specifications for the industry after which the control of dimensions and mechanical characteristics became more exacting. In 1931 petitioner erected its No. 3 mill and made changes in all operating departments.
*46 All of petitioner's products are made with the same machinery and under the same processes. The products were made during the material years in various sizes with inside diameters ranging from 1 to 4, to 6, to 8 inches and with different wall thicknesses. During the relevant years about 80 percent of the chief products (other than duct) were made in the 4-inch diameter size.
The pulp and pitch material is immune to soil corrosion and is highly resistant to the corrosive action of dilute alkaline, inorganic acid, and chemical fluids.
The manufacturing process used in the material years involved these steps: (1) Waste newspaper is made into pulp which is cleaned and refined. (2) The pulp material is run through machines which roll it into tubes of particular lengths, diameters, and sizes. (3) The tubes are dried in ovens. (4) The white tubes are next treated or impregnated with a bituminous pitch at predetermined temperatures. (5) The final steps involve finishing the product.
Beginning in 1893, petitioner manufactured its pipelike product chiefly for use by electric utility companies as underground electric cable conduit. At all times conduit has been its chief product and it *47 has been sold chiefly to electric utility corporations and also to some *258 industrial concerns. The major part of its production of conduit, at least 90 percent, was sold to electric utilities throughout the United States during the years 1922-1939.
Until 1923, petitioner's production was exclusively electric conduit, and pipe was its minor product. In 1923, petitioner began the manufacture of a new product, underfloor duct, for use as raceways for wires and cables, but electric conduit continued to be its chief product in terms of volume and sales.
In about 1928, consideration was given to other potential uses of fibre tubes and it was recognized that another use was for sewer and drainpipe. However, up to 1937, petitioner's chief products were conduit and duct.
From 1893 until 1937, the only kind of conduit made by petitioner, its standard conduit, was the type which is encased in concrete after it is laid in the ground. In about 1936 petitioner developed a heavier wall conduit, identified as Type II, which could be laid underground without a concrete encasement. It is referred to hereinafter.
Petitioner's standard conduit was and is installed by electric utilities in *48 built-up tiers of from 6 to 16 conduit, or 20 to 26, or up to 64, making a bank of conduit running from manhole to manhole. Concrete is poured between and around the lines of conduit and around an entire group or bank. At the points where manholes are located electric cables are pulled through the raceways provided by the encased fibre conduit.
In November 1921, petitioner obtained a license from a syndicate and the inventor of an underfloor duct system to make and sell fibre duct systems, a gridiron of ducts, junction boxes, and metallic fittings which are laid in concrete floors at the time a building is constructed. The ducts are raceways holding telephone and electric wires which are readily accessible through outlets for telephone and electric service to tenants. The invention of an underfloor duct system brought about a major change in the method of wiring commercial buildings for electric and communications service. Underfloor duct became petitioner's second major product, which it began selling in 1923. During the years 1923 through 1939, underfloor duct constituted in volume and sales petitioner's second largest product. Underfloor duct systems were installed in commercial, *49 industrial, public, and institutional buildings. Specifications for the installation of such underfloor systems are made in the plans for new buildings. The duct systems are sold to the electric contractors who install the wiring.
*259 By the end of 1939, petitioner's products were standard conduit, Type I; heavy-wall conduit, Type II; underfloor duct; drain and sewer pipe; perforated drainpipe (pipe with holes drilled in certain areas) for septic tank drainage beds; and a small class of miscellaneous items called specialties.
Petitioner has operated its plant at Orangeburg since 1893. After about December 31, 1931, during the material years, all of petitioner's manufacturing operations were carried on at the Orangeburg plant. Prior to the end of 1931, petitioner operated other plants at different locations from time to time.
In May 1922, petitioner purchased the entire property of American Conduit Company, including its plant at Fulton, New York. It operated the Fulton plant until March 31, 1925. In 1922, petitioner also purchased the operating equipment of Fibre Corporation (which was wholly owned by Johns-Manville Corporation) including its plant at Lockport, New York. *50 Petitioner paid for the equipment by issuing stock to Johns-Manville. Under the purchase agreement with Fibre Corporation, the latter company produced conduit with materials provided by petitioner and petitioner received and sold the products. This arrangement was carried on for about 9 months, until March 31, 1923. Subsequently, in 1923, petitioner sold all of the machinery and equipment acquired from Fibre Corporation at a book loss of $ 74,711.
In 1924, petitioner constructed a new plant in Richmond, Indiana, which was put into operation in the same year and was kept in operation through 1930, for about 5 years. Production there was gradually reduced during 1931 and 50 percent of the plant was closed by May 31, 1931. All but 5 percent of the remainder of the plant was closed and all manufacturing operations were concluded by December 31, 1931. The part of the Richmond plant which was not closed was used only for warehouse and shipping purposes until May 1, 1936. On about May 31, 1936, the building, machinery, and equipment were offered for sale. Certain important items of machinery and equipment were moved from the Richmond to the Orangeburg plant; certain items were scrapped. *51 The land, building, and remaining items of machinery and equipment were sold in 1937 to the Johns-Manville Corporation, at a loss. Thereafter, during the years material in this proceeding, petitioner's manufacturing operations were confined to its Orangeburg plant.
The following schedule shows the total depreciable assets, the total of all assets, and the total combined capital stock and surplus of *260 petitioner as stated in the closing balance sheets in petitioner's income tax returns for the years 1922-1939, inclusive: Total depreciable assets Combined capital
Year Total assets stock 1
Original cost Net book value and surplus
1922 $ 708,939 $ 463,303 $ 950,720 $ 697,699
1923 962,861 689,441 1,360,537 1,027,658
1924 1,427,415 1,072,160 1,614,340 1,419,630
1925 1,441,406 986,510 1,519,159 1,460,155
1926 1,424,727 885,965 1,766,899 1,562,286
1927 1,496,988 920.991 2,097,883 1,849,869
1928 1,552,165 904,314 2,255,861 2,015,530
1929 1,481,028 810,122 2,384,191 2,135,487
1930 1,661,188 925,769 2,472,500 2,307,588
1931 2,037,224 1,215,198 2,101,753 2,040,927
1932 2,087,542 1,135,640 2,047,856 2,000,884
1933 2,106,993 1,022,049 1,900,931 1,860,438
1934 2,127,725 979,258 1,782,887 1,738,650
1935 2,134,181 919,588 1,717,941 1,678,017
1936 2,061,588 831,622 1,631,026 1,534,007
1937 1,282,817 539,149 1,557,676 1,397,217
1938 1,210,846 519,937 1,441,623 1,356,520
1939 1,228,715 527,518 1,495,012 1,366,618
*52
The following schedule shows petitioner's total net sales, gross profit, and net income (as adjusted by the Commissioner) for the years 1922-1939, inclusive: Year Net sales 1 Gross profit 1 Net income (or loss)
1922 $ 1,199,352.12 $ 531,135.63 2 $ 254,169.48
1923 2,163,160.10 1,014,087.40 486,873.99
1924 1,910,614.26 1,064,731.51 571,777.25
1925 1,247,106.38 570,199.44 172,360.09
1926 1,651,904.49 809,963.45 358,480.57
1927 1,865,991.65 980,726.54 504,518.65
1928 2,213,841.55 1,080,343.18 558,183.89
1929 2,433,418.05 1,235,696.70 589,375.25
1930 2,493,074.87 1,369,264.17 691,538.89
1931 1,270,977.75 605,340.87 58,130.92
1932 808,374.49 377,938.66 (46,800.55)
1933 566,035.64 207,779.37 (146,881.93)
1934 441,557.19 153,162.67 (120,500.90)
1935 436,617.70 186,343.01 (43,242.78)
1936 680,196.06 275,395.99 (14,413.21)
1937 781,472.08 420,496.44 139,912.64
1938 725,722.49 350,200.94 77,642.15
1939 884,297.48 440,935.36 187,039.27
*53
Selling Arrangements, 1922 Through 1939 .
In 1922 petitioner purchased the machinery and operating equipment of Fibre Corporation, located in Lockport, New York, which was wholly owned by Johns-Manville Company. Petitioner issued shares of its common stock to Johns-Manville in payment and Johns-Manville thereby acquired a substantial stock interest in petitioner. Its stock interest in petitioner was reduced in 1937, when petitioner reacquired most of the stock from Johns-Manville in payment for *261 its plant at Richmond, Indiana, which Johns-Manville purchased. In 1941, Johns-Manville ceased to be a stockholder.
In 1922 Johns-Manville, under a contract with petitioner, became the sole and exclusive distributor or jobber of all of petitioner's products on a commission basis. At that time, Johns-Manville did not directly or indirectly sell underground electric conduit; petitioner had taken over the operations of the Fibre Corporation, as stated above. Johns-Manville manufactured other products, such *54 as building materials and various kinds of pipes; it was not primarily a manufacturer of electrical products. Johns-Manville was not a jobber for any manufacturer other than petitioner; it sold its own products. Under the sales agency contract, petitioner's products were to be sold under petitioner's trade name, Orangeburg.
When petitioner added the underfloor duct system to its products, the Johns-Manville contract was understood to include that product also.
In December 1922 Johns-Manville arranged for distribution of petitioner's products in Great Britain and some of its dominions through a contract with a British corporation, Key Engineering Company, Ltd., which was made an exclusive foreign distributor of petitioner's products.
Under the Johns-Manville agency agreement, petitioner's products were distributed on a national basis.
Johns-Manville continued to be the exclusive distributor of petitioner's underfloor duct production until sometime in 1928, when petitioner took the selling of floor duct away from Johns-Manville and undertook for a short time selling that product itself through a newly created selling division of which Robertson was in charge. Petitioner's office *55 in New York City was enlarged to handle sales of floor duct and salesmen were employed. Petitioner's selling efforts included contacting architects and engineers who developed plans for new buildings as well as electric contractors who were the potential buyers of floor duct.
On November 13, 1929, petitioner and General Electric Company entered into an agreement whereby petitioner agreed to make a special type of underfloor duct systems for General Electric, to be sold under the label of General Electric; petitioner also agreed not to sell to others the same kind of floor duct system which it was to make for General Electric. This agreement was amended in 1932, which amendment is referred to hereinafter. The arrangement with General Electric continued throughout the years material in this proceeding.
Johns-Manville continued to be the exclusive distributor of petitioner's other products, consisting chiefly of underground electric conduit, until the early part of 1934 when petitioner entered into a *262 nonexclusive contract with Graybar Electric Company, which had been the distributor for petitioner's principal competitor, Brown Company. Brown and Graybar had had a disagreement *56 prior to 1934, and thereafter Graybar approached petitioner. Graybar was a distributor of petitioner's products during the remaining years which are material.
Petitioner entered into the nonexclusive distributor agreement with Graybar on May 1, 1934. Under this agreement Graybar distributed petitioner's underground electric conduit and pipe. Graybar is primarily a distributor and jobber of electrical equipment and has a very large organization throughout the United States. It provided many more distributing outlets than Johns-Manville.
At about the same time that petitioner entered into the agreement with Graybar, it also entered into a nonexclusive distribution agreement, in 1934, with General Electric Supply Company, a distribution organization similar to Graybar. General Electric Supply had had a subagency agreement with Johns-Manville for the sale of petitioner's electric conduit. Upon the termination of the Johns-Manville contract, petitioner negotiated directly with General Electric Supply Company. Under petitioner's contract, General Electric Supply received an agency to sell petitioner's electric conduit and pipe, also, which arrangement continued during the relevant *57 years. General Electric Supply Company, like Graybar, has many distributing warehouses and sales offices throughout the entire United States and it sells primarily to the electric utility industry. Both are sales representatives, distributors, and jobbers of electrical machinery, equipment, and appliances used in connection with the production, transmission, distribution, and use of electricity.
In addition, after terminating the contract with Johns-Manville in 1934, petitioner made an agreement in 1934 with Fibre Conduits of Canada and Dominion Tar & Chemical Company, Ltd. (the parent of Fibre Conduits), whereby Key Engineering was to obtain electric conduit from either Dominion Tar or Fibre Conduits and petitioner was to receive commissions on sales to and through Key Engineering (the British distributor) in lieu of making sales directly to Key. Furthermore, in 1934, petitioner appointed International General Electric as its distributor for electric conduit in the export market. Also, petitioner subsequently appointed International Standard Electric Company, a subsidiary of International Telephone & Telegraph Company, as a distributor in the export market.
Underground Electric *58 Conduit Systems In General .
The earliest successful attempt (in the United States) to place underground a system of electric conductors for lighting service was *263 that invented and installed by Thomas A. Edison, known as the Edison Tube System, in the area supplied from the Pearl Street Station in New York City. This was accomplished on September 4, 1882, when current was turned into an underground system consisting of electric conductors enclosed in iron pipes. Thereafter, various types of underground conduit systems, also called duct systems, were developed which were of two classes, inflexible and flexible systems.
Most of the underground conduit or duct systems used by the electric light and power industry are generally classified as distribution rather than transmission facilities. The transmission lines of electric light and power companies are used for the transfer of electricity in bulk between generating plants and switching stations or substations and generally carry much higher voltages than the distribution lines. Pressure systems involving the use of hydrogen gas or oil and a metallic conduit such as steel pipe have generally been used for the installation *59 of underground transmission lines whenever the voltages to be carried run up beyond a certain point.
Underground systems of distributing electric energy involve many factors, technological, engineering, and economic, which are not involved in the conventional open-wire overhead systems of transmission and distribution. The adoption of underground systems is directly related to the growth cities, the concentration in cities of business activities and population, and the consequent increase in the volume of electric energy. Underground construction is often necessary for high-load-density urban areas where lack of space and building congestion restrict the possible installation of pole lines. As municipalities grow, overhead electric wire systems are removed because they become obstructions, and they are replaced by underground systems. By 1930, underground systems had been long established in the larger American cities. Since the cost of underground construction is nearly always greater than the cost of the equivalent overhead construction, underground lines have been restricted almost entirely to localities where considerations other than lowest cost are of primary importance, *60 such localities usually being cities. The cost of constructing an underground system may be from 10 to 50 times as much as the cost of putting up an overhead system.
On the other hand, in most suburban areas, smaller municipalities, and rural areas, electric energy is distributed by the conventional overhead systems. Among the reasons are lower demand and consumption as well as the lower costs of construction.
The earliest underground systems were of the "inflexible" type, so called because after the burial in the ground of conductors, in suitable enclosures, no changes or repairs can be made without reopening the ground. The inherent disadvantage of the inflexible system early lead to the introduction of conduits or raceways into which and from *264 which cables could be drawn or withdrawn, respectively, without disturbing the overlying earth and street surfaces. They constituted the "flexible" systems which came to be used largely by both electric power and light and communications companies. Probably the first installation of a flexible system in the United States was made in Boston by the American Bell Telephone Company in 1882 and 1883. There are, of course, many and *61 various kinds of flexible conduit systems. Some of them have particular disadvantages. Desirable features of a flexible system are that the system and the conduits are such as to facilitate replacing existing conductors with larger ones when the installed system becomes outgrown, the addition of more cables, and the substitution of higher voltage cables. Flexible systems have been preferred on account of the expense and inconvenience of digging and cutting through pavement to make repairs and replacements.
The petitioner entered into the field of producing underground conduit in 1893. It made and still makes conduit for use in flexible underground systems.
Many materials have been used for the walls of underground conduit. The following relates to some of the earlier materials:
In the late 1800's, pipes made of wrought iron or a good-quality steel, encased in concrete were used.
Pump logs, originally laid only for water-supply distribution, were found to be readily adaptable to underground electrical distribution. An underground system of pump logs was installed by the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1883 in the City of Washington, D.C. Pump logs are trimmed square on the *62 outside to certain dimensions (like railroad ties), a 2-inch hole is bored through the wood, and the pump log is treated with creosote oils to fill the cellular structure of the wood. A creosoted pump log system was installed in Brooklyn in 1884. Pump log is normally installed without concrete encasement.
Another type of conduit which was used in the early years was the single-duct clay tile conduit, called Camp tile, which was made in sections about 2 feet long with a 3-inch circular bore. Conduit made of Camp clay tile are still being used. The first single-duct clay conduit was installed in 1891 in Cincinnati for telephone cables, and soon thereafter single-duct clay tile conduit were installed for underground electrical distribution in Boston, Detroit, and Philadelphia. In 1895 multiple-duct clay tile conduit was made for a railroad company in Chicago; later it was used and is still used by communication companies. Prior to 1915, single-duct clay tile was widely used for underground electric conduit.
In about 1890, electrical contractors in New York City became interested in creating a material which would compete with materials then used for underground electric conduit *63 systems, namely, Edison tubes, creosoted pump log, iron pipe, and single-duct clay tile. A *265 process was developed for forming a tube or conduit of woodpulp fibre treated with an asphaltum compound. The manufacture of this material was begun in 1893 by Fibre Conduit Company at Orangeburg, New York, the petitioner in this proceeding. Fibre conduit became widely used by electric light and power companies.
Terra cotta (tile) conduit in 2-foot sections also have been used.
A good many years after the development of fibre tubes, or pipes, and the use thereof for underground electric conduit, there were developed ducts, or conduit, made of concrete, asbestos cement, cement, and soapstone. These later developments are referred to hereinafter.
From the beginning of the use of underground electric conduit systems, it has been customary to install lines of several conduit in banks, i.e., a number of ducts joined in a bank. The determination of the number of ducts to be built in a trunkline involves planning for future as well as present use. It is customary to designate the number of ducts, or conduit, to be installed as (a) ducts presently required; (b) spare ducts for which *64 use within a few years can be expected; and (c) supernumerary ducts.
Designing and planning for the future requirements of an area served by underground conduit cover a wide range of possibilities. Individual electric light and power companies have adopted various plans from time to time. The difficulties of estimating in advance economical and practical features as well as future needs have been learned through experience by individual electric utility companies. However, it was the general practice of the electric light and power companies to anticipate their needs for underground duct for a substantial number of years in the future so that they would not have to dig up streets and incur the other expenses necessary to install additional banks of conduit to serve the same physical area.
The expenditures of electric light and power companies for construction and facts relating more particularly to their installations of underground conduit systems are set forth hereinafter.
Petitioner's Position and Competition in the Conduit Field .
From 1893 to 1922, as far as the record here shows, petitioner was one of the chief producers of fibre tubes used for underground electric conduit, *65 and there were few other significant manufacturers. Prior to 1922, two other producers of fibre conduit were American Conduit Company at Fulton, New York, and the Fibre Corporation at Lockport, New York (controlled by Johns-Manville). In May 1922, petitioner took over the operations of both competitors. It purchased the plant of American Conduit Company for more than $ 220,000; and it purchased for an agreed price of $ 129,227 the operating equipment of Fibre Corporation. (Both acquisitions and petitioner's use of the Fulton and Lockport plants have been referred to hereinbefore.) *266 For a short time after the acquistion of these competitors' facilities, petitioner was the only producer of fibre conduit.
In the latter part of 1923, the Brown Company of Berlin, New Hampshire (hereinafter referred to as Brown), a manufacturer of pulp and paper, commenced to make a product out of pulp and bituminous compound similar to that made by petitioner. In 1928, Line Material Company (called Line hereinafter) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, started making fibre conduit for underground use out of pulp and bituminous compound at its plant at Barton, Wisconsin. Line also made a variety of products, *66 such as pole line hardware, used in the construction of overhead electric systems. The production of fibre underground conduit, in thousands of feet and thousands of dollars, of Brown during the years 1924 through 1939, and of Line during 1928-1939 are set forth in the following table: Brown Company Line Material Company
Year
Thousands of Thousands of Thousands of Thousands of
feet dollars 1 feet dollars
1922 2 NA 2 NA 0 0
1923 2 NA 2 NA 0 0
1924 9,943 $ 983 0 0
1925 15,883 1,546 0 0
1926 14,945 1,662 0 0
1927 17,387 2,120 0 0
1928 14,926 2,023 24 $ 4
1929 22,017 2,632 307 49
1930 19,255 2,285 362 58
1931 7,732 1,066 1,123 180
1932 3,424 510 1,070 171
1933 2,380 393 766 123
1934 2,710 661 1,672 189
1935 1,733 122 2,306 228
1936 3,026 380 2,295 227
1937 3,144 485 2,741 310
1938 2,584 330 2,334 285
1939 2,629 425 2,958 314
*67 The following table shows petitioner's sales of fibre conduit in thousands of feet and dollars for the years 1922 through 1939: 1 Petitioner's Sales of Underground Fibre Conduit
Year Thousands Total sales
of feet
1922 12,836 $ 1,199,352.12
1923 20,811 2,119,782.06
1924 17,810 1,878,255.88
1925 11,209 1,183,379.03
1926 14,039 1,496,221.00
1927 15,548 1,632,702.71
1928 16,099 1,713,358.81
1929 19,188 2,073,746.03
1930 17,321 1,986,311.95
1931 9,896 1,110,452.40
1932 5,688 619,229.41
1933 3,609 377,050.47
1934 3,562 374,773.11
1935 3,331 359,114.71
1936 5,251 530,347.21
1937 6,187 649,267.21
1938 3,801 433,172.06
1939 5,042 520,358.52
*68 *267 The combined sales of petitioner, Brown, and Line during the period 1922 through 1939 in thousands of feet and dollars, the average for all three, and the average prices per foot obtained by petitioner are set forth in the following table, which is followed by an analysis with respect to averages and ratios: 2 Combined Sales of Fibre Conduit of Petitioner, Brown, and Line
Average prices Average prices
Year Thousands of Dollars in cents per in cents per
feet foot 1 foot of
petitioner
1922 2 12,836 $ 1,199,352 0.093 0.093
1923 2 20,811 2,119,782 .102 .102
1924 2 27,753 2,861,255 .102 .104
1925 27,092 2,729,379 .097 .097
1926 28,984 3,158,221 .107 .103
1927 32,935 3,752,702 .110 .097
1928 2 31,049 3,740,359 .115 .095
1929 41,512 4,754,746 .115 .108
1930 36,938 4,329,312 .117 .115
1931 18,751 2,356,452 .126 .112
1932 10,182 1,300,229 .128 .109
1933 6,755 893,050 .132 .104
1934 7,944 1,224,773 .154 .105
1935 7,370 709,115 .096 .108
1936 10,572 1,137,347 .108 .101
1937 12,072 1,444,627 .120 .105
1938 8,719 1,048,172 .120 .114
1939 10,629 1,259,358 .118 .103
*69
Averages of Combined Sales of Conduit
Average
Years Thousands of feet Dollars cents per foot
1922-1939 19,606 $ 2,197,000 0.112
1925-1939 19,434 2,225,000 .114
1936-1939 10,498 1,222,000 .116
Ratio to Average for 1922-1939
53.5 55.6 103.6
Ratio to Average for 1925-1939
54.0 54.9 101.8
Average of Prices Per Foot Received by Petitioner
1922-1939 0.103
1925-1939 .104
1936-1939 .105
Ratio to average for 1922-1939 101.9
Ratio to average for 1925-1939 101.0
*70 *268 The following schedule shows for the years 1924 through 1939 the dollar amounts of sales of fibre conduit of the three producers of that type of underground conduit, petitioner, Brown, and Line, together with the ratio of petitioner's sales to the combined sales of the three producers on the basis of the approximate footage of fibre conduit sold in each year: Dollar sales Ratio petitioner's
Year sales
to 3 manufacturers
Petitioner Brown Line
(Thousands
of feet)
1924 $ 1,878,256 $ 983,000 1 N.A.
1925 1,183,379 1,546,000 41.4
1926 1,496,221 1,662,000 48.4
1927 1,632,703 2,120,000 47.2
1928 1,713,359 2,023,000 $ 4,000 51.8
1929 2,073,746 2,632,000 49,000 46.2
1930 1,986,311 2,285,000 58,000 46.9
1931 1,110,452 1,066,000 180,000 52.8
1932 619,229 510,000 171,000 55.9
1933 377,050 393,000 123,000 53.4
1934 374,773 661,000 189,000 44.8
1935 359,114 122,000 228,000 45.2
1936 530,347 380,000 227,000 49.7
1937 649,267 485,000 310,000 51.4
1938 433,172 330,000 285,000 43.6
1939 520,358 425,000 314,000 47.4
At some time toward the end *71 of 1937, petitioner commenced manufacturing a heavy-wall conduit which could be laid directly in the ground without any protective concrete encasement, the Type II conduit which petitioner called Nocrete. 3 This heavier wall conduit, with a wall thickness of about seven-sixteenths of an inch, was made for use in the construction of underground raceways for electric light and power lines, as was Type I, and differed from petitioner's standard conduit, Type I, only in the thickness of the wall (or shell) which made it possible to omit the concrete encasement required in the underground installation of the standard fibre conduit. Nocrete was sold through the same trade channels and distributors (Graybar and General Electric Supply) as the standard conduit. Petitioner's adoption of the vacuum method of treating white pulp tubes with coal tar pitch (referred to elsewhere) made possible the manufacture of a stronger basic pulp-bituminous material, which was the chief factor in the development of Nocrete.
*72 *269 The following table shows the dollar sales of both types of fibre conduit, for convenience, in the event that the dollar sales of Nocrete should be considered along with the dollar sales of standard conduit: Standard Nocrete
Year conduit conduit Total sales
sales sales
1937 $ 649,267 $ 1,116 $ 650,383
1938 433,172 86,846 520,018
1939 520,358 92,599 612,957
1940 775,850 122,458 898,308
1941 1,263,971 217,847 1,481,818
1942 1,496,767 383,962 1,880,729
It has been noted hereinbefore that other underground conduit for electric cable is made of pump log, clay, soapstone, and concrete. During the base period years, the chief, if not the only producers of fibre conduit were the petitioner, Brown, and Line. Fibre conduit competes with conduit made of other materials. For example, petitioner has never sold conduit to the electric light and power company in Chicago which uses concrete conduit. On the West Coast the chief competitive conduit in the early 1930's was single-duct clay conduit.
In the years 1929-1934, Johns-Manville worked on the development of a material made of asbestos fibre, Portland cement, and silica from which it eventually *73 produced a new type of underground conduit for electric cables, to which it gave the trade name Transite Conduit. Transite is a trade name used by Johns-Manville since the early 1900's, which it has applied to many of its products. Transite Conduit could be buried directly in the ground without encasement in a concrete envelope and it is the type which is designated Type II in the Federal Bureau of Standards specifications for conduit. It is a heavy-wall conduit. Johns-Manville put Transite Conduit on the market in 1935. At that time petitioner did not make a heavy-wall underground conduit.
Johns-Manville made its conduit in various sizes, in diameters of from 2 to 4 to 6 inches.
Johns-Manville also made a thin-wall conduit of the same asbestos fibre-cement material which is installed in the ground with a concrete envelope, a Type I conduit. To this conduit, the name Korduct was given. In 1936, Johns-Manville began selling this product. It still makes both types of asbestos-cement conduit. Johns-Manville produced Transite Conduit and Korduct at its plant at Manville, New Jersey, in 1937, and at its plant in Watson, California, near Los Angeles, in 1936.
*270 The following *74 table shows Johns-Manville's sales of Transite Conduit and Korduct during the years 1935-1941: Korduct, Type I Transite Conduit, Type II
Year
Feet Dollars Feet Dollars
1935 730,000 $ 121,053
1936 180,000 $ 25,569 1,360,000 232,143
1937 675,000 91,207 1,850,000 315,038
1938 680,000 91,799 1,350,000 229,171
1939 1,060,000 143,218 1,840,000 312,854
1940 1,853,000 250,234 2,431,000 413,305
1941 4,091,000 552,519 4,163,000 707,747
The average price per foot of Korduct, in cents, was 0.142 in 1936, and 0.135 in the years 1937-1941.
In the early part of 1933, the Concrete Conduit Corporation in Corona, Long Island, began producing and selling a heavy concrete conduit which could be buried directly in the ground without the protection of a concrete encasement. This conduit was precast in a square form on the outside, and was round inside. In 1935, the Roman Stone Construction Company in Brooklyn began producing and selling a round concrete conduit for underground use. Both types of concrete conduit competed with petitioner's fibre conduit.
Public Service Electric and Gas Company of Newark, New Jersey . -- Public Service of Newark *75 is a privately owned public utility company which provides 80 percent of the electric energy used in New Jersey and the electric service used throughout the most highly industrialized and heavily populated part of New Jersey. The primary type of underground conduit which was installed by Public Service during the years 1922-1937, inclusive, was fibre conduit, which it purchased from the several manufacturers of fibre conduit. Three manufacturers were involved, Brown, Line, and petitioner. In the Public Service system, each manufacturer's product is represented by approximately equal quantities of installed conduit footage.
In 1936 and 1937, Public Service discovered a defect in the installed fibre conduit; many had developed blisters and bulges inside the conduit. The condition was found to be fairly widespread and of a serious nature. In some instances it was necessary to abandon conduit; also, additional maintenance and cleaning was required. The condition was found in an installation 10 miles long. Public Service called upon the manufacturers of the fibre conduit to make an investigation. The manufacturers appointed a technical committee, which included engineers of Public *76 Service, to carry on an investigation of which B. G. Le Mieux, an employee of the petitioner and its director of research, was chairman. The committee's work extended over a lengthy period.
*271 Petitioner's president, Robertson, reported to the directors of the petitioner in June 1942 about the findings of the committee, and in the early part of 1944 he made another report which included a report of Le Mieux about additional findings, laboratory tests to discover what factors in the manufacturing processes could contribute to the development of blisters, causes located in ground conditions peculiar to Public Service, and recommendations for improving manufacturing processes.
As of the beginning of 1938, Public Service terminated purchases of fibre conduit from the petitioner and others and during the following 19 years, at least, Public Service did not see fit to resume the general use of fibre conduit; it only used sample shipments in later years to test the quality of the samples. When Public Service decided at the beginning of 1938 not to install conduit made of pulp-bituminous material, the petitioner lost a customer, except for whatever very small amounts of conduit Public *77 Service accepted for testing purposes. Brown and Line, also, lost a customer.
Since the beginning of 1938, Public Service has used Transite Conduit made by Johns-Manville, on a substantially exclusive basis, made of an asbestos-cement compound.
In 1944, petitioner, Brown, and Line, each, paid Public Service $ 10,000, or $ 30,000, to compensate it in part for the expenses incurred because of the defects in fibre conduit purchased from them.
Consolidated Edison Company of New York . -- Consolidated Edison supplies electric energy in the 5 boroughs of New York City, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond, and also in Westchester County. It was formed out of a consolidation of several individual electric light and power companies such as New York Edison, Brooklyn Edison, United Electric Light and Power Company, and others. Consolidated Telegraph and Electrical Subway Company, an affiliate of Consolidated Edison, builds the electric conduit systems in Manhattan and the Bronx and leases them to Consolidated Edison. In the records of Consolidated Edison are preserved the historic records of the individual companies which served the area of greater New York City prior to *78 the consolidation.
Consolidated Edison had 31,198 cable miles of underground electric cable in place at the end of 1939, which represented more than one-third of the total underground electric cable in use by all of the privately owned electric utilities in the United States at that time.
In the whole Consolidated Edison system in the Greater New York City area fibre conduit was very largely used prior to 1931, and the petitioner sold its fibre conduit to the electric power companies in the system and, later, to Consolidated Edison. As early as 1931, the electric utility companies serving the Greater New York City area *272 began installing conduit made of concrete in substantial quantities, in addition to new installations of fibre conduit. The following table shows the number of feet of fibre conduit and of conduit made of another material, or materials, which was installed in this area during 1931-1933: Year Fibre conduit Conduit of other
materials
Feet Feet
1931 4,682,118 2,044,579
1932 3,252,206 2,882,687
1933 821,229 1,821,063
8,755,553 6,748,329
During the period 1934-1939, inclusive, there was a substantial increase in the number of *79 feet installed of conduit made of a material, or materials, other than fibre, and, correspondingly, there was a sharp decrease in the new installed footage of fibre conduit. The following table shows that during the 6-year period 1934-1939, 12,506,438 feet of conduit of all types was installed in the Greater New York City area, of which 1,772,360 feet was fibre conduit, and 10,734,078 feet was other than fibre conduit, i.e., chiefly concrete conduit. Other than fibre
Year Fibre conduit including concrete
conduit
Feet Feet
1934 364,413 1,863,149
1935 343,221 1,974,683
1936 489,230 1,839,734
1937 265,963 1,447,721
1938 176,442 1,534,288
1939 133,091 2,074,403
1,772,360 10,734,078
At some time in the years 1932-1934, Consolidated Edison stopped purchasing conduit from petitioner; thereby petitioner lost a substantial customer.
The following table shows for the years 1922 through 1939 the feet of fibre conduit installed in each year in the entire Consolidated Edison area; and for the years 1931 through 1939, the feet of conduit made of a material, or materials, other than fibre, which was installed in the same area. The figures set forth above *80 are taken from the following complete table of figures. The conduit made of a material other than fibre chiefly was precast concrete. During the 9-year period 1931-1939, 28,010,320 feet of conduit was installed, of which 17,482,407 feet was made of the other-than-fibre material, and 10,527,913 feet was fibre conduit. *273 Consolidated Edison Purchases of Conduit (Feet)
Conduit made of
Year Fibre conduit material other Both types
than fibre 1
1922 1,317,540 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1923 2,425,326 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1924 2,019,633 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1925 1,480,571 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1926 1,763,558 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1927 2,478,059 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1928 1,056,424 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1929 7,007,175 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1930 6,998,143 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
Subtotal 26,546,429 ( 2 ) ( 2 )
1931 4,682,118 2,044,579 6,726,697
1932 3,252,206 2,882,687 6,134,893
1933 821,229 1,821,063 2,642,292
1934 364,413 1,863,149 2,227,562
1935 343,221 1,974,683 2,317,904
1936 489,230 1,839,734 2,328,964
1937 265,963 1,447,821 1,713,684
1938 176,442 1,534,288 1,710,730
1939 133,091 2,074,403 2,207,494
Subtotal 10,527,913 17,482,407 28,010,320
Total 37,074,342
*81
The reason for the decline in the purchases in the Consolidated Edison area of fibre conduit during the years 1934-1939 was the decision of the purchasers to buy more of a new type of underground conduit, the precast concrete conduit which was square on the outside, round inside, and was prepared for direct burial in the ground without any separate concrete encasement. The Consolidated Edison group found that precast, square, concrete conduit is easier to lay and install and is a satisfactory conduit, or duct, for electric cables. Consolidated Edison is still installing precast concrete conduit throughout its system.
The Concrete Conduit Corporation, operated by the O'Rourkes, at Corona, Long Island, makes the precast, square, concrete conduit. It began to produce concrete conduit for underground installation of electric cables in the early part of 1933 and it sold this conduit to Consolidated Edison. Another concern, Roman Stone Construction Company in Brooklyn, also sold concrete conduit to Consolidated Edison. They began making their conduit in 1935; they make conduit which is round on the outside as well *82 as inside; it appears that they made square conduit, also.
Some of the fibre conduit which petitioner manufactured during the 1920's was sold in Canada as well as in several other parts of the British Commonwealth through the Key Engineering Company. A Canadian corporation commenced the manufacture of fibre conduit about 1930 or 1931 and within a short time thereafter petitioner entered into certain contractual arrangements pursuant to which it *274 withdrew from its former Canadian and British markets in consideration of receiving certain fees or commissions based on the sales of the new Canadian producer. Commissions on the sales of the Canadian companies in the expanded territory were paid to petitioner, as follows: 1932 $ 1,014.91
1933 951.50
1934 3,672.53
1935 4,294.13
1936 3,541.91
1937 11,903.53
1938 8,031.42
1939 8,545.33
Petitioner sustained a loss of competitive position before and during the base period years which constituted an important adverse effect upon petitioner's sales of underground electric conduit before and during the base period years.
Sales of conduit to industrial users . -- During the years material here, petitioner sold *83 10 percent, or less, of its conduit to a few industrial concerns, who were not electric utilities, for underground installation of electric cables. Such customers included Union Carbide, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, and a few telephone companies, and at La Guardia airfield.
Electric Utility Industry .
Most of the underground facilities installed and constructed by electric utility concerns, including raceways for electric cable for which conduit material is used, are generally classified as distribution facilities rather than transmission facilities. The capital expenditures of electric utilities for the transmission and distribution of electric energy include expenditures for generating steam (a fuel), hydrogen pressure systems, transmission facilities, distribution facilities, general plant, and miscellaneous items. Such capital expenditures include the costs of new construction of the facilities involved in the transmission and distribution of electricity. The costs of constructing new distribution facilities include both rural and urban facilities. It is difficult to ascertain the breakdown of these large categories of capital expenditures for new facilities without going *84 directly to the accounting records of individual electric utility companies. The statistics of trade organizations, such as the Edison Electric Institute, and of trade publications, such as the Electric World, do not provide analytical breakdowns of the broad classes of capital expenditures of the types described above, and the record here does not contain such breakdowns.
The general statistical data which the parties were able to submit at the trial of this case do not show on an industry-wide basis the *275 annual expenditures of the electric utility industry as a whole for conduit for underground cable installations in either distribution or transmission facilities.
It is generally understood that the cost of the conduit itself for installation as raceways for underground electric cable is a relatively small part of the total cost of installing new electric cable conduit; and that, also, the cost of the conduit itself is even a smaller proportionate part and amount of the total cost of reconstructing electric energy distribution systems.
The capital expenditures of electric utility companies to which their expenditures for electric conduit are most closely related are the *85 expenditures for distribution facilities. However, such expenditures must be adjusted to eliminate expenditures for overhead distribution costs, such as rural construction, in order to arrive at a fairly accurate ratio of the sales of conduit by conduit manufacturers to the capital expenditures of electric utilities for distribution facilities. The record in this case does not include any satisfactory evidence of such ratio, or ratios.
The following schedule discloses the degree to which electric light and power companies owned by private investors were expanding electric service into the rural or farm areas of the United States over the period 1925 to 1939, inclusive. Investor-owned public utility companies accounted for substantially all of the increase in the number of farms served up through at least the year 1933. The Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 was enacted on May 18, 1933 (ch. 42, 48 Stat. 58 ); the Rural Electrification Administration was established by Executive Order No. 7037 on May 11, 1935 (ch. 432, sec. 8, 49 Stat. 1363 ), and the related amendments to the Federal Power Act were enacted on August 26, 1935 (ch. 687, title II, 49 Stat. 838 ): Farms served by Increase over Percentage increase
End of year investor-owned prior years over prior
electric companies years
Percent
1924 204,780 ( 1 )
1925 ( 1 ) 46,800 22.85
1926 309,125 57,545 22.87
1927 ( 1 ) 86,455 27.97
1928 506,250 110,670 27.98
1929 576,150 69,900 13.81
1930 649,900 73,750 12.80
1931 698,800 48,900 7.52
1932 709,450 10,650 1.52
1933 713,550 4,100 .58
1934 743,950 30,400 4.26
1935 788,800 44,850 6.03
1936 976,350 187,550 23.78
1937 1,093,400 117,050 11.99
1938 1,174,500 81,100 7.42
1939 1,348,500 174,000 14.81
*86
*276 The privately owned electric light and power companies were expanding their distribution lines in rural areas at a rather rapid rate throughout most of the 1920's. The rate of expansion then fell off rather sharply at the time of the general business depression in the early 1930's and continued to be at a fairly low level until about 1934. Expansion of such service was thereafter resumed at a relatively rapid pace which was more or less comparable during the base period years to that previously maintained during the 1920's.
Expenditures for the construction of distribution lines to serve farm areas represented a relatively small part of the total construction expenditures of privately owned electric utility companies. In many cases throughout the years 1922-1939, inclusive, the privately owned light and power companies required new customers in rural areas to put up at least part of the cost of constructing the distribution lines necessary to provide them with electric service.
The total cost of all the rural distribution lines constructed by the privately owned light and power companies during the base period years probably did not exceed the following *87 amounts: Amount
Year (in thousands)
1936 $ 34,549
1937 34,004
1938 93,044
1939 83,453
There was a great deal of initial adverse reaction on the part of private industry during the early part of the 1930's to the inauguration of the TVA and REA programs and the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of August 26, 1935, which began to be put into effect by those in control of the Federal Government about that time. Certain persons who were closely associated with the electric utility companies owned or controlled by private investors expressed considerable concern about the possibility that important segments of the public utility industry in this country would be placed under public ownership and control. The persons expressing such concern regarded such programs, legislation, and related projects as socialistic and attempted to discourage any expansion thereof. This initial adverse reaction had some effect on the expansion programs of the privately owned public utility companies operating primarily in rural territories as hereinabove noted but did not operate to hold down total expenditures for the construction of new distribution facilities to any *88 substantial degree after about 1936 or 1937 and had no substantial adverse effect at any time on the quality or amount of electric service being rendered to customers for electricity over the country as a whole.
The new construction expenditures of the public utility industry totaled approximately $ 3.9 billions from 1929 to 1939 when electric *277 utility output increased by approximately 33 billion kilowatt hours, or at about the same rate as the period from 1924 to 1929 when new construction expenditures were just under $ 4 billion and electric utility output increased by 36 billion kilowatt hours.
Most of the public utility companies serving the larger and older metropolitan centers which had a substantial need for underground electrical distribution cables in their congested downtown business sections had pretty well accomplished the installation of complete systems of underground conduit lines throughout such sections by about 1930 or 1931 and the electric light and power industry as a whole has never had any subsequent need to install underground conduit at the comparatively rapid rate which obtained during most of the 1920's.
The Public Service Electric and Gas Company *89 of Newark, New Jersey, which is a privatey owned public utility company providing electric service over the most highly industrialized and heavily populated part of New Jersey, made very substantial installations of underground conduit during the years 1922 to 1939, inclusive. This company, whose experience in this respect was generally typical of other electric utility companies operating in similar territories, increased the physical quantity of its underground cable installations by approximately 80 percent over the 6-year period from December 31, 1925, to December 31, 1931, and also increased its total footage of underground conduit lines by a little better than 55 percent during this same 6-year period. The net aggregate increase in its underground cable installations over the next succeeding 8-year period ending December 31, 1939, amounted to only about 19 1/2 percent, while the net increase in its underground conduit lines for this same 8-year period was only about 15 percent.
A major portion of the underground fibre conduit used by electric light and power companies in the construction of underground raceways for electric power cables up through about 1937 was encased in *90 a concrete envelope in such a way as to separate the individual duct lines from each other and to provide a protection from external pressure. Several parallel conduit lines were commonly installed by the light and power companies at one time in groups of 6, 8, 12, or larger numbers in a single bank. The primary purpose of using conduits for the installation of underground cable is to permit of flexibility of the distribution of the electricity through the addition of more cables or by the substitution of new cables of larger size, more modern design, or higher voltage as the electric powerload increases.
It was the general practice of the electric light and power companies to anticipate their needs for underground duct for a substantial number of years in the future so that they would not have to dig *278 up streets and incur the other expenses necessary to install additional banks of conduit to serve the same physical territory.
The following table, for 1922 through 1939, shows total construction expenditures by the electric light and power industry (in thousands of dollars) for distribution facilities, for distribution plants, and the percentage ratio of petitioner's sales *91 of conduit to distribution plant expenditures: Total construction Percentage ratio of
expenditures for Total construction petitioner's conduit
Year distribution expenditures for sales to distribution
facilities 1 distribution plants plant
expenditures
Thousands of dollars Thousands of dollars Percent
1922 84,095 127,700 0.94
1923 193,130 263,000 .81
1924 179,010 255,000 .74
1925 221,000 297,700 .40
1926 206,000 214,790 .70
1927 220,000 301,980 .54
1928 212,000 268,400 .64
1929 261,000 320,020 .65
1930 258,699 354,600 .56
1931 182,158 239,440 .46
1932 110,000 157,200 .39
1933 72,200 102,900 .37
1934 76,299 106,760 .35
1935 103,104 146,660 .24
1936 174,640 256,650 .21
1937 203,250 312,020 .21
1938 215,000 272,900 .16
1939 210,500 320,070 .16
Total 3,182,085 4,317,790
Column II (In thousands of dollars)
Total expenditures for 18 years $ 3,182,085
Total expenditures for 1936-1939 803,390
Average for 18 years 176,782.50
Average for 4 years 200,847.50
The base period average expenditures represents 113.61 percent of the average *92 expenditures of the 18-year, long-term average. Column III (In thousands of dollars)
Total expenditures for 18 years $ 4,317.790
Total expenditures for 1936-1939 1,161,640
Average for 18 years 239,877.22
Average for 4 years 290,410.00
The base period average expenditures represents 121.07 percent of the average expenditures of the 18-year, long-term average.
The construction of underground cable lines by public utilities is expensive, the cost involved being from 10 to 50 times as much as the cost of installing overhead lines. As the result of the cost factor, the use of underground lines for the transmission or distribution of electricity *279 in areas away from cities cannot be justified from an economic or engineering standpoint.
Beginning about 1924 or 1925, most of the larger electric utility companies operating in the older and more heavily populated or industrialized areas began to feel the effect of a rapid increase in the consumption of electricity in the form of congestion in the downtown areas of the municipalities which they served. This point of time also represented the beginning of a general movement on the part of the governing boards of *93 the municipalities concerned to require the power companies to convert overhead lines to underground lines in the downtown areas. Such municipal pressure resulted in the installation of a great many underground conduit lines during the 1920's which were not justifiable from an economic or engineering standpoint.
Once a major complete underground system for the distribution of electricity has been established in a municipality, the further need for additional underground cable and underground conduit in which to install such cable is bound to be much less. The advance planning mentioned above was ordinarily so well done during the 1920's that very few of the underground conduit lines installed at that time have ever had to be reinforced.
There were a number of technological changes affecting the operations of public light and power companies during the late 1920's, which had the effect of extending the period for which the existing underground conduits in place as of the close of such decade could take care of an increased demand for electricity over a very long period of time. These technological changes included improved developments in the manufacture of underground cable which *94 permitted cable of the same external size to contain much larger copper conductors. Another important technological change closely associated with the development of improved cable was the use of increased voltages for the transfer of electrical current. An increase in the voltage of current sharply increases the amount of current which can be delivered over a conductor of the same size in the same amount of time.
The voltages used for distribution of electricity under a direct current system are much lower than the voltages which can be used under an alternating system and important utilities began to curtail or discontinue the expansion of direct current distribution systems during the 1920's. A considerable volume of underground cable which was initially installed for the distribution of direct current was taken out from underground conduit lines during 1943 and succeeding years. Such withdrawal of cable was primarily responsible for the fact that the total underground cable in use by all class A and class B public utilities under private ownership actually showed a substantial decrease between the end of 1943 and the end of 1949. Many of the public utility companies also *95 changed from a two-phase to a three-phase *280 distribution system during the latter part of the 1920's or shortly thereafter and this change made it possible for the same amount of current to be delivered over a fewer number of wires.
The period from about 1924 or 1925 to 1930 or 1931 was one of abnormally high sales for the petitioner and other producers of underground conduit as the result of a combination of several different factors. This was a period when the power and light companies had ready access to ample funds for both the expansion and betterment of their facilities and proceeded to go forward with capital investment programs which in some instances cannot be explained on any basis other than as a characteristic at that time of the public utility holding company system which was then expanding very rapidly with the resultant payment of high returns to investors and much speculative interest in the market for public utility securities. Contemporaneous technological developments also resulted in numerous arrangements for the interchange of electric power between companies and between different parts of the distribution systems maintained by individual electric utility *96 companies for the purpose of assuring customers essentially uninterrupted service. It was also a period of rapid increase in the demand for electricity by customers of light and power companies in the older metropolitan areas, which had largely been built up before the days of the automobile. There were numerous instances in the older metropolitan areas where the increase in the number of required overhead electric wires resulted in such congestion as to become uneconomic or unsightly. As a result, public pressure was exercised to have electric cables placed underground.
Individual electric utility companies make underground installations of conduit for electric cable at varying times and under differing conditions. Since petitioner's business is conducted on a nationwide basis, its receipts of orders for conduit tend to even out, or maintain a level, since its customers do not tend to engage in substantial underground conduit installations at the same time.
Under normal conditions, the life of installed conduit systems is so long that a high degree of permanence characterizes the conduit installations.
Underfloor Duct Systems .
On November 30, 1921, petitioner secured its *97 first license from the Richardson Syndicate for the production and sale of systems of underfloor duct or raceway systems made of fibre or metal and associated junction boxes and other metal fittings. The underfloor duct systems used are for installation of electric and telephone wire systems. The underfloor systems are designed for installation in the floors of large office, industrial, institutional, and public buildings; *281 they are designed to provide readily accessible outlets for electric and telephone wires. The systems are installed at the time the floors in a building are constructed, and, later, the occupants utilize the systems for telephone and electric service at any place in the building. Such service is readily accessible to each tenant through the underfloor duct system without cutting the floor. These systems are now widely used.
The original underfloor duct system was patented in about 1921 by a syndicate headed by Richardson, the inventor, and November 1921, petitioner obtained a license to manufacture and sell the system.
The method of selling such system is to deal with the architect and engineer for a new building so that the system is included in the *98 specifications for the building. The system is subsequently bought and installed by the electrical contractor for the building.
During the first few years, petitioner made the ducts for underfloor systems by cutting into halves the 4-inch fibre conduits it manufactured. Such half portions were laid down, together with metal fittings, to form the desired partitions for a system. A concrete floor was poured over the system. In some instances raceway or ducts of smaller diameter were desired. In about 1927, petitioner purchased specially formed metal ducts with which metal fittings were used to form such partitions. By 1927 petitioner had learned how to deform its standard fibre conduit during manufacture so that one side was flat. From that time on, the deformed-type duct was used instead of the half portions of electric conduit which formerly were produced. By 1928 or 1929, petitioner had learned how to deform smaller sizes of duct so that the use of metal raceways for smaller diameters was discontinued. From 1929 on, no metal raceways were sold by petitioner for its underfloor systems.
All of the underfloor duct systems which petitioner manufactured and sold during the early *99 1920's were a type called "afterset," which meant that outlets would be provided as needed, from time to time, after the initial installation by boring through the concrete floor and the top surface of the duct imbedded therein. Petitioner subsequently began adding certain outlet fittings to the duct, prior to the initial installation thereof, so that access to the duct for the insertion or removal of wiring connections could be obtained at predetermined points merely by removing a cap, or plug, which had been "preset" at the surface of the floor. Most of the duct were made of petitioner's fibre-bituminous material; however, petitioner also sold some relatively small quantities of metal duct in connection with its underfloor duct systems for a period of 2 or 3 years commencing about 1927. Petitioner only manufactured the fibre duct; petitioner purchased all the metal and other items which were part of the underfloor duct systems.
*282 Petitioner began to experience considerable competition about 1925 from another company which had commenced manufacturing and selling an underfloor duct system with preset inserts. The other company, hereinafter referred to as X Company, owned *100 a patent covering its preset system, but petitioner nevertheless instituted litigation in about 1926 in an effort to obtain a court decision ruling that this competing system infringed the Richardson and Coggeshall patent. Petitioner had become the exclusive licensee under the terms of its agreement with the Richardson syndicate. This litigation was terminated in 1928 by a decision of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which expressed doubt about the validity of the claims in suit. The court held that the preset system involved did not constitute an infringement. Fibre Conduit Co. v. Bankamerica Corp ., 21 F. 2d 756 , modified and affirmed 27 F. 2d 708 .
Within a short time after the termination of this litigation, X Company filed an infringement suit against a third company, the Y Company, which was then manufacturing and selling another preset type of underfloor duct system. The litigation was not pursued to judgment. X Company did not file any infringement suit against petitioner.
Certain contracts were executed in 1932 which avoided further litigation by requiring both petitioner and the Y Company to pay *101 to the X Company percentage royalties on all of their underfloor duct sales. The license and royalty agreement between X Company and petitioner was dated July 30, 1932. After this contract had been in effect for 3 years, X Company, in accordance with one of the express terms thereof, gave petitioner a complete release from all claims for infringement arising with respect to petitioner's use of X Company's patents at any time prior to July 30, 1932.
The rate of the royalty which petitioner agreed to pay under the agreement of July 30, 1932, with respect to all preset underfloor systems which it sold ranged from 6 1/2 percent (in case all of its sales were of preset systems) up to 25 percent, in case 25 percent or less of its total underfloor duct business involved preset systems. While petitioner continued to sell some afterset systems, the portion of its total underfloor duct business accounted for by preset systems became increasingly important from year to year after 1932. Substantially all of the underfloor duct systems manufactured by companies X and Y continued to be of the preset type.
The agreement of July 30, 1932, was continued in force until some time after the end of *102 1939. In addition to the royalty provisions referred to above, the agreement also contained a special provision which dealt with a division of the combined preset underfloor duct *283 system business enjoyed by petitioner and companies X and Y. The license agreement between the X Company and the Y Company also contained a similar special provision. In petitioner's agreement with the X Company, the provision was in part as follows:
It is the intent of the parties hereto that the Fibre Company [petitioner] shall have the privilege of doing a volume of pre-set underfloor duct business not to exceed * * * one-third of the aggregate pre-set underfloor duct business done * * *. To that end, it is agreed that if at the end of any quarterly period during the life of this agreement, the total value of the orders for pre-set apparatus taken by either of the parties hereto from the date of execution of said agreement shall exceed * * * one-third of the value of the total orders for pre-set apparatus taken in the said period by the parties hereto and the other licensee [Y Company] * * *, the party taking the excess orders shall be notified to that effect and shall be allowed three succeeding *103 quarters in which to offset such excess by a corresponding deficiency. If such offsetting of an excess is not attained by the end of said third succeeding quarter, the party whose orders have been exceeded shall have the privilege of cancelling this agreement on thirty days' notice.
Johns-Manville was acting as sales agent for petitioner's underfloor duct systems, as well as for its underground fibre conduit, up until sometime in 1928. Petitioner then expanded its own sales organization with a view to handling all phases of the distribution of its underfloor duct systems and operated on this altered basis for a short time. On November 13, 1929, petitioner entered into an agreement with the General Electric Company pursuant to which it commenced making a special type of underfloor duct system for that corporation. This duct system bore a General Electric label. It soon began to account for most of petitioner's underfloor duct sales. Such arrangement with General Electric was continued in force throughout all the subsequent years material to this case.
Some of the petitioner's underfloor duct systems had been sold to Canadian customers from time to time up until about 1930 or *104 1931. Pursuant to the terms of a certain written contract dated April 1, 1931, petitioner transferred the title to some of its underfloor duct patterns (then located at Montreal) to Fibre Conduits Canada, Ltd. Petitioner agreed that future sales of underfloor duct systems would be handled by the Canadian corporation. Petitioner also agreed that it would furnish technical advice and otherwise assist the Canadian corporation in manufacturing an underfloor duct system in the latter's plant at Cornwall, Ontario, in exchange for certain commissions or fees to be determined on a percentage basis by reference to the total volume of sales of the Canadian company.
The Canadian company commenced the manufacture of underfloor duct for the first time in 1931. The foregoing arrangement and somewhat similar arrangement made by petitioner relating to its fibre conduit were later consolidated into a single contract dated April 21, *284 1938, under which the commissions to be paid to petitioner ranged from 4 percent down to 2 percent on all underground fibre conduit and underfloor duct systems sold in Canada and amounted to 10 percent on all such sales outside of Canada.
In about 1933, the *105 Robertson cellular floor came on the market. It was made for use in office and other nonresidential buildings. A feature of this floor was that wires could be run through the cellular space thereby eliminating any underfloor duct system. Petitioner has failed to show the extent to which the Robertson floor did or did not compete with underfloor duct systems during the years 1933 through 1939.
The present record contains no information with respect to the amount of profits which were ever realized by any other producer of underfloor duct systems. The only statistical information available about the volume of sales of underfloor duct systems by the X Company is limited to its dollar sales for the years 1931-1939, inclusive. The corresponding statistics available for the Y Company are limited to the years 1935 to 1939, inclusive. The dollar sales of fibre underfloor duct systems during the years 1931 through 1939 by the X Company and the Y Company, were as follows: Sales of Underfloor Duct Systems
Year X Company Y Company
1931 $ 376,748
1932 253,932
1933 121,879
1934 159,956
1935 102,064 $ 50,710
1936 173,240 119,229
1937 231,401 175,129
1938 215,290 94,116
1939 270,174 206,063
*106 During the years 1923-1939, inclusive, the dollar amounts of petitioner's sales of underfloor duct systems were as follows: Petitioner's Sales of Underfloor Duct Systems
Year Feet Sales
(thousands)
1923 19 $ 43,378
1924 110 32,358
1925 327 63,727
1926 244 155,683
1927 576 233,289
1928 821 500,482
1929 924 359,672
1930 1,348 506,762
1931 296 160,525
1932 551 189,145
1933 485 188,985
1934 109 66,784
1935 388 77,502
1936 276 149,848
1937 192 111,753
1938 258 147,602
1939 244 194,487
The United States Department of Commerce has compiled statistics showing the total dollar expenditures during the period 1920 through 1949 for the following types of buildings in the United States: (a) New private construction of warehouses, offices, and loft *285 buildings, and (b) new public construction of public administration buildings. The parties are agreed about the accuracy of this data. This statistical information appears in a Government publication released in May 1950 in two separate lengthy tables covering a wide variety of other categories classified as new private construction and new public construction, respectively. All of the *107 dollar figures contained in the tables constitute estimates of the value of work in place on structures and facilities under construction or alteration from year to year, including estimated costs of the materials in place during a given year, regardless of the dates of purchase or delivery to site, plus labor costs, overhead costs, and profits on construction activities, all estimated on the same basis. The publication states that the reliability of these estimates cannot be measured in mathematical terms and that they are more likely to be understatements of the absolute level than otherwise.
The structures covered by the above-mentioned statistical series described as warehouses, offices, and loft buildings include substantially all types of commercial warehouses and storage buildings but do not include warehouses constructed by public utilities or any non-commercial buildings of this character such as are operated in connection with a wide variety of mechanical and processing industries. The loft buildings included in this category, which are peculiar to large cities, like New York, are structures of a special type generally used for light manufacturing operations and other *108 related business activities, such as the storage and distribution of manufactured products, but no other buildings used for the production or assembly of products in either the light or heavy manufacturing industries are included in these statistics. Film exchanges, banks, and building and loan association buildings are included in the same category as office buildings but a wide variety of other important nonresidential structures, like office buildings constructed by public utilities, radio broadcasting studios, laboratories, and science buildings, are excluded.
The structures covered by the above-mentioned statistical data for public administration buildings include not only office buildings but a wide variety of special purpose buildings like courthouses and city halls, State capitols, armories, firehouses, comfort stations, zoo buildings, and various others. At the same time, however, the statistics do not include any kind of social, recreational, or religious buildings under private ownership. Such statistics exclude all educational buildings, all hospitals, clinics, and similar institutional buildings, whether publicly or privately owned, as well as all buildings falling *109 within the general category of military and naval facilities.
The following schedule, for the years 1923-1939, inclusive, shows petitioner's dollar amounts of sales of underfloor duct systems, the *286 combined totals of selected construction expenditures of the kind described above, and the percentage ratio obtained from a division of petitioner's dollar sales of underfloor duct systems by the expenditures for selected types of construction: Ratio of Sales of
Petitioner's sales Selected construction petitioner to
Year of underfloor expenditures construction
duct (millions) expenditures
(percentages)
1923 $ 43,378 $ 341 0.013
1924 32,358 336 .010
1925 63,727 343 .019
1926 155,683 413 .038
1927 233,289 463 .050
1928 500,482 493 .010
1929 359.672 536 .049
1930 506,762 728 .070
1931 160,525 724 .035
1932 189,145 459 .063
1933 188,985 300 .124
1934 66,784 153 .044
1935 77,502 165 .047
1936 149,848 272 .055
1937 111,753 280 .040
1938 147,602 260 .057
1939 194,487 315 .062
The following schedule covers the years 1922 to 1939, inclusive; it shows the total compiled receipts of all corporations, as *110 published by the United States Treasury Department, and corresponding data for all corporations with respect to total compiled net profit (or loss), less tax-exempt income, plus interest paid, more commonly known as the Series C data set forth in Commissioner's Mimeograph 5807, 1945 C.B. 273 : Total compiled
Total compiled net
Year receipts profit (or
loss) per
series C
(Millions) (Millions)
1922 $ 101,314 $ 7,839
1923 119,020 9,586
1924 119,747 8,808
1925 134,780 11,238
1926 142,629 11,493
1927 144,899 10,885
1928 153,305 12,808
1929 161,158 13,665
1930 136,588 6,413
1931 108,057 1,204
1932 81,638 (1,600)
1933 84,234 964
1934 101,490 3,516
1935 114,650 4,957
1936 132,723 7,451
1937 142,443 7,410
1938 120,454 4,479
1939 132,878 7,306
A comparison of the dollar amounts of petitioner's sales of underfloor duct systems with statistical data for total selected construction expenditures, supra , and total compiled receipts of all corporations, supra , provides no indication that the underfloor duct portion of petitioner's business was subject to a profits cycle which *111 differed materially in either length or amplitude from the general business cycle. The same conclusion is made upon the basis of the entire record in this case.
*287 Management, Operations, and Products .
During 1935 and the early part of 1936, several officers of petitioner retired or died. In January 1925, the secretary-treasurer, F. J. Frost, retired from the office of secretary and was succeeded by F. G. Wehman. In April 1925, A. B. Bradley, vice president in charge of production and a director, died. In June 1925, George L. Chapman, a director, died. The president, A. M. Cregier, died in February 1936; he had been associated with petitioner for over 31 years. H. J. Robertson became president in 1936. Frost retired from the office of treasurer in 1936. Wehman then became the secretary-treasurer. Shortly after Robertson was made sales manager of the underfloor duct system in 1928, petitioner adopted his recommendation to stop selling the underfloor duct system through Johns-Manville, and to expand its own sales force for the direct distribution thereof. Subsequently, Robertson took an active part in negotiating the contract of November 13, 1929, with the General *112 Electric Company, which resulted in a substantial curtailment of petitioner's newly recruited sales force. This contract contained an express provision to the effect that the sales organization maintained by General Electric would not only make sales of the "General Electric" underfloor system, but also would sell the other underfloor products manufactured by the petitioner for varying commissions, depending upon the extent to which petitioner's own salesmen were active in making sales. Robertson was elected to petitioner's board of directors in 1931. Also, Robertson played a major role in the negotiation of several important contracts, during the period up to 1936, to which petitioner was a party. These contracts were, inter alia , the new sales agency agreement with Graybar Electric Company dated May 1, 1934, and the contracts involving petitioner's agreements to withdraw from British and Canadian markets, already mentioned. In 1936, Robertson appointed B. G. Le Mieux to the post of director of research. Le Mieux, an engineer, was chiefly responsible for developing the vacuum treating system referred to hereinafter. Le Mieux had been a member of petitioner's research staff *113 since about 1932.
The vacuum treating process . -- The manufacture of tubes made of a pulp-bituminous compound goes through the steps of forming and drying white tubes made of pulp material and, then, saturating and impregnating the tubes with a hot compound of tar pitch. The latter step is called the treating process. The purpose is to thoroughly incorporate the pitch into and throughout the tubes. The strength of the walls of the tubes and the degree of their resistance to absorption of water depends on the effectiveness of the treating process. For many years petitioner's method of treating the fibre tubes was to *288 submerge them in the tar compound in open tanks. This is the open-tank treating process; it requires from 8 to 12 hours. At some time in the early 1930's, before 1933, an engineer employed by petitioner Le Mieux, worked on ways of improving the treating process and through his efforts petitioner adopted a vacuum process. The vacuum process involves removing all air from sealed treating tanks in which the white tubes have been placed and injecting the pitch compound into the vacuum chamber. The equipment required includes vacuum pumps, pitch pumps, *114 pitch lines, and automatic control instruments. The vacuum method of incorporating pitch compound into fibre material is superior to the open-tank treating system because the treating time required is reduced from 8 or 12 hours to about 1 hour for thin-wall tubes. The resulting material is stronger and has a higher degree of resistance to water absorption. For heavy-wall tubes the vacuum treating process requires several hours but less time, nevertheless, than the open-tank method. Also, under the vacuum method a better type of tar pitch could be used. Petitioner developed an improved hard coal tar pitch at about the same time that it developed and adopted the vacuum treating process.
At a meeting of the executive committee of petitioner's board of directors on January 17, 1933, the president of petitioner, Cregier, presented a 5-page report to the committee which dealt with, among other things, tests which had been made of the material used by petitioner and its competitors in the making of the basic fibre material. Cregier reported that with respect to qualities of strength and water absorption petitioner's basic material was not superior to its competitors' material; and *115 that it was believed that petitioner's open-tank treating method was not as effective, as the treating methods of the competitors. In the minutes of a meeting on September 19, 1933, of either the directors of petitioner or the executive committee of the directors, it is shown that as of that date petitioner had in operation in its plant the vacuum treating process, described above, as a so-called "pilot operation." Prior to September 19, 1933, the first experiments with a vacuum treating process were carried on at petitioner's laboratories with a small unit; next, a larger unit was built which could be used as a production unit. By September 19, 1933, petitioner had started its "pilot" production unit of the vacuum treating process. This was a production unit which was larger than a testing unit. As of the aforesaid date petitioner was actually using the vacuum treating process in its manufacturing but it had not yet converted all of its production facilities to the vacuum treating process.
*289 On October 17, 1933, at a meeting of petitioner's board of directors, Cregier reported that the vacuum treating process was satisfactory with the exception of some minor changes which *116 would be made. At this same meeting in October 1933, there was discussion about the matter of re-treating all of the finished conduit in stock, and the cost of so doing was estimated to be about $ 30,000; the cost of re-treating part of the goods on hand, in the most commonly used sizes, was estimated to be $ 15,000. It was the opinion of the board that only the most commonly used sizes of tubes in stock should be re-treated under the new vacuum treating process.
In October 1933, the vacuum treating process which was in use in petitioner's plant was adequate to take care of the treating of one-third of petitioner's total manufacturing capacity, or all of it if the plant was being operated at one-third of the total capacity. In October 1933, the plant was being operated at about one-third of its total capacity. Subsequently, petitioner ripped out all of its open-tank treating system and made the required expenditures to install additional vacuum treating facilities which would take care of petitioner's total maximum production capacity.
The vacuum treating process was adopted by petitioner in 1933, and in 1933 it was in operation in petitioner's plant and was used in the manufacturing *117 process.
One result of adopting the vacuum treating process was that petitioner was able to reduce the wall thickness of its standard fibre pipe, sold for use as conduit. The reduced wall tubes were also called "thin wall." Also, petitioner was able to reduce the price of its thin-wall, standard conduit, or pipe.
Joints .
The only type of joint initially provided for petitioner's underground conduit involved tooling the ends of the conduit to fit together in a mortise and tenon fashion. Such joints were called socket joints and petitioner continued to sell conduit with this type of joint well into the 1930's. In the meantime, in 1929, it developed a sleeve type of joint known as the Harrington Joint, which made use of tapers on the ends of the conduit and a separate outside collar permitting two sections of conduit to be joined and held together by friction. After other manufacturers entered the field, they agreed with the petitioner on certain standard specifications for underground conduit which were made effective as of 1929. Control of dimensions and mechanical characteristics became increasingly more exacting thereafter. One of the purposes of this agreement upon uniform *118 *290 specifications was to make the products of all three parties to such agreement readily interchangeable. Petitioner was able to comply with the new industry specifications with respect to joint sizes by retooling any conduit which it had on hand that did not meet such specifications, but it also wrote off a small portion of its existing inventory as obsolete.
Products . -- Petitioner also carried on various other research activities ties during the early 1930's for the purpose of the possible development of new products. Some of this work proved to be unsuccessful. One such research project, which began as early as 1933 and was continued until July 1937, involved an effort to develop an underground conduit (strong enough to permit direct burial without concrete encasement) from a nonflammable, inorganic compound known as Rostone. The research with Rostone also envisioned the development of a segmentized or multiple-type conduit which could be sold for use in the construction of underground raceways for telephone lines in place of the clay tile products which were generally used for that purpose, to the nearly complete exclusion of fibre conduit.
Within a short time *119 after petitioner began using the vacuum process, and after it started marketing an underground conduit with a thinner wall, it began making special efforts to find new uses and markets outside the electric utility field for its product with a wall thickness comparable to that of the tube which formerly was sold as standard conduit. Sometime during 1936, petitioner succeeded in interesting a number of oil companies in making trial uses of this heavier wall product for piping salt water away from oil fields. The product is fibre pipe. Later, in about July 1940, it was given the trade name, Alkacid, to describe the product used for drainage in oil fields. In the latter part of 1937, petitioner sold 15,000 feet of this pipe to Gulf Oil Company for use in the drainage of salt water found in oil fields.
Petitioner issued a new price schedule, effective October 1, 1937, which used the term, HW, or heavy wall, to identify the type of product which it was then offering for use outside the electric industry. The price schedule made it clear that the similar product with a thinner wall was at that time considered petitioner's standard electric conduit, Type I. The unit prices quoted in *120 the schedule for the new standard conduit were approximately 13 percent lower than the unit prices quoted for the HW conduit which later came to be known as Alkacid.
Petitioner surveyed the possibility of finding a market for its heavy-wall product for use as sewer pipe, and certain trial installations were made prior to the end of 1939. Some were unsuccessful. Petitioner *291 did not commence an active campaign to get into the sewer pipe market until about 1943, when it made arrangements to have the Crane Company serve as a distributor of its heavy-wall product, and it also began to take active steps to have the use of this product approved in municipal ordinances, plumbing codes, and the like, for use as sewer pipe. It was not until 1943 that this product was designated sewer pipe.
Petitioner began negotiating with Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1936 for the possible sale of a perforated pipe, with a wall thickness comparable to its thinner walled conduit, for use as draintile, or drainpipe. These negotiations resulted in an arrangement in the latter part of 1937 with Sears to handle draintile in about 500 of Sears' retail stores and to list it in their mail-order catalogs. *121 Such arrangement was reported to petitioner's directors on October 19, 1937. The name given to the draintile was "Hercules." The report made to the board at that time stated that petitioner's gross profit margin on such business would be considerably less than on other lines and that the drainpipe would be sold in competition with clay draintile selling at about half the price of fibre drainpipe.
Sometime around the end of the year 1937, petitioner commenced manufacturing an extra heavy-wall conduit called Nocrete. This product could be buried directly in the ground without a concrete encasement in the construction of underground raceways for electric cables. It was sold through the same trade channels which petitioner was then using for its standard conduit. Except for the above-mentioned special arrangement with Sears, these same channels, Graybar and General Electric Supply, were the only trade channels which petitioner ever used during the base period for either drainpipe or the heavy-wall conduit which later came to be known as Alkacid.
The following table shows for the years 1937-1939 and the excess profits years 1940-1942, the total dollar amounts of petitioner's sales *122 of products other than underground conduit and underfloor duct, namely, Alkacid (sewer pipe), perforated drainpipe (also called draintile), and specialties; and, also, petitioner's sales of its heavy-wall, Type II, underground conduit, designated Nocrete:
Petitioner's Sales of Particular Products, 1937-1942
Year Nocrete Alkacid Perforated Specialties
(sewer pipe) drain pipe
1937 $ 1,116 $ 1,740 $ 17,595
1938 86,846 22,005 $ 24,817 11,279
1939 92,599 42,993 27,737 6,123
1940 122,458 40,901 29,451 9,464
1941 217,847 47,074 59,037 6,275
1942 383,962 66,799 10,715 4,641
*292 The following schedule shows petitioner's monthly sales during 1938 and 1939, in thousands of feet and dollar amounts, of Nocrete, Alkacid (sewer pipe), and perforated drainpipe (also called draintile): Nocrete Alkacid (sewer pipe) Perforated drainpipe
Thousands Dollars Thousands Dollars Thousands Dollars
of feet of feet of feet
1938
February 0 0 25 (Monthly 15 $ 1,377
March 21 $ 2,283 35 figures 50 3,871
April 24 3,309 58 not 54 4,475
May 90 10,785 27 known.) 21 1,149
June 94 11,177 33 19 1,607
July 74 9,532 36 8 913
August 61 10,131 83 37 2,769
September 87 12,550 14 15 1,015
October 60 7,934 41 47 3,626
November 111 17,362 45 50 3,642
December 9 1,783 54 4 373
631 86,846 451 $ 22,005 320 24,817
1939
January 110 $ 14,381 33 $ 1,545 12 $ 1,180
February 106 13,088 51 2,297 12 1,168
March 49 6,555 52 1,923 12 1,167
April 51 7,110 32 2,373 60.5 4,785
May 31 4,692 27 2,153 31 2,398
June 119 19,080 15 1,131 59 4,248
July 50 6,408 15 1,365
August 39 5,900 13 526 51 3,911
September 23 3,479 49 10,409 31 2,551
October 37 5,520 17 3,012 51 3,130
November 32 4,116 54 14,670 5.5 602
December 12 2,270 26 2,954 16 1,232
659 92,599 369 42,993 356 27,737
*123 Allocation of total production in feet to particular products during the years 1922 through 1939 is as follows, in thousands of feet: Net Sales of Products
(Thousands)
Year Conduit Floor Nocrete Alkacid Perforated Total
duct pipe
1922 12,836 0 12,836
1923 20,811 19 20,830
1924 17,810 110 17,920
1925 11,209 327 11,536
1926 14,039 244 14,283
1927 15,548 576 16,124
1928 16,099 821 16,920
1929 19,188 924 20,112
1930 17,321 1,348 18,669
1931 9,896 296 10,192
1932 5,688 551 6,239
1933 3,609 485 4,094
1934 3,562 109 3,671
1935 3,331 388 3,719
1936 5,251 276 5,527
1937 6,187 192 7 15 6,401
1938 3,801 258 631 451 320 5,461
1939 5,042 344 659 369 356 6,770
*293 The averages of net sales in thousands of feet for all products, conduit, and underfloor duct systems for the years 1922-1939 (conduit), and the years 1923-1939 (duct), and the ratios of sales in the base period to sales in the entire period (in feet) are as follows: Years All Conduit
products
1922-1939 11,184 10,624
1936-1939 6,040 5,070
Ratio 54.0 47.7
1923-1939 11,184 428
1936-1939 6,040 268
Ratio 54.0 62.6
*124 In 1938, petitioner experienced losses on the freight charges on shipments west of the Mississippi and to the west coast. Current increases in freight charges could not be taken care of at the time by including them in selling prices. In the latter part of 1939, petitioner's directors were advised about electric utility concerns that were not placing their orders for conduit with the petitioner.
Petitioner did not develop and adopt the vacuum treating process during or immediately prior to the base period years. That process was in operation in 1933 to a not insubstantial extent.
There was not a substantial change in the management or operation of petitioner's business or a change in its capacity for production during or immediately prior to the base period.
Petitioner would not have achieved a substantially higher level of sales of Nocrete, Alkacid, or perforated drainpipe, or a substantially higher level of earnings, if it had commenced the sales of these products 2 years earlier than actually was done.
Applications for excess profits tax relief . -- Petitioner filed timely applications (Forms 991 and 843) for excess profits tax relief under section 722 for the years 1940, *125 1941, and 1942, and it made claims for the benefits of carryovers and carrybacks of any unusued constructive excess profits credit with respect to the years 1940 through 1944. In its original applications petitioner claimed constructive average base period net income in the amount of $ 489,172 for 1940, and $ 611,809 for 1941 and the following years; and for constructive excess profits tax credits of $ 464,713 for 1940, and $ 581,219 for 1941 and the following years.
ULTIMATE FINDINGS.
The electric conduit business of the petitioner was not depressed in the base period because of temporary and unusual economic circumstances; or because an industry of which petitioner is a member was depressed by reason of temporary and unusual economic events; or by reason of conditions generally prevailing in an industry of which petitioner is a member, which subjected petitioner's manufacture and sale of electric conduit to sporadic and intermittent periods *294 of high production and profits. The present record does not establish that petitioner's electric conduit business was subjected to sporadic and intermittent periods of high production and profits which were inadequately represented *126 in the base period.
Petitioner's underfloor duct business was not depressed in the base period because of conditions generally prevailing in its industry subjecting petitioner to a profits cycle differing materially in length and amplitude from the general business cycle.
Petitioner did not, either during or immediately prior to the base period years, change the character of its business.
The petitioner's business was not affected by any other factor, or statutory circumstance or event falling within the scope of section 722(b)(2) , (b)(3)(A) , (b)(3)(B) , (b)(4) , or (b)(5) , which caused petitioner's average base period net income as determined without the benefit of section 722 for the years 1940, 1941, 1942, or 1944, to be an inadequate standard of normal earnings.
The present record does not establish that a fair and just amount representing petitioner's normal earnings to be used as a constructive average base period net income would result in a higher excess profits credit for any of the taxable years 1940 to 1944, inclusive, than the corresponding excess profits credit which has been determined on the basis of petitioner's statutory average base period net income for such year.
*127 OPINION.
The petitioner contends that its sales of electric conduit were depressed throughout the base period because of temporary and unusual economic circumstances or events within the meaning of section 722(b)(2) . As an alternative ground for relief with respect to the electric conduit segment of its business, petitioner contends that its sales of conduit were depressed by reason of conditions subjecting it to sporadic and intermittent periods of high production and profits, that such periods were inadequately represented in the base period and, therefore, it qualifies for relief under subsection (b)(3)(B).
With respect to the underfloor duct segment of its business, petitioner contends that its profits from the sale of duct systems were depressed during the base period by reason of being subject to a variant profits cycle within the meaning of subsection (b)(3)(A).
Petitioner also contends that it changed the character of its business immediately before and during the base period. In this connection it claims that such change in the character of its business, within the meaning of subsection (b)(4), consisted of a change in management, the introduction of new products into new *128 markets, a change in production operations, and an increase in its capacity for *295 production. The allegedly new products are Nocrete, Alkacid, and perforated drainpipe.
As an alternative to petitioner's claims for relief as set forth above, petitioner contends that it qualifies for relief under (b)(5).
The overall position of the petitioner is that multiple bases for relief exist. Accordingly, it has submitted computations of constructive average base period sales in terms of footage of electric conduit, underfloor duct systems, and new products and, on the basis thereof, a single reconstruction of base period net income. Bulletin on Section 722 , pt. VIII (A)(1) (p. 144). It contends that a fair and just amount to be used as a constructive average base period net income (CABPNI), in lieu of the average base period net income determined under the growth formula provisions of section 713(f), is either $ 599,000, or $ 565,000, in the alternative, for the excess profits tax taxable years 1941 and 1942, as well as for the excess profits tax taxable years 1943-1944. The years subsequent to the taxable years in issue also have to be considered in connection with the reconstruction *129 issue because of petitioner's claim of the right to the benefit of carrybacks from such subsequent years of unused constructive excess profits credit.
For the excess profits tax taxable year 1940, the petitioner has submitted a constructive average base period net income for use in computing the 1940 excess profits tax liability of either $ 317,340 or, in the alternative, $ 313,240. For the purpose of a claimed carryover from 1940 of unused constructive excess profits credit, the petitioner's reconstruction of CABPNI for 1940 is $ 387,000. The variable credit rule is applicable in a determination of a CABPNI for 1940 in respect to the reconstruction of the allegedly new products. Regs. 112, sec. 35.722-3(d), par. 15; Bulletin on Section 722 , pt. V, subpt. II, (F)(1) and (2) (pp. 120-1). The difference between the respective amounts of the CABPNI for the years 1941-1944 and for 1940 is due to the deduction of constructive income taxes in computing the CABPNI for 1940 as well as an application of the variable credit rule.
Respondent contends that petitioner has failed to prove that it qualifies for relief under any provision of section 722(b) , and that in any event petitioner's *130 reconstructions of average base period net income should not be approved.
The record shows for each year in the period 1922 through 1939 (1) the respective total amounts of petitioner's sales of all products, less returns and adjustments; (2) gross profit from total sales of all products; and (3) net income or loss, after deductions, for the overall business. The record also shows a breakdown of sales into the respective dollar amounts and footage of the sales each year of underground electric conduit, underfloor duct systems, Nocrete, Alkacid *296 (sewer pipe), and perforated drainpipe. But petitioner has not presented a breakdown of total gross profit so as to show the dollar amounts of annual profit realized from the sales of each type of product, and there is no breakdown of dollar amounts of net income per product, either. Petitioner's system of accounting did not segregate dollar amounts and footage of annual sales and net profit for each class of products. Its explanation is that such segregation was unnecessary because all of its products are made of the same materials, under the same processes. The only separate account, which was not set up until 1937, is for "specialties" *131 (fuse tubes, third-rail covers, cable troughs, and similar items). Furthermore, the profit and loss statements were not maintained on a consistent basis throughout 1922-1939.
For the purpose of its claims for excess profits tax relief, petitioner developed a series of schedules reflecting a separation of its total net sales in both feet and dollars into different classes of products on the basis of various kinds of records including summary shipment records and pricelists. It also worked out a series of statistical schedules, or analyses, relating to the same subjects. Respondent objects to all of these schedules, to the many assumptions involved, and to many adjustments of figures. In considering the issues, we have regarded respondent's objections to some of petitioner's adjustments of the dollar amounts of sales of certain products as valid. In view of our conclusions with respect to the questions relating to whether petitioner has shown that it qualifies for relief, we do not reach a series of respondent's objections to other adjustments of excess profits net income for various years in the 1922-1939 period. Those objections involve a group of questions which we conclude *132 are not necessary to decide.
Petitioner has presented a schedule purporting to show profit per foot of sales of all products for each year. However, it has not carried out such analysis on the basis of allocating total profit on its reconstructed footages of sales of all products to profit per foot of sales of each product. The record, therefore, does not present any means for determining annual profit realized from the sales of each product in each year during all or part of the long period, 1922 through 1939. In this situation, petitioner has proposed that comparisons of the base period years with earlier years shall be made on the basis of its reconstruction of sales of each product.
Petitioner has not presented data about the profits of other members of certain industries of which petitioner is a member.
Petitioner has the burden of proof throughout; it must first prove that it qualifies for relief under the subsections of section 722(b) involved. If it is held that it qualifies for relief, petitioner must *297 establish further what would be a fair and just amount representing normal earnings to be used as a constructive average base period net income. Winter Paper Stock Co ., 14 T.C. 1312 , 1317 . *133
Sections 722(b)(2) and (b)(3)(B) -- Electric Conduit .
Section 722(b)(2) . -- Petitioner contends that its electric conduit business was depressed in the base period years because of temporary economic circumstances unusual with respect to itself . (Petitioner does not claim that it qualifies for relief under the second clause of (b)(2) dealing with temporary economic events unusual in the case of an industry of which the taxpayer was a member.) The explanation of petitioner's reference to economic circumstances unusual in the case of itself is that petitioner claims that it is the sole member of its industry and there is no similarity between any other producer of fibre conduit and itself. In order that this contention may be clear, it seems best to state fully petitioner's view. Petitioner claims that it is the only member of an industry which produces conduit which is engaged solely in the production of fibre products, namely, fibre conduit, fibre duct, and fibre pipe. Illustrative of this observation of petitioner, it points out that the 2 other producers of fibre conduit, Brown Company and Line Material Company, produce other products than conduit made of other *134 materials; Brown makes pulp and paper products, and Line is primarily a producer of electric pole line hardware. Petitioner points out, also, that Johns-Manville is primarily a producer of building materials. It is petitioner's theory, therefore, that there is no other producer of fibre conduit like itself.
Petitioner's contention is without merit because it makes other products in addition to conduit and its claim for relief under (b)(2) involves only its conduit business. If petitioner means that it, alone, represented a segment of the industry which makes fibre conduit and, thereby, seeks to avoid establishing what the industry is of which it is a memb

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4595265. Public record. Not legal advice.