uncertainties and problems

photo courtesy the Taylor Collection. Pantops background, 313 Steephill Street and Woolen Mills Road foreground

A glance at the rising volume of sales enjoyed by the Charlottesville Woolen Mills during the war years will not reveal the uncertainties and problems which hovered over the management. The company had disposed of $274,000 in manufactured cloth in 1914. Swelling steadily, sales brought in nearly $450,000 in 1917 and over $588,000 the next year. But rising costs ate heavily into this income. Profits in 1914 had totaled $53,000. In 1917, with sales nearly twice as great, the figure stood at only $39,000; and two more years passed before net earnings exceeded those of pre-war years. Nevertheless, comfortable dividends of twelve to fourteen percent were mailed annually to stockholders. These served to soothe the irritations of war-time restrictions.--Harry Poindexter