8 - If you had invested $1,000 in the company in 1900 and sold your stock at today's prices your investment would have returned you $1,683,000 over the 60-year period, of which $1,354,000 would have been taxable on a capital gains basis and the balance of $329,000 representing ordinary dividends taxable at regular income tax rates. In other words, your $1,000 investment would have returned you an average of $28,100 per year. I may be prejudiced, but I think that this is pretty damn good for a "Pretty Good Company". However, annual averages can be misleading and so they are in this case. For the first 50 years of its existence, the company derived substantially all of its income from construction activities. It had enjoyed early success. Within 10 years of its founding it was the most successful railroad builder In the western United States. In the 20's it had become one of the principal builders of concrete dams and provided two out of the first three presidents of the Six Companies who built the Hoover Dam. With rare exception it had prospered almost continually, and while it did not maintain pace with some of its competitors during the 40's, still in 1949 it continued to occupy a position of one of the leading contractors in the world, strongly financed, a record of continuous dividends since 1923, and continuous profits since 1931. It stood among the leaders in its field and, while its stock was traded infrequently, it is interesting to see how the investor had fared when the company operated almost entirely in the field of heavy construction. Of the $1,683,000 value realized in the 60-year period, only $297,000 of it would have been realized in the first 50 years. While this is an average of $5,900 a year on a $1,000 investment, contrast it, if you will, with the gain on the same investment during the last 10 years of $138,600 a year, or a