Our record testifies that we have had our share of success in moving into areas that were susceptible to rapid and continuing expansion -- energy, either in new forms such as uranium or traditional sources such as coal but where technological developments and a change in the cost of competing forms of energy gave it new regional potential -- international iron ore, destined to expand rapidly because of the depletion of the traditional sources that had served the steel centers of the world -- coking coal and copper where supply has been unable to keep up with the burgeoning demand --ocean shipping where the development of larger and specialized carriers has transformed ocean transportation and made it now possible for minerals to move inexpensively from the mine to far away markets. We were able to achieve both quantitative and qualitative improvement in our earnings by the combination of entering into fields rapidly expanding and doing so by use of long term sales contracts. The use of long term sales contracts, with cost escalation where we could get it, made it possible for us to finance rapid expansion and also made it possible for management and the shareholders, either existing or potential, to predict with reasonable reliability the future course of our earnings. The sale of the construction assets removed from our picture the primary potential for incurring large unanticipated losses. Our land development operations, while not spectacularly profitable, are a hedge against inflation and carry with them little downside risk. The underwritten increase in earnings, coupled with the minimizing -9-