j overburden from a thin vei sas the coal which is lov character is shipped to the coloi ration at pueblo colorado for o jlurgical coke it is also in demand the st louis market for its smokelei company for each share of the utah construction company held the company's net worth consolidated with that of the argonaut co ltd was 14,848,570 as of october 31 1951 an increase of 2,885,577 during the fiscal year the book value per share increased from 68.16 to 84.60 your company has continued to diversify its construction activities both by entering into different types of construction and by working in geographical areas outside of the united states we have continued our interest in all types of heavy construction a field in which the company has excelled since its inception to this we have added organizations capable of the same caliber of performance in the fields of in dustrial construction housing and building construction the management feels that the company is now well qualified to undertake virtually all types of work anywhere in the world during the year two significant changes were made in executive positions in january mr allen d christensen was elevated to the position of executive vice president and general manager in as suming the burden of general manager he takes over the important duties that mr lester s corey has dis charged with distinction since 1931 in march mr edmund w littlefield was elected financial vice president and treasurer mr w h harris retired as vice president and treasurer but continues to serve the company as secretary and director mr h n stronck resigned as vice president assistant treasurer and assistant secretary during the year we also formed an executive committee for the purpose of creating a cioser liaison between the board of directors and the operating management the board of directors holds regular two-day meetings quarterly it will be assisted in its work by the executive committee which meets monthly members of the executive committee are marriner s eccles chairman lester s corey allen d christensen ; and edmund w littlefield the prospects for the coming year appear bright for the company the company is fav ored with a substantial backlog of uncompleted construction contracts that assure a substantial work volume during the greater part of the coming year for our mines we have in hand orders for considerable tonnage of ores that should assist in maintaining mining profits if inflation can be controlled and general business continued at existing levels the company's earnings before federal taxes should remain at satisfactory levels the increase in both the federal income and excess profits taxes will present a serious obstacle to improv ing our net profits for these higher rates will be applicable for the full year instead of only to 6 months oper ations as was the case in our 1951 fiscal year the results obtained by the company would not have been possible without the confidence [ placed in us by the many clients that we served during the year we take particular pride in the fact that i