EDITORIAL

Yes,Virginia...

flN THE following pages are two dozen busiYness forecasts: the collected thinking of some of the top people in the business as well as bankers, economists and other experts.

But on this page, during this holiday season, we want to address ourselves to a subject that is a good deal less momentous. It has to do with the questions we continuously receive regarding those two sterling American Businessmen: Hugh Mungus and Freddy Fungus. You know, the ones from Climax, Nevada.

Now there are people about in this land who have the temerity to suggest that the items regarding Mungus-Fungus Forest Products in our Personals column each month are a Total PutOn. Imagine that.

The questions surrounding their existence bring to mind a somewhat similar question put to The New York San newspaper by an eight year old girl in 1897. She wrote, in girlish scrawl, to ask the editor "Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?" It was signed Virginia Hanlon.

His response has become a minor classic, repeated yearly: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." He wrote in part about Santa, ,,He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Sanm Claus."

So, too, on a far lower plane, our friends Hugh Mungus and Freddy Fungus exist just as surely as fun, laughter, a nudge in the ribs and a sly wink are part of our lives.

Hugh Mungus' name literally means something very large; such as the human spirit and its capacity to provide a touch of humor to give added meaning and enjoyment to our life in business.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Hugh Mungus.