100 Years Ago, 1905

Few people realize the enormous proportions of Maine’s fishing industry, the product of which, according to Commissioner Nickerson’s last report, was almost half a billion pounds in the two years past, worth almost sixteen million dollars. The lobsters are the gold nuggets of this water mine. While the average net earnings of all the fishers of Maine was $197.55 in 1904, the average profit of the lobstermen of one County was $425.22. Even the clam is not to be sneezed at as an investment. The Commissioner declares that every dollar invested in that succulent bivalve has returned the investor 1800 per cent a year.

50 Years Ago, 1955

Many taxpayers eligible to use the new Form 1040A are filling the instruction sheet which shows a facsimile of the form instead of the Form 1040A card, according to Whitney L. Wheeler, District Director of Internal Revenue Service. Wheeler said that this slows up the processing of these returns and creates additional work in folding and filing these forms after they have been processed. Furthermore, these instruction sheets cannot be used for punchcard operations. He suggests that all taxpayers eligible to use the Form 1040A use that form since it is the simplest form to prepare.

25 Years ago, 1980

Lewiston “probably” will become the computer center for Maine’s shoe industry – the first of its kind in Maine and the nation. In the works is a cooperative effort among 10 small and “not so small” shoe firms aimed at computerizing their design and production programs, according to Alan M. Cohen, associate director for marketing and technology at the New Enterprise Institute at the University of Southern Maine. Some of the larger shoe companies like Hallowell Shoe Co. in Lewiston and Augusta have already delved into computer operations, but only in Canada has a cooperative effort been made by the smaller firms to bring computerization to the shoe factory.