| Computation of Ratio of Earnings to Fixed Charges |
Exhibit 12 |
| ( in thousands ) |
Years ended December 31, | ||||||||
| 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | |||||||
| Earnings as Defined: |
|||||||||
| Earnings from operations before income taxes after eliminating undistributed earnings of 20%- to 50%-owned affiliates |
$ | 712,545 | $ | 634,812 | $ | 579,521 | |||
| Fixed charges excluding capitalized interest and preferred stock dividends of majority-owned subsidiary companies |
64,722 | 46,923 | 38,466 | ||||||
| Earnings as defined |
$ | 777,267 | $ | 681,735 | $ | 617,987 | |||
| Fixed Charges as Defined: |
|||||||||
| Interest expense, including amortization of debt issue costs |
$ | 55,965 | $ | 38,791 | $ | 30,877 | |||
| Interest capitalized |
97 | 600 | |||||||
| Portion of rental expense representative of the interest factor |
8,757 | 8,132 | 7,589 | ||||||
| Preferred stock dividends of majority-owned subsidiary companies |
80 | 80 | 80 | ||||||
| Fixed charges as defined |
$ | 64,899 | $ | 47,003 | $ | 39,146 | |||
| Ratio of Earnings to Fixed Charges |
11.98 | 14.50 | 15.79 | ||||||