If you added use strict;and did not get errors, then I think kcott was on the right track when he indicated the invocation was somehow incorrect.

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;

# name
# Script to extract "item 7" from a 10-K report.
# This will write the "good" part of the file to stdout, and will writ
+e
# a "schema string" on a single line to stderr.

    $dirtoget="/10K-txt/";
[download]

This should have immediately produced an error if the Perl interpretter was reading it, because you don't have
     my $dirtoget here.

Also, changing your first line from
    #!/usr/bin/perl
to
    #!/usr/bin/env perl

Changed the behavior.

Something's up with the invocation.

I know you said you tried the dos2unixutility, which addresses newlines, but could it be a Unicode file and your Linux system isn't happy with that?

I'm reaching here, but there is an answer. We just need to find it.