Profits

Last week, General Motors Corp. made public six months earnings which set a new industrial record. Its net of $161,267,974 compares with profits of $129,250,207 for the first six months of 1927. Retail sales totaled 1,062,733 cars, as against 840,481 last year. Out of its plenty, General Motors made a great and generous gesture. It dickered for a time with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., then announced a contract for a $400,000,000 life, sickness and accident policy, open to any employe from President Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., to Jacob Hazay, who works a grinding machine at the Detroit plant. Jacob Hazay earns $32 a week. To share in the insurance plan, he must pay a premium of $1.50 a month, or about one cent on every dollar he makes. If he dies, Mrs. Hazay will get $2,000. If he falls ill, of any sickness, he will be paid $15 a week for as long as 13 weeks. The 14th week, a doctor says that he can never return to work. He then is paid $52.50 a month for 40 months, when his policy is used up. If he dies after the 40th month, Mrs. Hazay will be penniless. . . . Others who announced six months profits, last week, were: Fleischmann Co. ("I was bilious"): $9,529,055. as against $9,315,352. Simmons Co. (Bedmakers for David Binney Putnam): $2,501,438 as against $2,242,482. Coca Cola International Corp. (The heat, the humidity): $1,264,533 as against $1,204,023. N. Y. Central Railroad Co. (20th Century Limited): $28,544,608 as against $30,959,292. Pennsylvania Railroad Co. (Broadway Limited) : $51,277,232 as against $51,125,413. Delaware and Hudson Co. (Leonor Fresnel Loree): $2,628,071 as against $2,429,024. Postum Co. (The Edward F. Button's): $7,426,630 as against $6,750,384. Canada Dry ("Champagne of Ginger Ales"): $1,449,191 as against $1,273,528. Bethlehem Steel Corp. (Charles M. Schwab, Eugene G. Grace): $7,914,046 as against $10,666,718. E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co. (smokeless powder, explosives, rayon, dyestuffs, paint, varnish, alcohol, pyralin, cinema film, ammonia, nitric acid and 23% of General Motors common stock) : $30,125,125 as against $21,436,642. Telautograph Corp. (point to point handwriting device): $144,103 as against $124,302. John R. Thompson Co. (120 restaurants) : $667,656 as against $769,024. Barker Bros. Corp. (furniture, rugs): $202,410 as against $286.488. Dennison Manufacturing Co. (Dennison boxes): $330,000 as against $360,000.