Bibendum Bonus

Greatest of European tiremakers is Andre Michelin et Cie., which in 1929 for the first time in its history showed a deficit of 8,000,000 francs. But it would take more than that to shrink the grin on the rubber face of "Bibendum," famed Michelin trademark mannikin (see cut). Last week Bibendum's grin spread to the faces of 700 former employes of the Michelin plant in Milltown, N. J. Depressed business forced the closing of the plant three months ago. To the employes was due $700,000 from an accumulative yearly bonus which the company paid them under contract. The company rules provide that no bonus is to be paid until the employe has been off the payroll for three years. But last week Jules Hauvette Michelin, nephew of the founder, who heads the U. S. subsidiary, announced that the bonuses will be paid now to all who want them now.

Another plan for unemployment relief was outlined last week by Gerard Swope, president of General Electric Co. Its essence: when the company deems an "unemployment emergency" to have arisen in a plant, the employes of the plant pay 1% of their salaries into a fund, the company paying an equal amount. This fund is administered by an employe-company board, which pays to any employe who has been in the service of the company more than one year and who is laid off temporarily, half his weekly earnings--the total amount paid not to exceed $20 per week and not to be paid longer than ten weeks. Whether a G. E. plant has this plan or not is optional with the employes. Mr. Swope estimated that 75% of his company's 88,000 employes are now participating in the plan.

Another employe bonus was revealed last week: that of Eugene Gilford Grace, president of Bethlehem Steel Corp. Put on the witness stand in the famed, inter minable Eaton-Youngstown suit (TIME, March 24 et seq.), Mr. Grace declared that his salary was $12,000 per year, but that he also received a bonus figured "at a factor of 1 1/2" Mr. Grace's bonus for 1929 was $1,623,753.

*Legend of Bibendum's conception: Some one saw a pile of tires heaped up in the Michelin factory at Clermont-Ferrand, France, and fancied a grotesque human resemblance. A cartoonist named O'Gallot was commissioned to make the pile of tires into a trademark. Soon along the highways of the world appeared the inflated figure of Bibendum, so called because he originally appeared holding a goblet of wine, and with the slogan Nunc est Bibendum ("The time has come to drink"). The blurbal application of the slogan was that Michelin tires "drank up" the shocks and bumps of travel.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.