Stockholders' Meetings

Last week eight big U. S. corporations held their annual stockholders' meetings. To stockholders the hottest subject was officers' salaries, lately publicized by the Government (TIME, March 12). To officers the most exciting subject was corporate recovery. To the public the meetings offered an opportunity to hear Big Business news fresh off the griddle. 6-c- a Share. In Philadelphia, 250 stockholders attended a meeting of Pennsylvania R. R. A 74-year-old woman uprose to ask in a quavering voice why she did not get "my 6% on my investment." Another wanted free passes. A third, who refused to give her name, brought forth rousing applause when she cried: "What reason can you give for not paying dividends. . . . I suggest that the officers go without their salaries for two years. They can spare their fabulous salaries, while we stockholders, who put all we had into the railroad, have to be impoverished. I want to know why? Why?" Politely the presiding officer, Director Effingham Buckley Morris, replied that so far as he knew the directors had voted all the dividends there were. A vice president pointed out that dividends had been paid in every year of the Depression. "There is a decidedly more encouraging outlook," he purred. "My question is not answered," snapped the woman. "If you were to wipe out the salaries of all the general officers of the company," the officer replied, "it would amount exactly to 6-c- a share." Priceless Schwab. Salaries were also the sorest subject at a stockholders' meeting in Newark. The Federal Trade Commission two months ago listed Chairman Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel as the highest-paid executive in the U. S. in 1932, bonuses excluded. He received $150,000 in 1929, $250,000 in 1932. Traveling in Europe for his health, Chairman Schwab was absent from the annual Bethlehem meeting for the first time in the memory of the oldest present. A stockholder declared there was "no excuse" for Mr. Schwab's high salary. President Eugene Gifford Grace, whose bonuses had twice topped $1,000,000, shushed him by replying that the company could never repay its debt to Founder Schwab. Thereupon the stockholders took a vote of confidence in priceless Mr. Schwab, only five dissenting. Rail orders were up, current operations were 52% of capacity against an average for the industry of 47%, said. President Grace. "We earned a profit on the preferred in March," he added. Bull Girdler. Republic Steel's President Tom M. Girdler also had a bullish report when he went before his stockholders in Jersey City. His company was almost out of the red, operating at 55% of capacity against an average of only 36.9% last year. "It looks as though we will have better conditions than we have had for a good while," said Mr. Girdler. "I think we will make some money in the second quarter." Loyal Woolley. American Radiator's Chairman Clarence M. Woolley told his stockholders that NRA was directly responsible for industry's current upswing. But: ''Perhaps greater progress would have been accomplished if a start had been made with the capital goods industries." American Radiator's sales in January and February were up 48% from last year.

P: At Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co.'s meeting in Pittsburgh a young salesman employe-stockholder held the floor for 20 minutes, advocating frequent meetings between employes and executives. "I think that is a mighty fine suggestion," beamed Chairman Andrew Wells Robertson. "I believe we will follow it." President Frank A. Merrick reported orders for the first quarter of $20,100,000, up 57% from the first quarter last year.

P: President Colby M. Chester Jr. of General Foods had similar news for his stockholders. General Foods' tonnage sales in the first quarter were 28% better than for the first quarter of last year.

P: Recent rains in South Dakota were cause for excitement at the stockholders' meeting of Chicago & North Western Ry. Drought and a grasshopper plague had combined with Depression to push North Western's deficit to $11,216,000 in 1932. Last year it was cut to $7,875,000. President Fred Wesley Sargent told his stock-holders last week that if North Western's earnings continued at the rate enjoyed for the first quarter the road would finish this year with a $2,000,000 profit.

P: Shortest stockholders' meeting of the week was Western Union's: ten minutes. Re-elections of directors were unanimous with one exception. A stockholder controlling 125 shares refused to vote for Bankster Albert Henry ("Al") Wiggin.

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