Corporations

Last week the following newsworthy corporations made the following news:

Patino Tin. Though he would be the last to admit it. Edward Joel Cornish of National Lead Co. is indirectly one of the biggest contributors to the Bolivian cause in the Gran Chaco War. The Bolivian Government finances the war with a "patriotic" tax on exports; Bolivia's biggest export is tin produced by Patino Mines & Enterprises Consolidated, Inc.; the hungriest consumer of Simon Patino's tin is the U.S. and in the U.S. the second biggest buyer of the bluish-white metal is Mr. Cornish. Long allied with Senor Patino, Mr. Cornish became vice president of Patino Mines in 1924. Last week the corporate bond was made closer when he became board chairman.

Immediately Patino Mines stock jumped 2 1/2 points to a new high for the year (15). The rise, however, was not due to Mr. Cornish's election. It was caused by the revival of peace negotiations between Bolivia and Paraguay. If peace comes, Patino's mining operations will no longer be handicapped by the hard fact that its best workers have been drafted into the Bolivian Army to fight the little brown men of Paraguay.

Shoe Fruit. Conspicuous among tycoons for his liberal and generous labor policy is George F. Johnson of Endicott Johnson Corp. (shoes), who lately declared, "Any man who dies rich dies disgraced." (TIME, Jan. 7). By means of a liberal bonus, Shoeman Johnson shared profits with his 19,000 employes long before NRA came along. Many an envious competitor predicted that the good feeling between Endicott Johnson and its employes would end when President Johnson opposed the 30-hr. week. Last year after May Day, while Communists were parading dourly elsewhere, Mr. Johnson's workers cheered ecstatically at a gradually in his honor. Grateful, Chairman L. Johnson announced that each worker could have a three-day vacation.

Endicott Johnson's policies have borne rich fruit. It is today the second biggest shoemaker in the U.S. Last week it looked as if the company would have tidy profits to share with its labor when President Johnson announced that sales and production this year were running at an all-time high, 9% above 1929.

Allied Application. Upon the retirement of Orlando Weber from Allied Chemical & Dye Corp. last fortnight, that secretive company announced its intention of filing with SEC an application for permanent registration on the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street assumed that at last the most mysterious corporation in a mysterious industry was about to be thoroughly aired (TIME, May 27). But last week when the application was formally filed, SEC was surprised to find no schedule of the company's $39,000,000 marketable securities. Salaries were submitted confidentially with the remark that none was more than $100,000 per year. Financial statements, almost as sketchy as ever, were footnoted: "Omitted data is being submitted to chairman of commission under confidential cover." Largest stockholdings of any official were 1,984 shares owned by Director Harold Otis. One director owned one share, two directors none. Orlando Weber's holdings were apparently less than 10% (221,000 shares), for they were not mentioned.

Protracted Meeting. The corporate set-up of gigantic International Paper & Power Co. has baffled many an investor. Superficially it looks simple. About 70% of the physical assets under its sprawling control are represented by power & utility property's, the other 30% by paper, pulp and miscellaneous interests, including several Southern newspapers. The power plants are owned by International Hydro-Electric System, the paper plants by International Paper Co., both direct subsidiaries of International Paper & Power, a holding company. After that, the layman usually becomes so confused in a mass of subsidiaries that last week President Archibald Graustein recommended that the stockholders' meeting, convened May 22, be left open without adjournment until June 12 to give stockholders a chance to digest the 37-page annual report.

Sharp-eyed stockholders last week began to discover that, with taxes up and utility rates down, Hydro-Electric had not done so well in 1934 as in 1933 and that Mr. Graustein was very blue about the future of utilities. International Paper Co., on the other hand, had enjoyed price increases in nearly all of its paper products except newsprint. It tried to raise the price of newsprint last November but had to back down when no other producer would follow.

For 1934 results as a whole of International Paper & Power, stockholders could take their choice of such figures as a profit from operations of $9,700,000 (up 48% from last year) before deductions for taxes, interest, depreciation, etc.; a deficit of $3,360,000 after those deductions; a total deficit of $6,900,000 after "adjustments"' and transfer of certain funds to reserve.

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