Salary Secrets

When they came to register under the law with the Securities & Exchange Commission, more than 100 U. S. corporations grew self-conscious about the salaries and bonuses paid their officers. In the hope that SEC would not publish such information, these companies filed their salary lists "confidentially." Last week SEC sternly overrode such pleas for secrecy and "in the public interest" disclosed the salaries paid by a dozen bashful companies. Notable among these were:

Continental Can Co.

Chairman Carle Cotter

Conway. . . . $ 72,000

President Oscar Caperton

Huffman. . . . 72,000

Frank G. Shattuck Co.

(Schrafft's Restaurants)

Chairman Frank G.

Shattuck. . . . 41,840

President Gerald

Shattuck. . . . 16,129

Jewel Tea Co.

President M. H.

Karker. . . .87,860*

Vice President F. M.

Kasch. . . . 22,105/-

May Department Stores Co.

President Morton J.

May. . . .100,075

Vice President Nathan L.

Dauby. . . . 137,409

Bloomingdale Bros.

Chairman Samuel J.

Bloomingdale. . . . 75,000**

President Michael

Schaap. . . .75,000**

Vice President Harry A.

Hatry. . . . 75,000

Vice President Hiram C.

Bloomingdale. . . . 50,000

Since SEChairman Kennedy is known to favor "goldfish bowl'' publicity for corporate salaries, last week's action foreshadowed more disclosures at the expense of executives who do not want the world to know what they are making. Not yet released from SEC's "confidential" files are the salaries of such tycoons as Alfred P. Sloan of General Motors, Gerard Swope of General Electric, Walter C. Teagle of Standard Oil of New Jersey, Myron C. Taylor of U. S. Steel.

Meanwhile in Manhattan the salaries of three prime cinemagnates were revealed last week when Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. registered two security issues with SEC. Fox stockholders had approved seven-year contracts calling for annual payments of approximately $200,000 to President Sidney R. Kent, $250,000 to Vice President Darryl Zanuck and $125,000 to Chairman Joseph M. Schenck. Total for the three is $575,000 a year, or nearly 50-c- a share on the common stock of the new company. When a Fox stockholder objected to these payments at a stockholders' meeting last fortnight, President Kent silenced him by shouting:

"We earn it. ... When I took this company in April 1932, it had $37,000,000 in past due debts. I could have written my own ticket. I took $66,000 the first year and $77,000 the second, and I'm not apologizing for my record. . . .

"This is a business of creation and imagination. The best company in this industry is Loew's Inc.--because some years ago they bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the services of Louis Mayer, Irving Thalberg and J. R. Rubin. Without those three men I wouldn't give for the stock. . . . We pay stars $8,000 or $9,000 weekly and make money out of them. Zanuck, who directs these stars and creates stars, is worth $5,000 a week. ... It may be more money than bank presidents are paid, but bank presidents can't make moving pictures."

*Includes $45,720 bonus. /-Includes $11,430 bonus. **Plus 2 1/2% of net income after preferred dividends, and 2 1/2% of net income above $1,000,000.

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