Broken-Down Employes

An aggressive, dapper hustler is Edward F. ("Ned") Hutton, board chairman of General Foods Corp. He founded the big New York Stock Exchange house that bears his name. Already rich in his own right, he got into the grocery business in 1920 by marrying the sole heir of the late Charles William Post, founder of Postum Cereal Co. And throughout the following decade the Huttons cut a wide swath through the society pages of the U. S. Press.

Early in Depression, evincing a nicer regard for the feelings of their fellow citizens than their niece Barbara Hutton, Mr. & Mrs. E. F. Hutton cut down on their more spectacular extravagances. Not mentioned so frequently in Sunday supplements were their Long Island estate, their Adirondack retreat, their 16,000-acre preserve in South Carolina, their Manhattan penthouse or their Palm Beach home. Mr. Hutton, who maintained the Hussar, world's biggest sailing yacht, came out strongly for the commissioning of laid-up yachts as a means of increasing employment. His wife, broadening her philanthropies to include the Marjorie Post Hutton Food Station for Women & Children, was referred to in Manhattan newspapers as "Lady Bountiful of Hell's Kitchen." Last month when it was announced that Mr. & Mrs. Hutton had separated, the tabloids hardly noticed.*

Last week in Nation's Business Mr. Hutton again demonstrated his feeling for the temper of the times. Grasping an editorial suggestion of that monthly, the General Foods board chairman contributed an article titled "We Have Humanized Our Figures.'' Said he: "I see no reason why the financial statement or balance sheet of every corporation, big or little, cannot be broken down in terms of men & women."

Side by side were two General Foods balance sheets,, one for employes, the other for stockholders. For his stockholders Mr. Hutton merely amplified in simple terms the usual statement. Sample item: "Cash (Needed to pay for raw materials and to meet payrolls amounting to approximately $1,000,000 monthly, taxes averaging $383,000 monthly, insurance, including contributions by employes to annuity fund, averaging $100,000 monthly, etc.)--$9,385,658.98."

More interesting was Humanizer Hutton's balance sheet in which all figures were expressed in dollars-per-employe. The cash item read: "Needed to pay for the raw materials you, as an average employe use, and to meet your pay which averages $130 per month, to meet taxes which average $49 per month per employe, etc.--$1,203.28." Inventory amounted to $2,441 per employe, fixed assets $2,468 per employe. On the liability side Humanizer Hutton explained common stock and surplus thus:

"Our 61,000 stockholders invested the money which provides you with jobs. If the company prospers they get a reasonable return on their investment. If the company fails they stand to lose all of their investment. The amount per employe which they have advanced to [or left with] the management . . . is $7,397.69."

Mr. Hutton did not break down an earnings statement in terms of men & women but like all executives at present he was acutely salary-conscious. General Foods has about 7,800 employes, of which about 20 constitute the management. These executives receive a total of about $650,000 annually--equivalent to 2/3 of 1% of General Foods' annual $100,000,000 sales. (Board Chairman Hutton, one of the biggest stockholders, works for nothing.) Having elaborated on the importance of management, Mr. Hutton declared that if all management salaries were divided among General Foods employes, the average wage would be increased only $83 per year.**

Not least of Management's duties, said Mr. Hutton, was defending the corporation against attacks and ''every type of unfair practice, including unfair practices of the Government."

"We have a Federal Trade Commission which, when it finds that some corporation has been guilty of unfair practices, orders it to 'cease & desist,' " stormed Mr. Hutton, who was particularly incensed by the Administration's latest tax bill. "It might be well if we had some sort of an institution with the power to haul the Government before it and, finding it guilty of unfair practices, order it to 'cease & desist.' "

* Even less publicized was Mrs. Hutton's divorce, obtained last week in Nassau Co., N. Y. Grounds: infidelity. Court proceedings were strictly secret.

**General Foods' payroll average of $1,564 is unusually high, probably because it includes wages of salesmen and all white-collar workers. Not mentioned by Humanizer Hutton was the fact that each employe not only earned $1,564 for himself and $83 for the management but, in addition, more than $1,200 for General Foods stockholders.

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