Confidences Published

Last week the Securities & Exchange Commission trampled heavily on a most acute business bunion by publishing a list of high-salaried men of business. The salaries had been filed with the request that they be considered confidential, but SEC rated them as matters of public interest and therefore not to be concealed. Date of publication coincided with the Congress of American Industry (see p. 67) meeting in Manhattan; featured firm was General Motors whose President Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. was keynoter of the industrialists' session. Top salaries at Bethlehem Steel, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Corn Products. 86 other corporations were also dragged out for public view.

General Motors salaries of more than $20,000 a year totaled nearly $3,000,000, equal to about if on $3 of 1935 sales. Among the highest paid higher-ups were:

Signius Wilkelm Paul (William) Knitdsen who had $30 when he reached the U. S. from Denmark in 1900. Mr. Knudsen spoke no English, picked up the language by listening to his landlady's children. He got a job with the John R. Keim mills in Buffalo, sold automobile parts to Henry Ford, went to work for Ford Motor Co. when Mr. Ford bought out John R. Keim, became production manager at the Highland Park plant. In 1921 he left Mr. Ford, in 1922 turned up at Chevrolet, became Chevrolet's president two years later. So well did he apply his Ford training to Chevrolet production that in 1927 more than a million Chevrolets were turned out and Mr. Ford had to scrap Model T. Since October 1933 Mr. Knudsen has been General Motors executive vice president, in charge of all automotive production and acting as contact man between General Motors in Michigan and General Motors in Manhattan. He says that he does not like men to ask him for a raise because he prides himself on raising them first. Last year General Motors paid him $211,128.

Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., whose father died in 1932 leaving $2,297,000, went from M. I. T. to Hyatt Roller Bearing Co., in which the Senior Sloan had a large interest. His first job had to do with manufacturing billiard balls, then an important Hyatt product. With the development of automobile roller bearings which supplanted billiard balls, the small, struggling Hyatt became large & rich. In 1916 Hyatt was taken over by William Crapo Durant, whose General Motors dream included motorcar accessories as well as motorcars. In 1920 Mr. Durant was out of General Motors, the du Ponts were in, and Mr. Sloan was operating vice president. In 1923 he succeeded Pierre du Pont as Motors' president.

Tall, gaunt, lanky, with long, bony hands, Mr. Sloan wears extremely high collars, works all hours of the day & night, has well succeeded in his major task of preserving harmony in the group of high-powered individualists who manufacture General Motors units. A young executive once prefaced a suggestion about improving some item of G. M.'s procedure with an apologetic statement that "I suppose you will bawl me out for this." "Why," soothed Mr. Sloan, "did you ever hear of me bawling anybody out?" Last year Mr. Sloan's pay came to $201,743.

Charles Franklin Kettering grew up on an Ohio farm, strained his eyes reading in bad light, had to get a friend to do his reading for him while he was studying at Ohio State. After working at National Cash Register, Mr. Kettering and Edward Andrew Deeds started Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., sold Delco lighting plants to U. S. farmers. His best known invention--the self-starter for motorcars --was developed for Henry M. Leland, onetime head of Cadillac. General Motors got Mr. Kettering when they got Delco and Mr. Kettering is now head of General Motors Research Division. One of his inventions is a gadget for opening bedroom windows without getting out of bed.

Mr. Kettering prefaces many of his observations with the words "Say" or "Listen." He likes aphorisms, posts his office walls with signs such as: "A man must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance to get anywhere," and: "Nothing is so conducive to thought as the sheriff," is deeply interested in why grass is green. Last year Mr. Kettering made $140,495.

Top finance man at Motors is Donaldson Brown, who went to work for E. I. du Pont de Nemours in 1908, married Greta du Pont Barksdale in 1916, became du Pont treasurer in 1918. In 1921, with the du Ponts active in General Motors affairs, he moved over to the G. M. treasury as vice president in charge of finance. One of Mr. Brown's ancestors arrived in America with Captain John Smith. Last year General Motors paid Mr. Brown $134,688.

Big, Irish-looking, Cleveland-born James David Mooney is head of General Motors foreign sales and manufacturing, might rate as the most-traveled U. S. citizen. He once went from New York to London to Paris to Marseille to Port Said to Bombay to Madras to Singapore to Batavia to Singapore to Hongkong to Shanghai to Kobe to Osaka to Honolulu to San Francisco between Dec. 6 and March 5. In 1931 President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia conferred upon him the Order of the White Lion. He detests high tariffs, and while Herbert Hoover was President Mr. Mooney was urging the building up of Russian-U. S. trade. Last year he received $118,306.

Lawrence P. Fisher, vice president of General Motors, is one of the seven famed Fisher Body Brothers. Husky Mr. Fisher, a blacksmith's son, is himself a skilled blacksmith. His art collection includes Romney's portrait of the Duchess of Sutherland. Last year Mr. Fisher drew $125,219.

Richard H. Grant is the G. M. salesman. At 35 he was sales manager for National Cash Register, under John H. Patterson, father of high-pressure selling. Next he sold Delco home-lighting units to U. S. farmers. After General Motors acquired the Delco Company, Frigidaire was combined with Delco and Mr. Grant added the iceless icebox to his sales triumphs. In 1924 he became Chevrolet sales manager, did for Chevrolet sales what Mr. Knudsen did for Chevrolet production. Since 1934 he has been vice president in charge of sales for the entire General Motors line.

Small, wiry, compensating for his lack of stature with tremendous energy and wholehearted devotion to salesmanship, Mr. Grant can exhort a sales meeting with an eloquence that makes salesmen laugh, cry and sell. He once told a pipe-smoking salesman that the pipe was costing General Motors $5,000 a year in lost sales energy. Last year Mr. Grant received $98,003.

Little known to the general public is John L. Pratt (G.M. income: $134,528) and General Motors is currently issuing no publicity about its executives. Mr. Pratt is in charge of Frigidaire and other nonautomotive activities.

One General Motors director received from the company no salary or other remuneration. He is Sir Harry Duncan McGowan, K. B. E., of London. Sir Harry has means of support other than General Motors. He is Chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., British counterpart of E. I. du Pont de Nemours.

Bethlehem Steel, SEC's announcement of Bethlehem Steel's salaries was dulled by the fact that Charles Schwab's $250,000 and Eugene Grace's $180,000 were already matters of record. New was the information that Quincy Bent (in charge of steel making, raw material) made $90,000, as did C. Austin Buck (in charge of mines).

SEC also disclosed the status of a stock-selling plan which Bethlehem inaugurated in 1930. The company sold to various executives 221,200 shares of common stock priced at $91.60, to be paid for in installments. At the end of 1934, there were 450 shares paid up, 10,890 shares canceled. On remaining shares there were unpaid balances totaling $11,114,000. Largest unpaid balance belonged to President Grace, who contracted for 67,500 shares on which he owed $5,206,000. Mr. Buck owed $1,489,000 on 15,750 shares and Mr. Bent owed $1,503,000 on 15,750 shares. Debtors paid 5% interest on balances but could also apply to them dividends (when declared) on the stock.

Other corporations and salaries included :

Standard Oil of New Jersey, to President Walter C. Teagle, $125,000; to Board Chairman William Stamps Parish, $112,500.

Sun Oil, to President J. Howard Pew, $62,303; to Vice President J. Edgar Pew, $79,747; to Vice President J. N. Pew Jr., $62,303; to Vice President Arthur E. Pew Jr., $26,532; to John G. Pew, head of Sun shipbuilding, $60,000.

McKeesport Tin Plate, to President Edwin Robert Crawford $173,750; to Vice President G. V. Parkins, $124,166.

Hershey Chocolate, to President William F. R. Murrie, $91,500.

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