Lo, fhe Poor Stockholder

While many corporations seem superficially to be making big money, there is more than one reason why stockholders see only a fraction of it. First, up to 72% of 1941 earnings on stockholders' property were taken in Federal corporation taxes (a levy from which bondholders escape scot-free). Another large hunk is often set aside for special reserves. Sometimes the desire to escape excess-profits taxes may be behind these reserves, but no man can tell, until he knows how bad the war and post-war world will be, whether corporations are being too conservative--or not conservative enough.

This table shows the per-share charges for taxes and for contingencies made by 16 leading corporations against 1941's earnings. The contingencies for which the reserves were made ranged all the way from direct war losses (e.g., United Fruit), through the cost of shifting from war to peace (United Aircraft), to such special fears as a decline in cheese prices (National Dairy).

For Taxes* For Contingencies Remaining Earnings

Allied Chemical $13.67 $1.35 $9.67 American Locomotive 5.33 1.30 4.12 American Woolen 30.50 5.00 11.23 Corn Products 3.59 0.95 3.38 Crane Co. 5.36 1.70 1.18 Douglas Aircraft 36.22 3.00 30.29 Goodrich Co. 8.29 4.60 5.02 Goodyear Tire & Rubber 12.80 3.40 4.68 Mack Truck 9.21 1.67 4.93 Montgomery Ward 5.11 0.96 4.01 National Cash Register 1.02 0.74 2.00 National Dairy 1.43 0.57 1.97 Sears Roebuck 9.62 1.17 6.35 United Aircraft 23.29 1.88 6.29 United Fruit 2.22 1.03 4.25 United States Steel 16.26 2.87 10.45

*Because of a wide variance in corporate accounting practice, these tax figures are not all comparable. Included here are all taxes separately reported.

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