The Great Zinc Mystery

U.S. businessmen last week awaited the solution of a 95-year-old corporate mystery: the financial setup of powerful, respectable New Jersey Zinc Co., founded in 1848 and one of the world's largest zinc miners. The answer will come when the estate of its former board chairman, the late Edgar Palmer, unveils detailed corporation figures, thus greases the ways to sell some 400,000 shares of New Jersey Zinc common. This block represents working control of the company (20%) and must be sold to pay inheritance taxes.

Into the Sanctum. Soon to be unveiled by circumstance, New Jersey Zinc has grown big on strict attention to business and a devout policy of the less said the better. For decades its stockholder reports have been dull, stereotyped affairs with a peek at quarterly earnings; its reams of trade publicity have never given a hint of production, sales or industry position; its prim officers never discuss anything not already in print. The company's practical downtown Manhattan offices are pervaded by a churchlike decorum--everyone looks solemn, all men politely remove their hats when a girl gets into an elevator. Even at the annual Christmas parties no wine, liquor or horseplay is tolerated.

One & only outsider ever to wiggle into this inner sanctum was a New York Times reporter who in 1938 unearthed a complete ten-year income account and balance sheet from moldy court records. These proved New Jersey Zinc everything it was supposed to be: at the end of depression year 1934, cash and securities totaled $41,691,000, surplus was $29,515,000, total assets $84,218,000. Sales figures were less impressive, ranged from 1926's $26,769,000 to 1932's $7,715,000. But the key to the company's prosperity was the lusty net-to-sales ratio--in the 1926-34 period earnings were never less than 24-c- per $1 of sales, after all taxes.

Into the War. Any later details are a company secret. But one thing is certain: New Jersey Zinc's plants in its home State, Pennsylvania, and the West are all-out for war. Biggest wartime zinc need is for millions of shell cases, which the U.S. specifies must be 30% high-grade zinc, 70% copper. Then comes a string of zinc alloy castings for trucks and aircraft (fuel pumps, carburetors, door handles, etc.), die-cast gun sights, shell fuses and fire pumps, galvanized ship plates, sanitary equipment and plain tin roofs. Atop this are zinc oxide for paint, tires and medical supplies, "spiegeleisen" (mirror iron) for steel furnace purification, zinc dust for rust prevention. All these have probably boosted sales to $50,000,000 a year, forced New Jersey Zinc's production above 150,000 tons, about 15% of total U.S. output. Punctually enough, New Jersey Zinc last week issued its terse earnings report, showed 1942 profits down 25% to $7,231,000. But as usual the company gave no explanation of the decline, no estimate of the future. And when a top-drawer official was asked if the Palmer estate intended to sell its stock, an evasive answer slurred back: "Really?"

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