Confidence in Cordiner

To the stockholders of General Electric, Chairman Ralph J. Cordiner clearly had some explaining to do about the conviction of 16 executives for price fixing (see below). As the company's 69th annual meeting convened in Syracuse last week, Cordiner got right down to it, and with no apology in his voice. "It has been said by some." he said, "that I, as chairman and chief executive officer, either knew of these violations and condoned them or that I was derelict in not knowing of them." Neither is true, said Cordiner. "We were diligent in the light of the facts as we then knew them."

When Cordiner finished his explaining, the inevitable sniping began. Mrs. Wilma Soss, an inveterate needier at company meetings and president of the Federation of Women Shareholders in American Busi ness, waggled an arm at Cordiner and demanded that he resign. "You are an embarrassment to the company," she blared. "I am your employer. You are not an act of God."

Then James Carey, president of the International Union of Electrical Workers, the largest union in G.E., read from a 16-page speech, moderate for him, criticizing G.E. for mismanagement. Carey cited the speech made two weeks ago by G.E. Director Henry Ford II, in which he declared that business had better clean its house. To Ford's message, said Carey, "we say amen and Godspeed." Seated on the stage with the other directors, Ford flushed, as if not wishing to be reminded of what he had said. A woman shareholder joined in: "I thought I'd better warn Henry to keep his safety belt fastened," she said. "His wings are sprouting."

But G.E.'s critics were only a handful. The vast majority of the 2,700 shareholders at the meeting supported the company and Cordiner, once even rose to give Cordiner a standing vote of confidence. And as usual, management had millions of proxies well in hand. The company's recommendations were passed by margins as high as 98.4% on the ballots, and its slate of directors was approved.

After the meeting, the directors re-elected Cordiner to the chairmanship and also elected him president, a post he has filled since last February, when Robert Paxton, one of the men currently in the price-fixing headlines, resigned, giving ill-health as the reason.

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