Extra Dividends

The Christmas of 1923 will go down in history as lavish in extra dividends to stockholders. An almost interminable list of corporations, great and small, has followed the lead made some weeks past by the U. S. Steel Corporation in making presents to stockholders. Such an occurrence has not been witnessed since the spectacular but lamented year of 1920.

At first glance the prevalence of extra dividends would seem to indicate no small optimism on the part of American companies toward business prospects for 1924. When breakers ahead are sighted in the business world, spare funds are thriftily stored in the surplus account, not thrown about like confetti.

Whether this optimism for the new year is altogether justified is hard to foresee at the present time. In some cases it undoubtedly is; in others, extravagance this Christmas may be lamented by the next Fourth of July. As a factor in keeping the stock market strong and rising, the recent extra dividends have been influential to no small degree. Yet feeling that these unusually generous disbursements have been altogether wise is not yet unanimous.