Public Be Told

A list of the securities behind Kreuger & Toll's debenture issue was made public by the New York Stock Exchange last week. The New York Sun's able financial editor commented that the list should have been published long before, pointed out that th-L- information hud been available to anyone at any time.

Later in the week the New York Sun again took up the matter of publicity, commented upon the fact that the 1931 reports of General Foods and National Dairy Products Corp. did not contain volume of sales for the year, both having been granted permission by the Exchange to omit the item.

Explaining the omission, National Dairy's president, Thomas H. Mclnnerney, said: ''The shareholders are interested only in profits. After all, the sales figure only calls attention to size; it is important competitively sometimes, and invites attack."

To these remarks investors might reply that future profits as well as present ones are interesting, that the sales figure, revealing the margin of pnofit, indicates trends and the management's ability.

Vice President Verne Edwin Burnett spoke for General Foods, stressed the competitive importance of the sales figure. He said few other food companies published it, "wholesalers' and other buyers of our products could say things to us that they could not say to our competitors, thus putting our salesmen at a disadvantage."

In the incident Wall Street saw a resurgence of the old question of what stockholders should know. While it is true that most stockholders do not analyze a company, the biggest ones do and feel they are entitled to adequate data. They feel that such an item as sales is not a real secret, can always be learned by a competitor.

The Stock Exchange has done much to encourage more telling of facts but many of the companies whose shares have been listed for some time have not complied even to (.he new custom of reporting quarterly? Most of the non-compilers report only once a year. Sales figures are reported monthly by chain stores. Cigaret companies do not give them. Standard Brands and Gold Dust do not, Borden Co. does. The biscuit companies report only profits while the rubbers give, their sales. Lambert, Drug and California Packing are among many of the miscellaneous concerns not giving the. figure.

In general frankness a wide range is covered. Eastman Kodak used to report only earnings, now reveals depreciation charges but not sales. The exact nature of Allied Chemical's huge investment account is hidden in the phrase "U. S. Government and other marketable securities." Reynolds Tobacco has described its investment in its own stock as "investment in noncompetitive companies." The railroads, because of the prescribed I. C. . accounting system, are models of honesty. Such leading companies as General Motors and U. S. Steel give enough data for anyone except a super-statistician. While some companies may discontinue reporting sales, businessmen last week were satisfied that the trend is distinctly towards more publicity of figures, consideration of investors.

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