Corporations

Record Quarter, Last week Chrysler reported that in the March quarter it sold more cars, made more money than in any other first quarter since Walter Percy Chrysler took over old Maxwell Motor ten years ago. Sales were 247,631 units. profits $9,163,000, almost as much as it made all last year.

Bigger profits from bigger sales has by no means been a business axiom since the New Deal. Cost of labor and materials tended to jump faster than the price of finished products. But Chrysler in the March quarter boosted its sales 57%, its profits 177%. How Mr. Chrysler made so much money in three short months puzzled Wall Street, for no bookkeeping tricks accounted for the gain. Most credible explanation:

Determined to squeeze some dividends from its expanding business,. Chrysler kept its retooling expenses at a minimum last autumn. Independent front wheel springing was taken off the Plymouth, saving perhaps as much as $10 per car. A simpler ventilating system saved another $2 or $3 per unit. With none of the plant upheaval or unbudgeted expenses that always accompany the introduction of a radical new model, Chrysler got off to a flying start Jan. 1.

Girdler Trusted. "We are amazed!" cried President Tom Mercer Girdler of Republic Steel Corp. last winter when the Government cracked down with an anti-trust suit against his proposed merger with Corrigan, McKinney (TIME, Feb. 18). Just why he should be anti-trusted when his $323,000,000 combination would still leave Republic far smaller than either Bethlehem or U. S. Steel remained a Department of Justice mystery.

Last week in Cleveland Federal Judge Fred Morton Raymond ruled that it was too much of a mystery to justify the suit. Denying the Department of Justice's petition for a permanent injunction, he declared: "[The Government failed] to prove sufficiently substantial lessening of competition to warrant a finding of probable injury to the public. . . ." Before proceeding with the biggest merger since the Depression, Steelman Girdler will await a possible, but improbable, appeal. Said he: "We are deeply gratified!"

Distillers. Of all U. S. industries one of the most undercapitalized is the liquor business. It needs funds to carry inventories through the aging process. Last summer President Seton Porter of National Distillers Products Corp. proposed to raise money by selling 337,000 shares of new common stock to the public and an equivalent amount to Distillers Co. Ltd., Britain's fabulous whiskey trust (TIME, Aug. 30). The scheme was abandoned when DCL refused to pay $25 a share. Last week National Distillers announced its latest bid for fresh capital by filing registration with the Securities & Exchange Commission for a $15,000,000 42% debenture issue--biggest single piece of new financing since the Securities & Exchange Act was passed. One-third of the proceeds will go to pay off bank loans. The other $10,000,000 will be spent to increase National Distillers' whiskey production and storage.

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