GERMANY: Dividends Paid

From Hitler's Vrm of Dieseltraktoren in Hanover, which delivers tractors to the occupied Ukraine and which increased its capitalization by 14,000%. Biggest absolute increase went to Henkel Soap Trust, which raised its capital from 24 to 200 million marks.

This vast increase in capital was made possible, according to the newspaper reports, through drawing on "hidden reserves," possibly carried as surplus or in special reserve funds. Its immediate significance is that probably German armament makers have been salting more away from war profits than often supposed.

So long as Germany was winning the war, according to one interpretation of the move, German stockholders readily acquiesced in a high reserve policy, in the idea that the corporations would need the money in time of peace. But with war news not so good, shareholders seem to want their payments now.

For its part, the Government has probably known all along about the reserve funds but has winked at them. Now, being financially hard pressed, it favors the big stock issues, since it receives 10% on all increases in capital. (By October, it has picked up 500 million marks in this way.) Moreover, in so far as bigger capital means bigger dividends, the Government also picks up more on its individual income taxes.