MANUFACTURING: Costly Praise for Mr. Hill

"It spurs a man on," says famed, florid George Washington Hill of the famed, fat bonus system of his American Tobacco Co. It also spurred on minority stockholders to litigation. Last week New York Supreme Court Justice William T. Collins ordered Hill and four vice presidents to pay back $2,018,033 bonus overpayments. Reason: not the principle of the thing but a technicality (certain subsidiary profits should have been excluded from the bonus calculations).

Hill's bonus plan earned the Judge's approval, and so did Mr. Hill. Said he: "Hill is an able, astute, aggressive executive . . " [who] has steered...

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