The forgotten man of World War II, the U.S. shareholder, last week received some expected bad tidings.
Third-quarter earnings of 225 large American corporations were down 23% from the third quarter of 1941, according to a survey of the National City Bank. Losers included some of the biggest contributors to the war effort:
> E. I. du Pont de Nemours down from $24 million to $16 million.
> General Motors down from $43 million to $36 million.
> U.S. Steel down from $34 million to $13 million.
> Westinghouse Electric down from $4 million to $3 million.
Reason for the generally bad showing was...