CORPORATIONS: More from More

Everybody knew that corporations were making record profits, but what was happening to their owners, the stockholders? They, too, were doing better dollarwise, the Department of Commerce reported last week. Totting up July’s $498,200,000 of reported dividends, the department found them 10% higher than a year ago. (But it gave no figures on whether the stockholders were getting a bigger percentage of the profits.)

For the three months ended July 31, the rise in dividends was 8%—from $1,287,100,000 a year ago to $1,392,700,000. Manufacturing led the list with gains of 8% to 20% in everything except food processing, which was up only 3%. Wholesale and retail trade dividends were up 5%, while heat, light, and power dividends fell 6%.