To all but a handful of the 36 men who run the $858,000,000 industrial empire of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., last week's gathering in the Wilmington, Del. board room was just another directors' meeting. Their 138-year-old firm had had a good year: 1939 net $93,219,000, an all-time high. Declaration of a quarterly dividend, other routine matters, were quickly dispatched. A secretary rose and began reading from some slips of paper.
Unexpected was the first slip's message: aging (70), sentimental Pierre Samuel du Pont, who was seated at the head...
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