EARNINGS: The Top

It was the biggest quarterly profit in the history of U.S. business. In the first three months of 1950, General Motors Corp. earned $212,387,765 ($4.76 a common share), a 55% increase over 1949’s first quarter. The profits, G.M. reported last week, were due to a 28% increase in sales to a record $1,642,659,449 and a 54% hike in production to 865,756 autos and trucks, a new high for the industry. But since G.M. faces new wage and pension demands from the U.A.W. (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), it did not boost its $1.50 quarterly dividend to 433,000 hopeful G.M. stockholders.