PUBLIC RELATIONS: 5.2% Net

Ever since President Lewis H. Brown of Johns-Manville Corp. led the way last spring (TIME, March 21). big U.S. companies have been vying to see which could bring out the most readable financial statement, thereby prove that Big Business is not so hoggish of profits as it has been painted. Last week Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. took its turn. The nation’s No. 2 maker of electrical equipment* issued a simple folder breaking down operations for the nine years 1929-1937 into one-syllable categories. Total income was $1.261.313,000. Deducting sums “paid out for materials, supplies, fuels, transportation … set aside to replace plants and equipment as they wear out . . . paid in interest on borrowed money” and disbursed as taxes, Westinghouse had “left for our employees, for our stockholders and for future needs” $669,490.000. Of this, employees got $589.091,000, or 46.7% of total income, in wages and salaries. Group insurance premiums and payments to the employe annuity fund took $15,253,000, or 1.2%. “Which left net earnings, available for stockholders and for future needs” of $65,146,000, a mere 5.2%.

* No. 1: General Electric