--- description: What Du Pont did in World War I has been told chiefly by Congressional and journalistic witch hunters. Du Pont, in spite of its protests, was branded a "Merchant of Death." This time E.... title: CORPORATIONS: Du Pont Tells Its Story image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # CORPORATIONS: Du Pont Tells Its Story by [TIME](/author/time/) Mar 18, 1946 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Mar 18, 1946 5:00 AM CUT What Du Pont did in World War I has been told chiefly by Congressional and journalistic witch hunters. Du Pont, in spite of its protests, was branded a “Merchant of Death.” This time E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. decided to tell its version of what it did in World War II. In a voluminous account last week, it underlined that munitions-making 1) is not its chief business, 2) had not been before the war. In 1939, production of military explosives employed only 400 workers, accounted for less than 2% of Du Font’s total sales. During the war, Du Pont built up its munitions capacity to a peak employment of 37,000, produced 4.5 billion pounds of explosives (20% more than the Allies used in World War I). But even in wartime, military explosives accounted for only 25% of Du Font’s total production v. 85% in World War I. The rest comprised neoprene, nylon, etc. In the war years, Du Pont expanded production by building 54 government plants costing $1,034,000,000, turned out $895,000,000 worth of products. For this Du Pont charged the government 3.3% of the combined construction and operating costs. After taxes Du Pont’s net compensation was less than 0.4% of total construction and operating costs, roughly $2,000,000,000\. As evidence that it was not profiting in death, Du Pont cited its common stock earnings. During the war they were 21% below the 1939-41 levels. Du Pont’s biggest war job was designing, building and operating the $350,000,000 Hanford atom bomb project. For this, its fee was exactly $1. CORPORATIONS: Du Pont Tells Its Story ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6867602/corporations-du-pont-tells-its-story/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6867602/corporations-du-pont-tells-its-story/"},"headline":"CORPORATIONS: Du Pont Tells Its Story","datePublished":"1946-03-18T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-13T20:20:57.238Z","description":"What Du Pont did in World War I has been told chiefly by Congressional and journalistic witch hunters. Du Pont, in spite of its protests, was branded a \"Merchant of Death.\" This time E....","url":"https://time.com/archive/6867602/corporations-du-pont-tells-its-story/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6867602/corporations-du-pont-tells-its-story/","name":"CORPORATIONS: Du Pont Tells Its Story"}}]}] ```