Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-25
SALARY QUESTION
TO Be |RONED OUT
Bethlehem Stockholders viii
Consider Payments to
Grace and Others.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.

BY JOHN #. SINCLAIR.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, July 25.-It looks now
as though the next stockholders meet
ing of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation
will see stormy session.
Court evidence in the Youngstown
case has brought out that from 1925
TO 1929 inclusive, Eugene Grace's COM
pensation totaled S4,729.716. just lit
tie less than 100000 to year, Last
year, six of, the Bethlehem vice presi-
dents; in addition, drew total OF
Each of these seven executive officers
received an average of S436,540 for his
srvices Tor the year. In addition, the
sum of $4,000 was divided among an
other group of lesser executives.
OF course, the question will always
rise as to whether or not the upper
personnel in any organization are worth
$3,425,78 in a year, but it easily can
be imagined how these men could show
increased business largely in excess of
their compensation, and in this way
justify such an expenditure.
Had the Bethlehem management
told its stockholders frankly in an
nual reports what 1t was paying its
ranking executives, or only that it was
allowing specified lump sums each year
to group of half dozen or a dozen
officers, this weeks disclosures at
youngstown would not have been
nal. But TO keep the stockholders in
ignorance Of what the plan was costing
them was an error of Judgment"
But it's the fact that it took days Of
cross questioning under oath to bring
out this evidence that is the worst fea-
ture Of the case.
DR.. Lee De Forest. father of the
radio, has decided to move his scien-
tific laboratory from New York to Cali
fornia and to give his time to two
things-television and a short-wave
radio signal.
Up to this time the television in
ventors have been working on the
short wave length. The doctor has
another theory. He is going to work
st it from the angle of the long wave
length.
"Television is possibility. but there
Is plenty to be done yet before it
becomes practical for the home" said
DR.. De Forest. THE short wave length
theory is the basis now of television.
I believe that by using the long wave
length a finer detail can be gotten
because one can increase TIE side
before many revolutionary ideas are
worked out"
But this inventive genius is con-
sumed just now in experiments dealing
with the very short wave radio signal,
designed to end forever the danger OF
ships colliding in sea fogs and air.
planes crashing in the same manner.
This work, the famous inventor be-
lieves, will be accomplished before prac-
tical television arrives for the home.
It is of vastly more Importance Tor
human welfare. For by such method
thousands of lives will be saved an
nually.
1t was Lord Beaverbrook. British in
dustrialist and newspaper owner, when
asked if British interests should trace
with Russia, replied: ~.
aSure, why notP We trade. with
cannibals and other half-civilized peo-
ole. and have for generations Why
not with Soviet Russia? They are
neither cannihals nor half civilized.
When Chief Justice Hughes was Sec
retarv of State he was asked his opinion
as to the legality of trading between
American citizens and the SOVIET gov
eminent. His reply, along with those
of many others, was that there was no
legal reason why American citlzens
should not trade with Russia or with
Russian citizens, as much as they saw
1T
the New York Journal Of Commerce,
puts the case this way
1T ought to be possible by this time
for our legislators and public men 10
drop their hypocrisy on the whole RUS
sian question. At present We are anx-
ious to get and do get all the trade we
can. We finance 1t by the making OF
Nd MO Ck
more. At the same time we complain
of the Russians for entering into trade
with us and allege that this trade is
cover for propaganda work in the
United States. Yet we never apply any
measures of repression designed TO
penalize or anticipate the acts whether
lawful or unlawful remains to be as
certainedD which we thus criticlzeo. -
Our foreign trade is down--about 20
per cent in the last six months. We
need all we can get. We have always
done business with nations, many OF
whose political policies we disagree
with. Why chance that policy now
when we need the business more than
ever?
It's we'll at times to see ourselves as
others see us.
How does Americas exports decline
Of approximately 20 per cent in the
first six months of this year compare
with that of other nations?
Great Britain, in the same period,
showed decline of about Is per cent;
Germany about per cent; Italy about
IL per cent; while France dropped ga
per cent.
If the non-European averages are
reckoned together, the figures show 1874
per cent decline, and Europe but SIS per
cent.
In a word, the foreign trade decline
Of the United States for the first six
months is more severe than any OF the
first-class European nations.
Just why this condition exists is now
being given attention both by the Fed
eral government and several business
groups.
(Copyright, 1880. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance)
MhRYI AMI Phi n TEAM