Abstract

Editorials

The characterization by the United States Senate Judiciary subcommittee in its 119-page report on General Motors Corp. (GM) that the company's profits are "extremely high" is an eloquent understatement. GM did not make a mere billion dollars in profits after taxes last year, as everyone has been told. There was an "overage" of $189,477,000 which the newspapers, liking round figures, forgot to mention. This overage is more than the profit made by Bethlehem Steel, Kennecott Copper or Union Carbide and Carbon. It is twice as large as the profit of the largest glass company and three times as much as that of the largest rubber company. Indeed, the combined profits of many other companies fell short of the margin by which GM exceeded a billion dollars' in profits last year.