Dividends

While John Speculator was grumping over the summer listlessness of the stock and commodity markets last week, John Investor was finding plenty to make him smile. Into his lap dropped $800,000,000 in quarterly and semi-annual dividends and bond interest due on or about July i. Chrysler Corp. paid him 25-c- per share plus an extra 25-c-. National Lead paid him $1.25, Eastman Kodak, $1, Montgomery Ward Class A, $1.75, Coca Cola, $1.50. Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Bank added $10 to its regular dividend of $6 while First National Bank was paying its customary $25.

Nearly every day last week the directors of some large corporation made news by voting to increase dividends or to join the ranks of dividend payers for the first time in years. Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Railway led off with a declaration of $2 on its common stock payable Sept. 1, the first dividend since June 1932. Southwest grain shipments had lifted Santa Fe's freight traffic to the highest point in 20 months. Earnings for the year ended June 30 would approximate $1 per share, said Chairman Samuel Thomas Bledsoe. and the rest of the dividend would be paid out of surplus.

Pennsylvania Railroad declared its second 50-c- dividend this year, bringing total payments for 1934 up to $1 against only 50-c- in 1933 and 1932. Reading Co. followed with an increase in the quarterly common dividend from 25-c- to 50-c-.

Pan-American Airways Corp. declared a 25-c- dividend, the first since the system was organized seven years ago. A profit maker since 1931, Pan American boosted its mail, passenger and express traffic 30% for the first six months of this year over last year.

With January through May earnings up 170% over the first five months of 1933, U. S. Smelting, Refining & Mining declared a $2 dividend.

Nash Motors stock had fallen to a new low for the year ($15.50) on the New York Stock Exchange when its directors met at Kenosha, Wis. and surprised Wall Street by declaring a 25-c- common dividend, after omitting payments last quarter. In spite of production delays caused by a strike in the Nash plants last April, Chairman Charles Williams Nash announced that sales since Jan.1 were 300% better than for the first six months of 1933.

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