Word: ponts
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Looking rumpled in a navy blue suit, Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson took the stand in a Chicago court last week as a witness in the Government's antitrust suit against the Du Fonts, General Motors and U.S. Rubber. The Government, which is trying to 1) force Du Pont to sell its G.M. stock (23%), 2) require members of the Du Pont family to unload their 17% interest in U.S. Rubber, and 3) get G.M. to drop its 50% interest in the Ethyl Corp., wanted to know what G.M.'s former president knew of G.M.-U.S. Rubber dealings...
...decision to buy half its tires from U.S. Rubber in 1931 influenced by the fact that Du Pont owned such a big bloc of rubber stock? "In no way whatsoever," testified "Engine Charlie." "I never knew how much they owned . . . and no Du Pont ever talked to me about the contract ... I might add that ... I never owned any . . . interest in a supplier when I was the buyer...
...decided to buy U.S. Rubber tires, Wilson said, only after Goodyear had turned the offer down and Goodrich prices proved too high. Had Wilson ever discussed with G.M. President Alfred Sloan the appointment of Du Pont people to G.M.'s board? Wilson had not, but he had discussed the fact that several board members were also G.M. suppliers, "and I always said that ordinarily that was not a good thing to do ... If you put the president of one of the steel companies on your board, your other good suppliers might worry that he had an inside track...
...into $6,500,000. Just before Wilson testified, the court heard from Du Pont President Crawford Greenewalt, son-in-law of aged Irénée du Pont. He, too, had never heard the Du Fonts mention any Du Pont-G.M.-Rubber agreement, but he did add a footnote on his personal history. In 1926, on his marriage to Irénée's daughter Margaretta, Irénée had presented Greenewalt with 1,000 shares of stock in Christiana Securities Co., the holding company that controls Du Pont. The stock was then worth...
Twice Told Tale. The U.S. had promised that the case would be a "never-before-revealed biography of the Du Fonts." Actually, as told by Defendants Pierre and Irénée and Du Pont officials, it was pretty much a retelling of familiar history...