Payoff

Though earnings of the family-owned Ford Motor Co. have always been and still are a mystery, some facts about its dividends and ownership came out last week. In a report to Detroit's Probate Court, Clara Ford, widow of Henry the First, reported that the company paid out two dividends amounting to $4.50 a share for the year ending last July 1.

Mrs. Clara Ford is executrix of the estate, which holds 95,321 shares (55.2% of the voting stock) for her grandchildren, who will eventually divide it. On these holdings, the estate got $428,944. In addition, dividends of $1,287,445 went to the estate on the 286,099 shares of non-voting stock left to the taxexempt, non-profit Ford Foundation.

The rest of the Ford voting stock is held by Clara Ford, Mrs. Edsel Ford, her sons Henry, Benson and William, and her daughter, Mrs. Josephine Ford. On the basis of their holdings, the dividends were: $24,358 to Clara Ford, who holds about 3.1% of all the voting stock outstanding; $64,719 to Mrs. Edsel Ford, who holds 8.3%; and $258,879 to her children, who together have 33 1/2%.

General Motors Corp., with a profit of $502.4 million in the first nine months of 1949, last week voted to pass out a year-end cash dividend of $187,000,000, biggest in U.S. history.

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