Springtime for Henry

Henry J. Kaiser, who once seemed to own a private pipeline to the federal till, last week proved that a pipeline can work both ways. His Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. handed a $37.4 million check to the General Services Administration, thus cleared itself of Government debt 23 years ahead of schedule. Except for $51 million still owed by the Kaiser-Frazer Corp., Kaiser's sprawling industrial empire of ten companies and 48 plants is completely off the Government hook. For its help in building or buying plants, Kaiser has paid the Government $250 million in principal, interest and rentals since the end of World War II.

To pay up last week, Kaiser used part of a $115 million loan from eight banks and 18 insurance companies to Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., which reported a $6.6 million profit for the first six months of fiscal 1950-51. With the remainder of the bank loan, Kaiser will build a 200-million-lbs.-a-year aluminum reduction plant in New Orleans, increase his production by 80%.

Other Kaiser projects are also booming. Kaiser Steel Corp., which paid off its $123 million Government debt about five months ago, earned $4.3 million in the last six months of 1950. Even Kaiser-Frazer Corp. has picked up. Cars are rolling off the Willow Run assembly line at the rate of 900 a day (half Kaisers, half Henry J.s), and dealers have more orders than they can handle. With an estimated $500 million in defense orders on the books, including an Air Force contract for Fairchild Packet cargo planes, another for Wright aircraft engines, K-F seemed a likely candidate to join the other profitable Kaiser enterprises.

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