Business: Canco Case

Last year when American Can registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission it marked certain exhibits "confidential." One exhibit was a list of salaries paid Canco's executives, another data on sales. Like dozens of other companies that filed confidentially, Canco defended its secrecy before the SECommissioners and lost.

Canco appealed to a U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Among arguments ad- vanced before this tribunal was the claim that publication of sales figures would give competitors a clue to Canco's profit margins, thus precipitating price wars which would ruin little can companies. Last week,...