CORPORATIONS: Comeback for Bata

In a villa near Sao Paulo, Brazil, a bitter man sat down and wrote an angry letter to Czechoslovakia's finance minister. Wrote Jan A. Bata (rhymes with got ya), who once controlled Bata Inc. of Zlin, one of the world's largest shoe manufacturers: "What has become of the glorious Czechoslovak enterprise in ten months of national management? . . . What we gathered in 52 . . . years is on the precipice of bankruptcy."

Bombs for Bata. But Jan Bata was stirred by out-of-date facts. During the war, Bata, which owned most...