Public Policy: Tax Relief for Du Pont

The most intricate and contentious antitrust struggle of modern times involves a great American dynastic fortune and more than 1,000,000 U.S. investors. When, last May, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Du Pont company to unload its 23% interest in General Motors, investors in both companies braced for a financial shellacking. It seemed certain that the disputed 63 million shares of G.M. would be distributed as "dividends" to Du Pont's 211,000 common stockholders, who then would have to pay full income taxes on them. Du Pont estimated that its stockholders, many...