Business & Finance: Bananas on High

Samuel Zemurray has been getting what he wanted ever since he landed in Manhattan in the 1880's as an 11-year-old Bessarabian immigrant. From banana jobbing in New Orleans he got a stake to start importing bananas. When he could not get all the bananas he wanted in Central America he got some revolutionists busy. He clashed with big United Fruit in Guatemala and Honduras and when United Fruit wanted to buy out his Cuyamel Fruit Co. in 1930 he sold—on a share-for-share basis. United Fruit stock was then selling for $105 a share and Sam Zemurray's stake in the Caribbean was worth $20,000,000.

In the summer of 1932 United Fruit stock was selling for $10.25 a share and Sam Zemurray's stake had shriveled to some $2,000,000. Earnings for the first six months of that year were a miserly 51¢ a share. So the towering, hawk-nosed banana man marched into a United Fruit board meeting with a fist full of proxies and stock certificates and shocked eminent Bostonian directors with a curt demand for power. He got it. They made him "Managing Director in Charge of Operations." From Boston to Bogota the United Fruit organization began to learn what it was to be efficient. In the last half of that year United Fruit's income was nearly three times that of the first half.

Last year Sam Zemurray spent three days a week in United Fruit's Boston office, three days a week in its Manhattan office. But he managed to find time for three flying trips to Europe, several swings around the U. S. in the interests of the AAA's food advisory board.

Last week, when United Fruit reported for its first full year under its new "Managing Director in Charge of Operations," it was clear that Sam Zemurray was still getting what he wanted. A net income of $9,000,000 was more than 50% above 1932 and a three year high for his banana business. This was better than $3 a share against $1.95 the previous year. With $37,000,000 in cash & Governments at the year end United Fruit was in the strongest financial position in its history. But Sam Zemurray still wants more, this week sails to inspect his banana lands which now rim the Caribbean.