corporations, especially electric, gas, and other utilities, pay out most of their profits as dividends to their stockholders. Others distribute, say, 50 percent of earnings to shareholders in dividends, keeping the rest to pay for operations and expansion. Still other corporations, often the smaller ones, prefer to reinvest most or all of their net income in research and expansion, hoping to reward investors by rapidly increasing the value of their shares.

Monopolies, Mergers, and Restructuring The corporate form clearly is a key to the successful growth of numerous American businesses. But Americans at times have viewed large corporations with suspicion, and corporate managers themselves have wavered about the value of bigness.