Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-04-13

maker and Harris Probable Success
sols.
New York. April 6-The resignation
of President Mcleod has been the
absorbing topic in Wall street, as it was
at some OF the uptown hotels, where
the news was received by brokers last
evening. For an event that was re-
garded as inevitable, this excitement
seems rathr strange, and can only be
explained by the fact that an extra
ordinary interest has been taken in
all these Reading developments evr
since that startling announcement Of the
great Reading deal was made a year
ago last winter
The financiers who see romance in
nothing but only the chance of profits
or the possibility of failure, have been
saying that with the retirement Of
Mr.. Mcleod the future of the Reading
property is probably secure.
1T menas a good many hundred
thousand dollars, perhaps millions, to
the DreXel-Morgan people and their
allied interests in Great Britain" said
a financier to me this morning. 81 sup
pose that now these bankers will have
the profitable commission of reOrganiZ-
ing the Reading and it's allied cOmpan
les in Philadelphia. To do this will re-
Quire a great amount Of money. I have
heard it said that there ought to be
and probably will be rs much as $50,
100000 provided for the company for a
working capital. Whether this will
appear as bonded obligation or in the
form of stock is of course, for the re-
organizers to determine.
Mr.. Morgan, [ know, is a believer
in distributing capitalization so that
Il pretty good share of it will appear
in the form Of bonds. His idea is that
nobody expects that the bonded obi
cations Of the great railway corpor-
ations viii ever be paid, at least the
course, the floating obligations must be
principal bonds, but that now financiers
have come to regard them as indirect
capitalization to be permanently car
ried, and the subject only to such finan-
cling as will reduce the interest obi
cations to a sum that will not be 4
burden to the corporation and make
the payment Of dividends on stock pos
sible. I should not be surprised, there
fore, if it was found that the Reading
was helped in this way, for it certainly
is known that it's capital, that is its
working capital, is too small to make
good management possible. Then, of
cared for, many of them Immediately,
and have no doubt that Mr.. Morgan
has that emergency in view now that
he is in consultation in London with
the Brown Brothers."
McLeod's Mistakes
Aside from such talk as this the most
frequent comment that is made today
suggests the mistakes Of Mcleod.
was told that probably no young rail
way officer ever had finer opportunity
than he One banker said to me that
Mr. Morgan. who is not often enthUSi-
astic in speech, declared to him the day
that Mcleod became COrbin's success
or in charge of Reading that the great
est opportunity offered to any railway
mana ger was McLeOd'S; that the young
President had his entire confidence and
would receive his support in those
things which he had in mind to do.
Placed, therefore, in charge of this
property, and having at his back a
man esteemed the finest genius as n
financial organizer of his generation
with the exception of Gould, a man
whose credit is Sc high that the mere
acceptance by his house of the respOn-
sibility Of caring for the debentures
of the Union Pacific was sufficient to
establish their value in the market,
and a man who also controlled in vari-
GUS ways more capital perhaps than
any other banker in Wall street, Mr.
Mcleod had everything to his hand
excepting patience. Such is the COM
ment here, and it is regarded as mex
plicable that so brilliant a man as he
unquestionably is, so competent as a
manager of railways, should not have
realized that his company did not con-
troll capital enough to make it possible
for it to be defiant Of Pierpont Morgan
and its interests.
L. C. Platt, upon whose application
receivership was provided for the Phila
delphia and Reading railroad, said to-
day:
The resignation of A. A. Mcleod as
President of the Reading was as great
a surprise to me as to anybody. Mr..
McLeOd's treatment has been undesery-
ed. His financial measures have been
devised with the best motives and Who'll
ly in the interest of the Reading. As
a practical railroad man his ability can
not be questioned. l suppose he will
now give his entire time to the affairs
of the Boston and Maine and the New
York and New England railroads. Of
which he is President"
J. Edward Simmons, Chairman Of
the Committee of General Mortgage
Bondholders of the Reading said: THE
retirement of Mr.. Mcleod was brought
about by the action of the bondhold-
ers It is one object accomplished
for which the bondholders' commit
tees were formed Now we shall find
out the exact financial condition OF
the company
McLeod's Successor
Philadelphia, Pa, April 6.-The sig
nificance Of the statement published in
the Star this evening that eX-Postmas- /
Wanamaker may be PreSi- |
dent Of the Reading railroad to succeed |
Mcleod may be inferred from the fact /
that John Russell Young, Fifth Vice I
President of the Reading, is editor in |