The times., 1899-05-14

purchasers is $1,000. and controlling in
terest would require at least 65.001 shares.
The Ebbitt House Meeting.
The meeting was called to order by
James F. Barbour who briefly announced
I its purpose as follows: you are here to-
! day to consider and discuss the question
! Of the sale of the Washington Gas Com
pany's stock. and to take such action as
may be DENIED advisable in the matter of
the circular signed by Mr.. Mclean and
others with reference to the failure on the
part of the directors to declare and pay the
regular quarterly dividend. The first thing
necessary will be the nomination and cleo
tion of a chairman"
Mr.. Barbour then nominated w. w. Bur-
dette, who was unanimously elected as the
chairman of the meeting Mr.. Barbour was
made secretary.
Mr.. Gribbel of Philadelphia, responding
to an invitation by the chairman for re-
marks, said: Il am unknown TO you and
not a resident OF the city of Washington,
but l have a bond of sympathy with you
in that l am a stockholder in the Wash
ington Gas Light Company and / am ex
ceedingly gratified to find such a body of
stockholders called together. l have had
some experience with meetings of stock
holders, and | say to you frankly that l
have never seen so large body of stock
holders meet for the purpose of consult
ing and taking action looking toward the
protection of their interests. This meet
ing should have been properly called by
your directors instead of by an advertise
ment in a paper, as was the case. ! re-
ceived a telegram from gentleman in
| New York telling me of the meeting, and,
| inasmuch as ! had interests akin to yours,
came here Immediately.
II am opposed to the sale of the stock
] 4, u ,rxt.t
under the circular which contains such a
proposition, first, because the circular is
exceedingly vague and unbusinesslike.
/ Ny business judgment condemns it, and
| ! am just a plain business man, and have
no other interests except some stock in
the company. Ny second reason for op-
posing the proposition is that l consider
the price for which the stock is to be sold
not commensurate with the value of the
property. / am opposed TO putting power
TO withhold dividends into the hands of
body of gentlemen. especially when
these dividends are withheld for the bene-
fit of the prospective purchaser l am
1 informed that this company has regularly
paid dividends for the past thirty five
/ years. Instead OF giving this dividend to
the stockholders TO whom 1t rightfully be-
I longs, they are given the sweet assurance
| by the terms of the proposition that the
} QlNlOeDO Is lelu lCT lut MuO ih
! TO succeed them.
4 "I have never yet sold a piece of property
| on which there was an accrued rental.
where that rental, when paid, was not
mine instead OF the purchasers The price,
! as / have said at which this committee
| proposes TO buy the stock, do not consid-
| er commensurate with the value OF the
property. The stock has sold in the open
market since the first of January at a
Z st,rr. Ill
] mittee proposes TO sell il on the Install
ment plan ] have no faith in the in
stallment plan, or men who deal in that
way.
Granting that the committee succeeds
in getting for this prospective purchaser
two thirds, or a majority of the stock al
this low price of $50 share, and granted
perhaps, that the outside stockholders
who are not familiar with the situation
and who have some difficulty TO obatiI
information on the subject, go so far as
to deposit two-thirds of the stock so thai
this proposed buyer can get 1t, then the
question comes to me, where do / stand az
minority stakeholder? / consulted lead.
| ing attorney in Philadelphia on the mat.
ter, and he assures me that my Interests
as a minority stockholder are not inter
fered with: that / risk nothing by holding
my stock out. If these gentlemen succeed
IN BtllliiS lues Cdu OHlS Bt
their dividends on two-thirds, and l viii
get mine.
Business-Lilxe Minority.
'As Is well known, solid business-like
minority of stockholders holding to-
gether can make the majority bolders very
uncomfortable. But i do not for a moment
| think that your directors would sell to
anyone who would not conduct the busi-
ness honorably. ! have too much respect
for the directors to believe that. / think
they have simply made what we all may
make at times. and that is a business mis-
take. They have made the mistake of en-
gaging with people whom We know MOTH
ing of TO endeavor to get for them the
stock of the Washington Gas Light Com.
pany at $50 a share.
II have gone into the business OF the
company, and am very well convinced as
a business man that the company SHOULD
do as well at least in the future as it ha.
in the past, and that is putting II on a yer!
moderate basis. There is no gas property