New-York tribune., 1901-01-30
LOOKS LIKE A GATES COUP
STEEL AND WIRE ANNOUNCEMENT HELD
TILL THE MARKET CLOSED.

THOUGHT IN THE STREET TO BE A SCHEME OF
THE GATES FOLLOWERS TO GET MORE STOCK
CHEAP BEFORE THE ANNUAL MEETING.
Wall Street has. through long and after costly
experience. come to accept it a fact that the
ways of the American Steel and Wire Company
management are ways of deviousness and tortu-
BUSINESS. and so it was rot much of a surprise
that the Board of Directors took no action on
the dividend question Monday. when they
held two rather protracted sessions. The failure
to make any announcement on Monday after
noon. too, prepared the Street for the word
which came yesterday morning. when the news
of the Boards action had been promised, that
that information would not be given out until
the close of the market; but the announcement
which actually made at o'clock gen
orally unexpected. although dispatches from cut
of town earlier in the afternoon had contained
inklings of it. That announcement was as tol-
lows:
The amendment Of the bylaws makes i e,bAsa;;
dividends both the preferred and common stocks
OF the company quarterly, beginning with March
dividend question on both stocks is therefore de-
ferred until the meeting Of the Board the coming
The Board voted to advance prices standard
goods 81 ton. effective at once
The natural question at once presented itself.
When had the directors adopted this amend
ment TO the bylaws which made it necessary
for them to defer for several weeks any action
upon a dividend? Inquiry at the offices of the
company revealed the fact that it was at the
meeting lust ended that the step had been taken
and then there was speculation as to the reason
for it, many believing that the postponement OF
action on dividends meant that the dividend on
the common stock for the year would be passed
altogether at the March meeting No director
could be found who would throw light on the
situation. but what might be taken as partiai
explanation of the Boards attitude was found
in this clause of the Executive Committees re-
port to the stockholders. also made public yes
terday:
Finding it unwise and inexpedient declare divi-
dends payable full year in advance, the bylaws
the Board of Directors act upon the question of
dividends on both the preferred ana common
stocks quarterly, beginning next March
In the report of the Executive Committee the
net profits of the company for 1900 shown
to have been $7.OO2. .129. after the charging off
of 81 100000 for depreciation and bad debts
In a dispatch from Chicago last April. just after
the sudden closing of twelve of the Steel and
Wire COmpany's mills John Lambert, then
president was quoted as saying: The Ameri-
can Steel and Wire Company never more
prosperous Last wear it earned about S13.OOO.-
600 in net profits This year it may run as high
light of the figures now published
Steel and Wire common stock ranged yester-
day between 80 and 4134, bObbing up and down
as rumOr after rumOr regarding the action to
be taken on the dividend and the amount of the
earnings for 1900 drfted into the Street, The
closed unchanged at So
The books of the company closed at 5 o'clock
Yesterday for the annual meeting, and this fact
was declared in many quarters to be the ex-
PLANTATION of the course Of the directors in re-
fusng to make any statement concerning dlvl-
dend action before the market closed, the popu-
lar theory being that the prevailing uncertainty.
by preventing any possibility of a sharp advance
i'm the stock. gave an opportunity 20 tne Gates
party to buy at advantageous rates large blocks
of stock for use in the day of storm and stress
the day of the annual meeting, on February
10 If Nr Gates and his friends are secure
in their control not to need any more stock
for voting purposes at the annual meeting, 1t is
certain that there are interests which are anX-
ious to get hold of the voting privilege. for as
bjgb as 81 per cent premium paid yesterday
for proxies on many thousands of shares.
The much discussed purchase OF the American
Steamship Companys fleet of lake vessels, on
account of the disapproval Of the terms of which
purchase Herman sielcken recently resigned
from the Steel and Wire Board is described as
follows in the report to the stockholders:
As the company is the owner of iron
mines on Lake Superior it was deemed necessary by
nendent OF possible freight combinations in trans
porting ore to our furnaces; % and 10 looking KIN to TINS
from the American Steamship Company of twelve
nractically all of the ore used by this company.
This purchase made by the guarantee the
mart Of the American Steel and Wire Company of
twenty year per cent sinking fund bonds TO the
amount of 600 (this being the entire purchase
price) secured by mortgage on the boats pur-
chased. Based upon the average lake freight rates
for the last ten years, we predict that this feet OF
will annually at least sufficient
pay the interest upon the bonds and provide for
sinking fund sufficient to retire all of these bonds
before maturity thus leaving the American Steel
and Wire Company the owner of the entire fleet,
free from incumbranee and without the Investment
of ST.
AS to the outlook for general business the
port says that the company enters the new
year with all old stocks cleared away and the
order books we'll filled with business at salts
factory prices.