Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-03-21
CONFUSION OF IDEAS
WASHINGTON LAWYER SAYS POP.
uLAR CONCEPTIONS ARE
WRONG.
Investigates Actual Ownership Of Large
Railway Corporations and Finds
That Millions of People Are the
Real Owners Of Property.

Washington, D. c.. March 20.-"The
concentration of railroad control I'M
der closely allied financial interests
has become confused with the concen-
tration of the actual ownership in the
pupular mind" said H. T. Newcomb,
one of the leading members of the bar
OF the District of Columbia. Multi
tudes of otherwise well-informed people
confuse corporations, as entities, with
the millions Of natural people who are
the real owners of these corporate
properties
Il have been making a hasty and
therefore rather incomplete investiga-
ton as to the actual ownership of rail-
way securities. The result so far as
have carried 1t. has been intensely in
teresting as showing the extent to
which the business life Of the nation
is based upon railroad values and the
wide diffusion Of railroad ownership.
insurance companies, so far as I have
been able to secure statistics have
S845 ,S99,038 invested in railway secur-
tiles for the benefit of their policy
holders; savings banks in six states,
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Maine and New Hamp-
shire) own $442,354,086 in railroad Sc
curities, representing part of the saw
1ngs of 5,174,718 depositors, and the
"a educational institutions whose
investments I have been able to ascer-
tain own SAT ,46S,327 in railway bonds
and shares. Complete statistics would
show that these three classes of insti-
tntjNnc c OF CT
and a half of railroad property, as the
amounts reach an aggregate of 81, $780,
711,451.
These figures, incomplete as they
are disclose the beneficial ownership
OF about one-siXth of the entire rail-
road property Of the country. This
ownership is not concentrated in the
hands of the wealthy, but represents
the savings of farmers, artisans, mer-
chants and the thrifty masses of our
people whose incomes are moderate
and whose savings are small. AS
trite example the case of six compa-
MES who write industrial" insurance
may be taken, these at the last reports
available had 13,7S9,1S6 policy holders
carrying insurance aggregating 81, 1884,
S11,287. These companies hold among
tnelr securities to protect those nearly
fourteen millions policy holders $780,
236,742 in steam railroad bonds, and
S2,011 ,295 in shares Of railway compa-
MES besides holding $1,730,245 in rail-
way stocks and bonds as collaterals
for loans. That shows how closely to
the people themselves is the much
talked-of concentration of ownership.
How widely scattered too is indi-
yidual ownership is shown in the case
Of the Illinois Central railroad, which
has a total of 9,123 stockholders. Of
this number 7,174 individuals hold less
than 100 shares each and 1884 indi-
vidual holders of 500 shares or less &C
tually own 51.94 per cent of the stock,
or more than a majority. The income
from these small holders ranges from
Sc to no more than $4,000 a year, the
average income from these holdings
being but $333.41.
The widespread interest taken in
the question Of railroad rate legisla-
ton under such circumstances is, there
fore, perfectly natural.