The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-16
rior towns that bid per cent. for deposits through the mails.

James J. Hill of the Great Northern rail- way continues to cut up melons for his stockholders, following out the plan gently outlined in this correspondence. year ago MT Hill increased the capital of his road by $25,00O00O, offering the stock to his stockholders at par. The rights that thereby accrued were worth about $S5 a share. few days ago Mr Hill dis tributed the certificates representing the ownership of the Great Northern iron ore lands as a free gift to his stockholders. These certificates are worth in the mar ket at the present time about sS5 a share to Great Northern stockholders. Mir. Hill quickly followed the cutting of the ore land melon by a further increase in his capital stock this week of $50, 900 600, mak- ing tine total capitalization of the road S210, 100000. Every owner of five shares Of Great Northern stock has the right to subscribe to two shares of the new stock at par. The rights that accrue through | this increase in capital amount to nearly S30 share. It is seen, therefore, that in the course of 13 months MT. Hill has given his stockholders bonuses in addition to the regular per cent. dividend amounting to about $155 share Mir. Hills railroad has been earning very much more than it's dividend, and rather than increase tic rate beyond per cent, he has distributed the profits in the form of rights and script dividends Since the Spanish-American war the Great Northern has distributed to its stockholders about $400 a share, ar nearly s45 a year. This is not only evi- dence of Mir Hills remarkable ability IS a railroad man. but it is also evidence of the remarkable commercial growth of the country since 1898. The growth of the Union Pacific property in the same period has been almost as remarkable. That some of the other larger railroad systems do not show such satisfactory results to the stockholders in this period is due to various causes. Some railroads during this period of amazing prosperity have on- ly succeeded in recovering from the ef- fleets of capitalization, mismanage- ment and stock jobbing in the years pre- vious to 1898. Others are located in ter ritory that has not developed so rapidly as that in which the Great Northern and Union Pacific are operated.
 A railroad property that has not re- ceived it's due proportion of attention from spectators in the past two or three years is the Lehigh Valley. One reason for this is that the stock of the company is traded in only in Philadelphia, and does not have the advantage of the broad New York market. Lehigh Valley stock now pays only per cent. although the $50 shares are selling at about ESQ., or 160 per cent.
 
 per cent. stock, and this level would not be maintained as it has been for some time were it not for the fact that the stockholders know of the enormous earn- ings of the company and are confident that the distribution to them will be largely increased in the near future. A dividend at the rate of per cent in Jan uary on Lehigh Valley would surprise no one. Last year there was agitation to n- crease the rate to 6 per cent, but the management took an ultra conservative attitude. The growth of Lehigh Valley earnings during the past three years leads to the belief that this road Is following the course of Lacbawanna, which Is now paying yearly dividends of 20 per cent, and is selling above 300. James R. Keene years ago ran a bull pool in LaclSawanna when 1t was selling around 50. The pool nearly collapsed because 1t was unable to absorb the offerings of stock above 50. A year later MT. Keene cleaned up $1,00O,000 which was a good deal of money in those days. by selling his line of stock out above 90. That was a long time ago. But only little while ago shrewd capitalists, who saw the future of Lackawanna, accumu- lated the stock from 160 up. Lackawanna at 160 was regarded as a rich mans stock, and the ordinary Wall street speculators were afraid to touch it. Now it is selling at more than three times that price. A study of the earnings of the Lehigh Valley over the past three years, in comparison with those of other anthracite coal roads, as well as other seasoned railroad stocks shows that Lehigh Valley stoch, on it's earning power, Is one of the cheapest stocks in the market. The road for the past two years has been earning more than IS per cent. on it's stock, and it seems likely that this year 21 per cent. will be earned. On it's present selling price in the Philadelphia market Lehigh Valley is act ually earning 12 per cent, or very much more than any other of the standard rail- road stocks.