The Washington herald., 1907-06-20
WALL STREET NOTES
Reading Surprises by Failure
to Declare Dividend.
FRICTION AMONG DIRECTORS
Believed One Faction Is Demanding
Bigger Diyidends-WeakD in
American LOcOmotive-Sellins Com
pany Bleeding Anna lEamated Cop
per-French Situation Not So Bad.

per-French Situation Not So Bad.
New York June 19-Nobody expected
a surprise from the meeting Of Reading
directors yesterday, but the surprise
came. and a big one. Instead of declar-
ing the regular semi-annual dividend, the
meeting adjourned without taking any
action whatever Mr.. Baer. it was known,
was opposed to a change in the rate Of
dividend on the stock, but had all the
directors been Of his way Of thinking the
regular declaration could have been made
in few seconds, and no occasion would
arise for explanations aud inquiries
That action was not taken the street
construed as an indication that discussion
had arisen, and that some interest wanted
an increase and was prepared to argue
forcl0ly, ana at length, in favor of IT,
Air. Frick is supposed to be a very large
holder OF Reading common. and, under
standing the prosperity Of the company.
he might il was contended. come out in
favor Of an advance in the dividend rate
l
Shore and Baltimore are largely in the
preferred stocks, these roads hold enough
Of the common to make Il possible that
they wanted a change in the rate Of divi-
dend on the latter. From any one Of
these sources or from ali Of them. the
street thought. representation in favor
Of a policy Of Increased llbeTality 10
stockholders might have come.
Well-knOWn anthracite interests con-
tended that there was no reason why
Reading should not pay the same rate
Of dividend that is paid by Lehigh Valley
The latter road declared its dividend at
the 8 per cent rate. which invited com
paris0n between the two companies. and
these were not 20 Readings disadvan-
tage, As for the suits brought by the
government Il was said that the Reading
Interests felt secure I'm their position, oN-
cept that possibly the company might be
obliged to discontinue voting the Jersey
Central stock, q contingency that could
be provided for without causing any dis
turbauce Of the interests Of the Reading
stockholders IN the latter road. The In
terstate Commerce Commission endeay- /
ored 70 find evidence Of a combination
between the anthracite carriers. but lead |
ing interests in these companies say no
evidence Of the existence Of d combina- .
ton has ever been found, for the very
good reason that none exists.
iThe market waited. and waited. and /.
waited for the Reading announcement /
and did not know what % make OF Il /
when !t came. Apart from the stock 4
directly subject 90 the news. or rather /
90 the sort Of news that was expected /
and did not come. the only other 10 show
any activity 20 speak Of was Union Pa /
cite, and these two together supplied /
considerably more than half Of the days /
total volume Of business.
Quite a little attention was paid to the /
almost sensational speech made by Pre- /
mier Clemeuceau in the French Cham /
her Of Deputies, regarding the serious /
ness Of the situation in the Midi. but the .
general opinion was that the PremIer's /
intention was 70 strengthen the position
OF a not very capable government by /
impressing upon the country the idea .
that change at this time might be at
tended with exceedingly grave danger .
The news of the day following the Pre-
mier's warning was Of so mild a kind
and there was such q complete absence Of [
excitement on the European b0uTses. that
Wall street concluded that NJ. Clemen-
ceau had merely been posing as the
strong man 10 pull his country from the
dangers Of a revolution.
The weakness in American Locomotive
was not satisfactorily explained, the only
story on the subject being that there was
liquidation of a line of stock carried by
some speculative interest. one supposi-
tiOn was that the company might be in
need Of more working capital from having
a good part of its cash assets IN the form
of notes received from the railroads in
payment for locomotives.
On very few transactions American
Express and United States Express
scored handsome advances. based on EX-
pectations that these companies would
sooner or later make distributions TO
their stockholders representing the large
profits over and above regular dividends
made in the last few years, such eXpecta-
l4blS btllA6 AbSttl gu be iltt lldlltl-Alllt
tribution announced on Tuesday by the
Adams Express Company. The advance
in prices brought out no stock, the in
vestors in these companies being appar-
emily able and willing TO stick by their
holdings.
What is the matter with Amalgamated
Copper? The question has been asked
frequently IN Wall street one story has
It, the United Metals Selling Company
whose stock is owned largely by the
leading stockholders of Amalgamated
Copper. receives SO large a commission
for selling the metal that the profits Of
the latter company are by no means as
large as they are popularly supposed to
be.
The most extraordinary Of the rumOTs
regarding the relations between the
ANA lgamated Copper Company and the
United Metals Selling Company, is that
the latter receives a commission Of per
cent a pound on the entire output Of the
mines. without counting
the sales for otner producers, would
amount to nearly 100000 a year This
however. does not daunt
those who assert that cents a pound Is
paid, and they contend that this
rate may be the effect of a sliding scale,
making the commission rise with the