The Washington times., 1912-03-03

. crease 500, 500; Rock Island, gross de-
crease S623,lB, net decrease $541 ,5A; and
pennsylvania railroad, all lines, gross
increase $6OS,6I9, net decrease $3f3,62S
Iron and Steel Situation.
January, naturally, with its heavy
SHOWS and unusually severe weather,
has been a hard month for railways,
but the net losses reported by many eX-
tenslve systems East and West were
larger for the most part than mad been
expected, and they attracted much at
tenton. But so far as corporations
were concerncd the industrial COM
panies came I'm for more discussion than
the railways. The reason for this was
found in the further slackening of de-
mana for finished products of iron and
steel reported from Pittsburgh, the en-
tire omission OF the preferred stock divi-
dend by the Republic Iron and Steel
Company, from which a cut from to 4
per cent had been predicted, and the
disastrous annual report of the Central
Leather Company.
No one familiar with the ga rnings of
, , the United States Steel Corporation. the
volume of its business on hand, or with
the present operating cost OF the COM
| pany which IL low, looks for amy
reduction of its dividend at the April
meeting, but, of course, II was inevita-
BILE that this subject should come forth
for discussion as a result of such fea-
| lures as curtailed buying, some further
price cuts i'm sheets by independent
| manufacturers. the recent poor report of
the Lacka wanna company, and now the
passing of the Republic Iron and Steel
dividend. or course, matter of this
| business and future earnings of the
! Corporation, which cannot he compared
with the independent concerns which
lead In the price-cuttiug movement.
Wall Street seems to ignore the differ
ence entirely, however. in its pre- nature
| discussions concerning dividend pros
poets of the Steel company.
Paying Unearned Dividends.
| 1t has been a very. long time since
| any corporation has impressed the
| Street more lmfa"orably than did the
| Central Leather Company during the
! week. VIXEN its officers declared the pre-
| fcrred stock dividend at the unchanged
rate of : Per cent, despite tile fact that
Of the S2,330,000 required for that pur-
pose the company failed to earn s.. 035, NW
OF the amount. After paying the In
| terest on the company's bonds. amount
! ing to 5000, 467. there rcHa inCd ont Of
| the total income only $29J,OO0 available
| for the preferred stock. A surprising
| feature OF the dividend Payment is that
| the deficit of $2,0S5,oO0 for 1911 il super
| imposed upon one of SS36o0j im 1910. The
| company does not. in consequence, have
| tue excuse, advanced by SOME concerns
| which pay unearned dividends. on occa-
| siCns, that its business is bad tenn
| pora rily, and will improve, for the
| Leather Company's business has been
bad for two fun years. and 50 far as
| one can determine the matter, 1t Is
! showing no great vitality now.
|. To be snTe one cannot determine the
| matter of present earnings very well
with the Leather company, for the
president who has been receiving a sal
\ 9ry of $4,000 a year and four directors
| who have been receiving 10000 an
nually and who together control the
| company through proxies, oYerruled all
proposals for an impartial investigation
of its affairs. They have reduced sal
aries however, the president by $lO,GJC
and the directors by $500 each. The
company in its dividend policy is fol-
flowing in the footsteps of it's pTedeCGs-
| sor. the United States Leather Com
pany, which so muddled its affairs
| through emulation stock dividend
that II had to reorganiZe. OF course til"
| excuse for paying the present unearned
preferred stock dividend is that because
! II Is accumulatiVe, IL unpaid ii would
nevertheless be a charge against assets
| but In order to pay 1t the company ma
diminished it's cash working capital L
the precise amount of the unearned
| dividends that have been pad.
Minority Rights Ignored.
The Central Leather Company still
has profit and loss surplus of S1,77O,-
600. Such items in company's state
ment are rarely all cash, but even II
so, 1t seems as though the manage
| ment had pursued most unhappy
tcourse in paying for a second year a