The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-13
UNION SULPHUR CO. IS BEST EXAMPLE OF HUGE DIV|D E NDS Nine Thousand Dollars a Share No Temptation
 to the Owners BIG CORPORATIONS
 HELD BY FAMILIES Winchester Arms and Singer Sewing Machine Are Also Stocks Which
 Are Rarely Offered
 for Sale
By HOLLAND

New York April 12.-(Speclal. IA large manufacturing industry whose plant is in Providence. R. l., the Winchester Arms company of. New Haven, and the Singer Sewing Machine company have often been spoken of as close corporations whose stock is rarely offered, and In the case of one of these industries never offered except at public auction in compliance with the dictum of the court that an es- ta te shall be closed out in that way. All sorts of conjectures have been made in the past respecting the quotable value of the stock of each of these corporations.
 The magnitude of the orders re- ceived by the Winchester company and the imperative need of securing an abundance of raw material and of en- larging the plant made necessary some disclosures respecting that company There were alleged quotations of sales of the stock. although in very small par cells, for as much as 5000 or a little more a share The Winchester company and the great manufacturing corporation Of Providence have always been regarded as family enterprises, and properly. so re- garded
 These Instances of great corporations which are also close corporations whose stock. it has been assumed. could have been marketed at phenomenal figures, are, however. second. and very distant second, to the Union Sulphur company. A few days ago the. Boston News bureau reported that stock of the Union Sulphur company could have been. sold for $9OOO a share if any shares could have been obtainable at that or any other figure.
 Chauncey NJ. Depew, speaking several years ago of the record made by this company. said that the possible exception of stock in gold and diamond mining properties in South America and in one or two cases of extraordinarily rich precious metal mining stocks in the far west, the record made by the Union Sul- phur company was without parallel in the history of modern industry. Moreover, there were unusual. even unique, sensa- tional and dramatic incidents. associated with the organization of the company and the exploita tion of it's property. It was, MT. Depew said. about the only in stance of great success for the late H. Mckay Twombley in an undertaking in which he ventured as an individual ex- clGsively on his own account To use Senator Depew's words: "Twombley went it blind He rsked considerable money and it was a gambling risk. for the chances were strong that he would lose every cent of it..
 MT. Twombleys estate was discovered to possess as its best income producer the stock which he held in this company, and it has been commonly reported that the income to his heirs from this prop year, although the. total capital stock is only $2O0.OO0.
 Nobody has ever been able, except those who were parties to the transaction, to set forth the exact relations between this company and the great sulphur company of Italy. It was known that Italy complained that the sudden and mo- mentous change occa stoned by the devel- opment of this property in Louisiana, whereby the United States became inde- pendent of the rest of the world so far as the sulphur supply was concerned had seriously impaired one of Italy g greatest industries After the complaint was made, certain superficial appearances jus- tified the impression that some good un- derstanding had been reached between the owners of the American mine-now the worlds greatest producer of sulphur and Italy,
 One of the banks in New York-a state chartered institution-has sometimes paid dividends at the rate of 100 per cent year, with an occasional extra dividend of the same amour. thrown in. That has long been regarded as the most striking phenomenon of American banking, all though it is in part explained by the very small capital stock and the very large surplus. This sulphur company has, it is understood, been paying at the rate of $100 in dividends each month"; or $i2QO upon each share, although the par value of the share is only S10O
 No matter what price may be offered for this stock--even though it should be twice $900o which was recently bid-it is doubtful whether single share could be ( cbtained from those who are now owners of it.
 Science and invention made the exploi- tation of these vast sulphur deposits in Louisiana possible exactly as Science and invention made the developments of the amazing porphyry copper properties of Utah commercially profitable so that this single mine is now reported by copper authorities to be the greatest porphyry copper mine in the world
 RAILWAY WAGE SITUATION