Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-09-23
WATER SQUEEZED OUT
: OF STEEL CORPORATION
Millions Of Dollars Spent in Con-
struction Paid For Out of
the Earnings.
Great Advance in Common Shares
From February, 1915, About
$500, GOO, OOO-other Facts.
BY T.. A. FLEMING.

United States Steel common made an
other high record this morning, touch
ing 1173s, at which point it is $3.50 a
share above the low minimum of the
stock following the closing of the New
York Stock Exchange with the break
ing out of the war.
Steel common is in small sense a war
baby" or a war bride" Long years
of enormous expenditures into the hun
dreds of millions of dollars, dictated
and directed conservatively and wisely
by the master. minds that steered the
,billion-d dollar corporation through
strenuous as well as prosperous times.
have squeezed every dollar of water
out of the great corporation. and there
were millions in it when first 1oated.
Probably every dollar of the common
stock was aqua pura at the time of
the organization. Many of the great
steel men who received blocks of it in
payment of their Carnegie Steel Com
pany holdings disposed of their COM
mon shares as soon as possible, hang
ing on the meanwhile to their allot-
ments of preferred and bonds tenaciously.
Some of the preferred stock. blocks
the 1908 panic, when it sold to 49A
and the common much lower.
In the last nineteen months the ap-
probation in the value of the common
stock has been 1890. 0oo, 900. and for the
first time in the career of the corpora
ton, dating from 1901, the stock is SELL
ing above par. ....
In the same time Steel preferred has
moved up s7o,000,0Oo. while the total
added value in the market to the stock
OF the corporation has been $3.50, 000. 900.
From January l, 1915, to June 30, 1916.
the net earnings available for dividends
were $1s7.$52, 1855. while total earnings of
the two calendar years ending with De-
eemoer 81, 1915. are estimated at nearly
Scoffers who doubted the wisdom of
employees taking advantage of the OPP
porfunity to buy common stoct fro~,
the corporation now see the wisdom of
the large purchases :. hl.n c,.--l..-.
employees have made.
Steel preferred is today almost a Z
per cent bond 1t has dollar for dollar
back of it. while the per cent bonds
of the corporation are in an intrenched
and unassailable position.
The steel Corporation has not accept
ed orders for shells or other munitions
but has sold much steel that has been
used in the productions of various mu-
nitions and much of its prosperity has
been due to the war. though the home
demand has been excellent
There are those who belive that the
corporation will defeat the government
suit in the Supreme Court on dissoIu-
ton. just as it did in the lower court,
but the threat of dissolution carries lit
tie fear to Wall street these days, after
the wonderful results of the Stand
ard Oil disintegration and the Tobacco
Company's split into integrals-all
making more in the aggregate than the
parent corporations in the consolidation
times.
As a war BRIDE for the common
stock Of the steel corportion is being
referred to occasionally as such, il
should be far and away more enticing
than some of the minor steels and loco
motive stocks that have passed beyond
justification as indicated by dividend
payments, although recent severe re-
cessions from high records on these
STOCKS have brought them on more
equitable keel with dividend payments
Where will Steel common stop? Every
broker has been asked this question
many times a day.
All advances have a zenith, but to at
tempt to gauge the top on Steel COM
mon would be just as hazardous as to
guess the limitation of Standard Oil of
New Jersey, or Indiana, or Nebraska.
Predictions of $3.50 a share being
made with each advance in values
Purely Personal.
Ashton G. Chaplain. president of the
Commercial National Bank. leaves today
for the American Bankers Association
convention at Kansas City.
Condition of the Treasury.
The condition of the United States
Treasury at the close of business yes
terday was:
Net balance in general fund, s1s4,-
51o.3s9
Total ordinary receipts, s2,l97,110.
. Total ordinary payments, s4.219,937
The deficit this fiscal year is s47.o76,-
5Ss. against deficit of s32.116,41S last
year. exclusive of Panama canal and
public debt transactions