Evening star., 1919-09-05
VALUATION TOTALS
CAUSE SURPRISE
Financial District Disappoint-
ed-R. N. Harper Believes a
! Merger Now Probable.
BY I. A. FLEMING.

Physical valuation Of the two street
railway companies Of Washington as
made BY the Public Utilities Commits
sion and its experts was distinctly
disappointing to financial men and in
stitutions, who are, of course, vitally
interested as lenders on securities,
while the group of nine banks that
are directly interested as holders OF
notes of the washington Utilltes .;a, ess
Company found small Satisfaction III
the figures.
r. n. Harper, who is chairman OF
the group of bankers controlling the
much-mooted 1880 shares OF COM
mon stock, was not in the least dis
turbed by the unexpected valuation.
Mr. Harper is today the most conf1-
dent man in Washington on the mat
ter of a merger of the two companies.
confident that it can be brought ABOUT;
that at so for the preferred ana 5O Tor
the common shares of the Washing
ton Railway and Electric Company ne
can swing the great majority OF the
shareholders of that company INTO
line for the merger.
Moreover Mr.. Harper is equally conf1-
dent that Congress can and Will nno a
way to smoothe over the rough joints
that may develop in the operation l, ano
blocking the one thing ION which the
city has set its mind
Other interested parties talked of a
solution in the courts. OF confiscatlon,
etc.
". E. Cadwallader. formerly auditor
of the Federal Reserve Bank of Rich
mond, now cashier of the Commercial
National Bank and secretary OF the
noteholders' committee, found some sat
isfaction in the fact that commissioner
Gardiner had dissented and emphatical-
ly declared that the actual cost OF re-
construction of the Washington Railway
and Electric Company was far above the
estimates made.
Mr.. Cadwallader declare that the six
ty-four miles of underground road could
not be replaced at this time for any
thing like SIS, SOC. 900, or S150.000 mile.
He declared that SIS cars would cost.
at $4,000 each. sS,100,000, and that the
car barns and miseellanssoueso US e91uipmsin1s eG1 pi1s
the Potomac electric plant and trans
mission equipment would cover $23-
900 for replacement His estimate
was close to s50.000,0oO for total val
uation.
The Commissioners previously gave
the Potomac Electric Company an $11,-
100000 valuation, separate from the
present estimates, to which $2,6O0,OO0
capital issues in bonds have been addeo'
making it little over $13,6OO,0OO.
As a Market influence.
As a market influence the valua-
tions of the commission were unim-
portant The figures were generally
known on the street, but not by the
large number of shareholders of these
companies. They have not shown any
disposition to liquidate recently nor
was there any evidence of uneasiness
today.
Capital Traction Company sold at
Sas The last previous sale of this
stock was at ssh. so that there was
an actual improvement of ~ points.
while yesterday Sc was bid and 81
asked without trading. In all twenty
four shares sold today. The closing
quotations were 81 bid and SO asked.
There were no sales of Washington
Railway and Electric. The bid on
the common stock dropped OFF point,
but the bid on the preferred was 81 " ,
with none offered under "a.
The general list was unchanged.
Whole List Is Sick.
During the earlier hours Of the
afternoon the whole list gave signs
of weakness, which developed in the
last half of the second hour of the
afternoon into a positive slump. the
ance to the bears in their efforts to
force concessions
Steel common broke to 103A, Cruel
ble Steel touched 1851 as compared
with 176 for the high Of the day;
Mexican Petroleum suffered severe
drop. breaking to 173. as compared
with the high Of the morning of 202.
General Motors lost six points. Bald
win made a new low for the day and
Big Marine fell back four points.
The rails shares moved sluggishly
from start to finish.