Evening star., 1922-05-12
STEEL SENSATION
FEATURE Of DAY
Best Kept Financial Secret,
Big Gains FoIIoW-Re-
lated Shares Firm.
BY STUART P. WEST.

BY STUART p. WEST.
NEW YORK. May 1.-THE Bethle-
hem Steel-Lackawanna Steel merger
was. Of course. a matter of overshad-
owing interest in today's market. A
half hour before the close on
Thursday the street had not the
slightest inkling that such a deal was
under way. 1t was the best protected
secret Of high finance that has been
known in years, and this was shown
by the extraordinary reception both
prospectively in yesterdays final deal
ings and actually in the market this
morning to the news.
The opening sale Of Lackawanna
Steel was II points higher than it's
low f1guree of Thursday. Nothing re-
sembling such an advance has been
seen on the stock exchange this year
that Is In stock Of so important
a company-and 1t was natural that
1t should have had quickening influ-
ence upon the entire market.
However, it did not arouse any
great amount of interest outside of
the group of steel and related
shares and a few specialties. The
speculative community INDUCED in
all sorts of conjecture as 10 what
the basis of exchange would be bet
tween Bethlehem Steel stocks and
Lackawanna Steel.
1t also listened eagerly to sugges-
tions that companies engaged in
other lines Of steel production would
be taken into the merger.
The prevailing guess was that the
exchange of stock would be consid-
erably more favorable for Lacka-
wanna than the market had antici-
pated even with its violent overnight
upturn.
Scores Big Gain.
Consequently Lackawanna Steel
continued to push ahead and the
Bethlehem stocks went along with
1t. There was lively upbidding of
Gulf States Steel. Wickwire Spencer,
Alloy Steel and vanadium Corpora
tion and various others which ap
pealed to speculative imagination as
merger possibilities
Exchanges Soft.
Nothing that happened outside the
stock exchange was as interesting as
what took place within. The foreign
exchanges went lower on the unsatis-
factory reply of Russia to the joint
The weakness was not of much i'm
portance. The continental exchanges
still held fairly well above the lowest
to which they sank at the start OF
the week. The determination Of the
British premier to carry on despite
the Russian attitude. the fact that the
French delegation did not quit alto
gether. although refusing to enter
further discussions where the soviet
was the question. and the desire ex-
that financial negotiations go on were
compensating features which entered
into calculations
Taking Profits.
While the La Toilette resolution
asking the Department of Justice and
the Federal Trade Commission what
they proposed to do toward looking
into the new steel merger was of no
great consequence of itself, the fact
that it should have been so promptly
and unanimously adopted by the Sen
ate was bound to make some senti-
mental impression on the afternoon
stock market.
It led to heavy profit taking in the
steel shares generally, which in the
last hour caused reaction from the
top. Just what an investigation
could find unlawful In a combination
which involved only small minority
of the steel production of the country
is difficult to understand.
Financial Notes.
1t is reported from Genoa that the
Standard Oil Company has bought the
control of the Nobel Russian oil in
terests. The Nobel properties are re-
garded as among the most valuable
in Russia.
AS a result of the oversubscription
Of the SIS, 100000 issue OF Az per cent
farm loan bonds of the federal land
banks. syndicate managers have puT
chased from the Farm Loan Board ad-
ditional bonds to the extent of s42,-
O00, 900, which will be used to retire
the 5 per cent Federal Land Bank
bonds now held by the United States
Treasury The additional bonds have
all been sold.
The gold holdings of the federal re-
serve bank for the first time have
reached the record breaking sum of
So, ,00O, ,000. 900. an increase of $4,000, 900
since January l.
The net profits of the Stewart Warner
Speedometer Company for the first
quarter of this year after depreciation
and federal tax were equal to 95 cents
a share on the outstanding stock and
the company showed a profit and loss
surplus of $7.s71,S03.
The Standard Oil Company of Ohio
declared the regular quarterly dividend
of So a share and an extra dividend Of
81 a share on the common stock. pay
able July 1 to stock Of record May 26.