Evening star., 1932-12-27
ANNUAL AUCTIONS
Of STOCKS ARE ON
"Cat and Dog" Securities
Knocked Down to High
est Bidder.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December 27-The
dregs of securities that were once pop
ular and sold at fancy prices come to
the surface each year when they are Of
fered on the auction block, at small
percentage of their original cost, to gull
lible investors.
The lists this December are not SO
long as they have been previously, for
process of such paper in the last few
years. Still, there is enough to make
work for those whose business 1t is to
transfer the ownership Of deprecated
stocks and bonds in all sorts Of cor
porations-by which process the pos
SCISSOR is able to write down the net
amount on which he will be subject to
Federal income taxes.
Offerings Are Weird.
The display Of this kind of goods Is
a weird one. 1t includes the obliga-
tions of companies that started out
with brilliant prospects, but which, in
most cases, represented transfer OF
good money for bad on the part Of the
investor. Echoes of all kinds of flota-
tions are to be heard as the auctioneer
tempts bidders for large sheafs OF Sc
curities. for which he is willing to take
few dollars where par values of many
thousands of dollars were originally
represented.
The Florida land boom, and with 1t
the overexpansion of Florida banking;
the craze for building high-priced
hotels and apartment houses: the pro-
lection of various mechanical enter
prises to relieve the routine Of domestic
service; publications that catered to
different fads; shares Of holding COM
panies and investment trusts; bonds of
garages, theaters, social clubs, country
clubs, swimming pools and even OF
churches, are among those that are
weighed in the scales and found want
ing in intrinsic value
If all of the securities Of this type
that have gone on the auction block in
the past 10 years in this country could
be redeemed at their original prices,
they would be sufficient to write of the
principal Of the foreign ward debts.
The fate of such securities IS that
they are put away to gather dust or to
provide an opportunity for the humor-
ist to pass them on as Christmas pres
ents.
Some of the issues that have been
sold in the last few days, or will be Of
fered for sale, include block Of $33,-
900 per cent bonds of a small road in
tie Southwest which was bid in for s36.
Then there was lot Of $4,000 Of 6
per cent bonds Of drainage district for
which the rather good bid Of S625 was
received A building syndicate in one
of the large American cities sold an
interest of about $1O4. 900 for the small
sum Of So and the building corporation
Of prominent metropolitan church
had s25000 of its second mortgage
bonds which have been in default for
five years go for $46.
insult Shares 81 to 50.
One Of the boom cities OF Florida
could have bought in about $4,000 Of
its per cent bonds for $685.. A cor
poration that ran a chain of garages
| and parking places had 1,150 shares Of
its stock and $4,000 Of its bonds ap-
praised at no higher than $l3.
The collapse Of the insult holding
companies and investment trusts has
not been pictured In a more extreme
way than in the sale at auction Of 5.735
shares Of one Of its constituent COM
panies for $ll, with large blocks, Of
stock in allied concerns changing hands
| at from 81 to 50 for the lot. (
brought out great many securities Of
mining companies, orange groves. apple
orchards and of companies promoted to
make fortunes for their stockholders In
raising pecans and English walnuts.
Apparently most Of these have been
liquidated. for they do not appear on
the auction lists this month. The low
prices Of metals and the overproduction
of agricultural products have limited
the field Of the promoter Of the Col.
Sellers type. In fact. his business suf-
fered about as much as that Of any
other during the depression.
(Copyright, 1922