The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-04
BY GEORGE BRITT
Times Special Writer


NEW YORK, May 4.-Mr. Cd
IN lums office" says a pleasan
voice over the telephone. answer
ing for that lookout point which
has seen more of profit and good
cheer these four years past than
any spot in the financial district.
Mr.. Odlum's office" is the nerve
center of that most vigorous and
novel of depression-born money
makers, the Atlas Corporation.
Amid these solidly paneled walls
and deeply upholstered furniture
once ruled Waddill Catchings, a
departed giant of finance who will
be remembered as the high priest
of New Era prosperity.
And as Catchings symbolized
the philosophy of boom Wall
Street, so does Odlum represent
the hopes of depression Wall
Street.
The master OF Atlas is Floyd
B. Odlum, Slight, sandy-haired
specialized lawyer of Al. He moved
into New York seventeen years
ago from Utah and Colorado or
ganized the corporation as a side
line and lived to see it the Won
der child of a hard-hit era.
Buying up one discouraged in
veStment trust after another and
never emitting profit in the tran
saction, he came most recently
to the trusts which Catchings per-
sonally had sponsored-Goldman
Sachs Trading Corporation, Shen-
andoah Corporation and Blue
Ridge Corporation.
Their scalps now hang at the
Odlum belt, and Atlas after three
years of salvaging wrecks finds
itself at last at the one-time goal
of the Odlum ambition, a $780,
100000 concern grown from initial
capital of $4,000.
rs there any one these days who,
l. starting with $40 has run it
up to 100000? The ratio is the
same, merely scaled up in the
case of Atlas a thousand times.
The depression was an. Odlum
opportunity. Of all the Wall
Street men who set their minds to
go forward prof1tably against the
tide of losses, he almost alone has
been outstandingly successful.
He is the one man of positive
acquisitive genius. and Atlas is
his heightened shadow
In the worst times within men,
DRY, from December, 1929, to De-
cember, 1882, while the market
value of common stocks generally
was decreasing more than rs per
cent. Atlas shares increased in
value by 40 per cent.
Now, having cash money in tens
OF millions, holding large blocks in
blue chip companies throughout
the country, its strong boxes bulg-
ing with select stocks bought at
actually less than their listed all
time low prices, a full-fledged
$1OO,0O0,000 corporation, with it's
structure in state of 1.-the and
sinewy health-what a foundation
is laid for power and riches! What
next?
I'VE are going to try and make
some money" remarked Floyd B.
Odlum to friend the other day.
That is what conceive to be the
purpose of an investment trust"
Without the market crash. the
oank panic and the depression,
still Odlum would have enriched
himself just as would the senior
Rockefeller. He has the eye, the
touch and the grasp.
A METHODIST minister's son,
L N self-supported through the
University of Colorado, he came
to New York as a law clerk in the
Wall Street firm of Simpson.
Thatcher IL Bartlett. In four
years he was vice-president of
Electric Bond and Share.
His best friend by this time had
come to be George H. Howard,
now president OF the Morgan-or-
ganized United Co pr Il.
In 1923, as Gavin c. dge en-
tered the VIII to Ecu-c { / pros
perity came occr TIE f E., horizon
at fist no more vis.b.. than
mans hard, thy organ ID lit
tie private POO to trace in the
market. They put in $4,000 each
for themselves and their wives.
Odlum mo1tly locked out for
the trading, since he was canny at
that sort of thing. The very next
year they declared a stock divi-
dend of 100 per cent to each stock
holder, ana they sent out to Salt
Lake City for Odlum's young
brother-in-law. L. Boyd Hatch. to
take the details of management
of their hands.
Friends by this time began ask
70 i@N 1AN