Evening star., 1935-04-16
BIC GAIN SHOWN
IN HOUSING LOANS
Fifth District Increase Slim.
uIates Activity in Build
ing Trades.
BY EDWARD C. STONE.

BY EDWARD Z. SIONE.
. The larger centers in the fifth Fed
eral Reserve District report marked
increase in Federal Housing Admin
istration loans which means good
deal of additional work in the build
ing trades, according to the Reserve
Bank of Richmond. The weather last
week slowed up retail trade a good
deal, leaving a very short time before
Easter to make up the loss.
The District for the first quarter
holds gain of 8 per cent over the
same three months last year, but the
March figures were the lowest of any
month in 1885. The percentage
figures were pulled down by the West
Virginia retail sales because of cur
tailed coal production. Washington
scored an l12 per cent gain for the
quarter.
Care is being exercised in the
ordering of Summer goods from
wholesalers and warm, dry weather is
needed to break the jam. Cigarette
production remains high while textile
output is still being curtailed. outdoor
the past few days, the Richmond
report shows. but this condition is
only temporary.
comes the report from Atlanta that
pre-Easter trade has been the best
in the past four years.
Explains Stockholders Rights.
w. H. S. Stevens of the Federal
Trade Commission has recently pub
lished the results of special study on
the Rights of non-cumulative pre-
ferred stockholders" After reviewing
many legal cases, he says in con-
cluSion:
When a positive duty is laid upon
the directors to pay h each year any
preferred dividends earned, such con-
tracts will be enforced subject, how
ever, to qualifications where the pub
lie interest is involved or where the
payment of the preferred dividends
might mean financial embarrassment
to the company.
From the legal point of view, there
fore. the equities of non-cumulatlve
preferred stock have given rise to a
real body of doctrine in the courts,
but the rules so developed are not de-
ductions from the term non-cumula-
tive Rather. they are reducible to
the elementary principle that the
rights of non- cumulative preferred
shareholders will in general be inter-
preted according to the terms of each
contract.
A survey of the various forms of
non-cumulative preferred stock con-
tracts and of the court decisions
hereunder leads to the conclusion
that the best method of protecting
non-cumulative preferred sharehold-
ers and at the same time properly
safeguarding the interests of the cor
poration is the cumulative non
cumulative or earned cumulative
non-cumulative. preferred Because
of the advantages of this type of issue
1t should supersede not only all other
existing types of cumulative pre-
ferred stock contracts but the cumu-
lative form as well.
Starkey Returns From Trip.
George L. Starkey, president of the
National Bank of Washington. was
back at his desk today after To-day
visit at Atlantic City. He reports
the usual Easter throngs at the Jersey
resort in spite of the rather disap-
pointing weather conditions.
Bankers in New York State are
launching a drive to get the Govern
ment to lower the interest on postal
savings to per cent At the same
time certain members of Congress not
only want the present interest rate
left alone, but favor giving patrons of
the postal savings system the right
to draw checks on their accounts and
to do without service charges.
It is announced that Gov. Eccles of
the Federal Reserve Board declined
an invitation to address the Spring
council of the American Bankers AS
sociation at Augusta, on the pending
bank bill He said he felt he had already
expressed his views SO fully before
congressional committees that there
would be little more for him to say.
Plans for the annual Spring dinner
of the District Bankers Association,
at the Columbia Country Club the last
of this month. are coming along nice
ly. A large attendance of members Is
already assured and several prominent
Government officials have said they
would be present.
Gov. w. I. Myers of the Farm Credit
Administration has announced cut
into interest rates from 4 l2 per cent
to 4H per cent physical facility loans
to farmers cooperative associations.
Ticker Club Election Today.
The annual election of officers Of
the Washington Ticker Club, an Or
ganization made up of New York
Stock Exchange brokerage house part
ners and managers, was due to take
place at 4:30 this afternoon in the
Offices of AuchincloSS, Parker & Red
path, with Thomas w. Brahany. the
retiring president, in the chair. Ralph
NJ. Wolfe is slated to be the next presi-
dent
For the first time this year new life
Insurance written in March showed a
decrease over the same month year
ago, the drop being "a per cent, the
Association of Life Insurance Presi-
dents reports. During the first quar-
ter, however, new insurance went 10.1
per cent ahead of the first three
months of 1884.
The new call money rate of one-half
of l per cent on the New York Stock
Exchange compares with 20 per cent
in March, 1929, at the height of the
boom. In brokerage circles here today
it was doubted if the new all-time low
record would be much of factor in
increasing the volume of trading.
Cheaper money, however, is always
considered bullish rather than bearish.
Traction Bonds in Demand.
Capital Traction SIS were in excep-
tionally strong demand on the Wash
ington Stock Exchange today, 10 sales
taking place at SO, unchanged from
other recent transfers. The sales
ranged from $4,000 to $500.
Washington Gas 6s, series B, were