Evening star., 1939-08-02
Chandler Bills Life
Is Triumph for
Daniel Willard
Congressional Act Given
Credit for Saving
B. & O. From Bankruptcy
BY CHARLES F. SPEARE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

BY CHARLES F. SPEARE.
Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, Aug. 2.-What will
| be known in congressional records
as the Chandler Railroad Act, now a
law, might properly be listed as the
/ Willard bill, for, though Representa-
| tive Walter Chandler of Tennessee
! fathered it, the influence of Daniel
! Willard, president of the Baltimore
& Ohio, preserved it from extinction
the many times it seemed about to
| be abandoned.
/ 1t was popularly known in Con-
! gress as the Baltimore & Ohio bill. )"
Representatives of labor openly
stated that they intended to support
1t out of appreciation of what Mr.
Willard had done for their cause
And 1t is doubtful whether Jesse H.
Jones, former head of the r. F. c.,
the largest creditor of the Baltimore
x Ohio, would have gone as far as he
did for any other railroad manage
ment when he deposited, under the
roads extension plan, securities
amounting to more than S87 5000
most of which were taken as COL
lateral against loans He is even
said to have bought for the Govern
ment the abandoned Chesapeake e.
Ohio Canal from Mr.. Willard when
the latter was hard pressed for
funds. The $1,000 900 cash payment
tlded over one of the recurring
financial ON 1oroo,ciac II, +Lo b;e+or,,
of the Baltimore e. Ohio since 1887.
The canal is now to be made into a
popular fishing ground for sport
loving Washingtonians.
Willard Completes Task.
The legislative crisis, in which
the Baltimore & Ohio has been in
volved for the last three months, de-
veloped after sufficient deposits to
its bond extension program had been
received to guarantee its success.
| When he had scaled the financial
heights Mr.. Willard could cry
Eureka for he had completed a
task, in his 77th year, which would
have f1oored most younger men.
Involved in the bond plan were
securities of the parent company
with par value of s638, 900 900 and
those of subsidiaries of more than
S46 000,00 Last week the Baltimore
& Ohio management was able to an
nounee that nearly 88 per cent of
these issues had agreed to the re-
financing proposal.
Here again, the success of the
| Baltimore & Ohio in obtaining the
agreement of such large proportion
of its more than 10000 bondholders,
was due to the high esteem in which
president Willard was held by the
creditors of the road. The frequent
comment of the bondholder, on be-
ing approached by company repre-
sentative with the request that he
deposit his securities was, "if Dan
Willard thinks it is the thing to do
I will 60 along with it."
Receives 18th Doctors Degree.
A woman in Central New York
told this writer that she would de-
post her bonds, although she had
always refused to assent to other
plans, because she heard that Mr..
Willard was a member of the Uni
tartan Church. Perhaps nothing in
his long career has so much gratified
Mr.. Willard as this vote of confidence
in his management. While it was
being taken he received his 18th
degree of doctor of laws, in June,
and from the university of his native
State of Vermont.
The feature of the debate over
the Chandler Act, involving diverse
points of view between its author
and Senator Wheeler, champion of
his omnibus bill. which irked Mr.
Willard, was failure to recognize the
fact that a large majority of the
Baltimore &, Ohio's creditors had
already waved their right to fore
close and to throw the railroad into
bankruptcy, by accepting an ar
rangement which greatly reduced
| their income for several years, and
that, in spite of this sacrifice Con-
gress was blocking a scheme to pre-
serve the sanctity of contract and
threatening to add another name to
the long list of railroad defaulters.
Was Facing Bankruptcy.
It must strike the laymen as queer
that creditors of a corporation, who
agree to forego heavy losses, must
have their action upheld by Con-
gress and subsequently by some
Federal regulating body. The next
step was the filing of the Baltimore
& Ohio plan with the Maryland
Court of Jurisdiction
If sufficient number of bond
holders had not agreed to the ex-
tension plan and the Chandler bill
had not been passed, the Baltimore
& Ohio would today be facing bank
ruptcy, as on August l, $50 000, 900 of
its u per cent notes matured. Under
the creditors agreement they have
been extended for five years at 4
per cent. The treatment granted the
noteholders is more generous than
that given to prior claimants. In
making it the debtor, the company
had no recourse for, had not the r.
F. c. holder of a majority of the
notes refused to sign on the dotted
line, default and prolonged and ex-
pensive reorganization would have
ensued. For saving the COMPANY its