Evening star., 1952-11-21
Southern Railway
Approves Plan for
Maturing Of Debts
By Nelson M. Shepard

hY Nelson M. Shepord
Southern Railway stockholders
today approved the company's
financial program for meeting
maturities of funded debt in 1853
and: 1856, aggregating some $89. 6
million. President Harry A. De-
Butts reported from Richmond.
New bonds approved for issu-
ance include So million of New
Orleans Terminal Co.'S new first
mortgage bonds, to be guaranteed
by the Southern Railway Co., bids
for which are to be opened De-
cemher 4 in New York. Also in
cluded are SIS million of new
Southern Railway-New Orleans &
Northeastern Railroad Co. joint
bonds. These are to be secured
by the properties Of the New
Orleans & Northeastern, which
are expected to be offered in the
near future.
Southern will sell certain other
bonds but expects to pay off a
large proportion of the maturities
from its treasury cash. At the
special stockholders. meeting to-
day over 72 per cent of the COM
mon and II per cent of the pre-
ferred was voted for approval of
the program.
ID. c. Store Sales Increase.
Sales of Washington department
stores reported to the Richmond
Federal Reserve Bank were up II
per cent in the week ended Mo-
vember Is over the previous week.
Despite the surge of buying. they
were l per cent behind the COM
parable week year ago. Some
Improvement was reported in sales
throughout the Fifth Reserve Dis
trict last week but dollar value
remains below last years levels.
Over a four week period ended
November Is. Washington stores
reported sales per cent under
the like period for 1851. They
were / per cent above in Balti-
more and 6 per cent above in
other cities of the Fifth District.
This improvement, however. did
not prevent a 2 per cent showing
under the comparable 1851 period
for the whole Fifth District.
Bank Business Gains.
Business lending in Washington
and other Fifth District banks
continued to move upward last
week, the Richmond bank also re-
ported.
Rising to a new peak, Wash
ington member banks had loaned
a total of 351,605. 900 as of No.
vember IL, the Federal Reserve
Bank of Richmond reported. This
was an increase of $786,000 over
the previous week.
In the 5th district as a whole,
business and agricultural loans
rose $5.507,000 in the week, bring
ing the total increase so far in
the fourth quarter to $26 million,
the Reserve Bank said. At level
of $627. .622,00 outstanding, these
loans were $59,351 above the level
In the comparable week last year.
Totals Compared.
The breakdown for Washington
member banks compared with the
week of November follows (O00I
omitted:
Commercial loans, $53.412 VS..
S152.545; real estate loans, $780,
954 VS.. $106,360; loans for security,
$1,000 VS.. $7224; loans to banks,
S875 VS.. $2,375; other loans, $685.
228 VS.. $85,194; demand deposits,
S926.608 VS.. $889,859 and time de-
posits. $196.483 VS.. $196,373.
Potomac Electric Power Co. has
announced a regular quarterly
dividend Of Is cents share on
common stock, payable December
q to holders of record Decem-
ber S. The company also is pay
Ing regular quarterly dividends of
IS cents share on preferred
stock.
Government Employees Insur-
ance Co.. which made public it's
financial statement today. also is
paying a regular quarterly divi-
i \ - n