Business: World's Largest

During 1929 a great merger wave swept through U. S. banking, causing special activity in Manhattan where many a big combine was effected. With the stockmarket break, an abrupt end came to the move, its finale being the collapse of the National City-Corn Exchange merger. Last week there were rumors of another deal of first magnitude, and bankers predicted that the merger wave will soon be in full force again.

At first only gossip, the deal seemed a certainty when Winthrop Williams Aldrich, president of Equitable Trust...