Business: Deals & Developments

Conference in San Francisco. Heads of shipping companies controlling twelve fleets, 181 vessels with 1.500.000 gross tons, last week were holding secret meetings in San Francisco. Present were Capt. Robert Dollar and his son President R. Stanley Dollar of Dollar Lines whose entrance into intercoastal shipping caused friction which reached its height when the Dollars began to bid for U. S. Lines (TIME, Aug. 24). Present too were Kermit Roosevelt and John M. Franklin, representing Roosevelt-International Mercantile Marine Lines. Apparently with much to say to the shipping men, but with nothing to say to the Press, rich & potent Banker Herbert Fleishhacker weighed each proposal.

Although at first tales were circulated that a merger of all the lines involved was planned, no such announcement was made. Shipping men believed that the U. S. Shipping Board had ordered the Dollar and Roosevelt interests to reach a quick agreement on their bidding for U. S. Lines, that a pact was being made which would provide for harmony in rates and sailings, end the discord between the shippers of the Atlantic and Pacific. Significant was the absence of Paul Wadsworth Chapman of U. S. Lines, apparently no longer a principal figure in the U. S. merchant marine.

Wolf Sentenced. Ten sentences of from, one to ten years each, to run consecutively, were the punishment given last week to Walter E. Wolf, embezzler of $3,666,929 from Continental Illinois Bank & Trust Co.—biggest crime of its nature in U. S. history (TIME, Sept. 4). Although Criminal Wolf had a conference with Chief Justice Harry M. Fisher before the trial and quoted the Bible glibly, he was accorded no leniency because during his twelve years of theft he made no attempt to confess until he thought auditors were tracking him down. Chicagoans, pleased by the unexpected swiftness of Justice, continued to pun about "keeping the Wolf from the door."

5¢-to-$1 Schulte. Creditors of bankrupt Schulte-United 5¢ to $1 Stores, Inc. and its subsidiaries (Schulte-United, Inc. and Miller's Inc.) last week accepted David Albert Schulte's $3,965,000 offer for the three companies. Schulte-United Scent to $1 Stores, Inc. was originally formed with $35,000,000 capital.