Business & Finance: Deals: Oct. 7, 1929

Paper. If the army of woodsmen led by mighty Paul Bunyan invaded Canada to chop down 80,000,000 cords of pulpwood, they would take so long that by the time the wood was pressed into pulp and paper new forests would have sprung up. For this reason three Canadian pulp and paper companies which combined last week estimated their 80,000,000-cord reserve as a practically perpetual supply. The companies, long closely affiliated, were Canada Power & Paper Corp. (which recently disposed of Laurentide Power Co. for $10,800,000, and is said to have placed the money in the call market), Port Alfred Pulp and Paper Corp. (owners of the town of Port Alfred), Wayagamack Pulp and Paper Co., Ltd. (specializing in kraft [wax] wrapping paper).

Dry Goods. In 1872 Lyman Bloomingdale, an assembler of hoop skirts, was left jobless by fashion changes. He opened a dry goods store, recorded net sales of $3.63 the first day. In 1928 Bloomingdale Bros. (Manhattan) reached the net sales total of $23,000,000. Last week it finally joined a long-planned department store merger which will consolidate it with Abraham & Straus (Brooklyn—Started in 1865 by Abraham Abraham, who was joined in 1893 by Isidor Straus, chinaware merchant), William Filene's Sons Co. (Boston—Headed by William E. Filene who unsuccessfully sought injunctions to prohibit large stockholders, including his brother, from voting for the merger), and F. & R. Lazarus & Co. (Columbus and Cincinnati—Founded in 1851). Combined annual sales will total $106,000,000.

Anthracite. Economic professors, wanting to give an example of the havoc substitutes can play to a nicely adjusted supply and demand situation, always point to the anthracite industry. Gas, oil, bituminous (soft) coal, and Welsh anthracite have proven sturdy competitors to U. S. anthracite. Perhaps to find strength in union, the Glen Alden Coal Co. (W. W. Inglis, president) last week announced plans to purchase the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Co. (Charles F. Huber, president). Two of the oldest and largest of anthracite companies, their combined annual production will be over 13,000,000 tons, greatest of any unit in the industry.

Electric. When the same man is chairman of two companies in similar lines and one of these companies owns a 13% interest in the other, besides having an agreement to give it financial service, a merger in which the first company offers to acquire the remaining stock of the second is not astounding news. Last week this condition occurred when Sidney Zollicoffer Mitchell's Electric Bond and Share Co. offered to exchange its stock for Electric Investors, Inc. While Electric Investors, Inc. is a strict holding company with 87% of its investments in utilities, Electric Bond and Share Co. has much wider interests. Besides holding stocks of other companies, Bond and Share renders financial and operative assistance of every type and has supervisory agreements with American Power and Light Co., American and Foreign Power Co., Inc., Electric Power and Light Co., American Gas and Electric Co., National Power and Light Co. and all their subsidiaries. Although from Electric Investors, Inc., Bond and Share will receive additional stock in these companies the only one actually controlled will still be the American and Foreign Power Co., Inc., operating in many foreign lands, but in no U. S. territory.