CORPORATIONS: What the Country Needs ...

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Chicago Corp.'s big chance to cash in on its gas properties came in 1943. WPB, worried over the fuel shortage in the Ohio River area, wanted a pipeline built in jig-time. The newly organized Tennessee Gas (with which Chicago Corp. then had no connection) had an FPC franchise to do the job but it had 1) no cash to build the line, or 2) inadequate gas to supply it. Having plenty of both, Dick Wagner bought up 90% of the control of Tennessee Gas for $500,000, made a deal with two major gas companies to retail all the gas the line could deliver.

Needed: Risks. Even if Dick Wagner has to get rid of his pipeline eventually, the game was well worth the candle. The corporation's gas reserves (estimated at about 3.2 trillion cubic feet) are worth at least five times what they were before the line was built, now that there is a market for them.

And Chicago Corp., which never made more than $2,050,000 in its best year, may double that this year. More than half of the profits will probably come from the corporation's oil and gas properties. If Dick Wagner has his way, some of these profits will go into more chance-taking. Said he: "Anyone can sit back and clip coupons. What the country needs is someone who can take some risks and build some new businesses."