Sitting on the sun deck off his 34th floor office in Cleveland's Terminal Tower two weeks ago, the chief executive of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway gasped as an unexpected puff of wind caught the papers at his side and whisked them over the parapet. Walter J. Tuohy quickly enlisted a financial vice president and four aides, and all set out on a frantic search for the papers. For 21 hours, they scrambled over rooftops, peered out on lower ledges and tramped the rush-hour streets below. No luck.
Tuohy's consternation was understandable. The papers contained facts and figures about one of...