Loree Again

Leonor F. Loree, President of the Delaware & Hudson R. R. (TIME, Apr. 27) has been a latecomer in the business of railway merging, but he is making up for lost time. In addition to heading the D. & H., Mr. Loree is also an important factor on the directorates of some Western lines, notably the Kansas City & Southern. Instead of waiting to be eaten up by one or another of the "Big Four" Eastern lines (New York Central, Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio and Nickel Plate), Loree resolved to do some of the eating himself, and purchased the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh. Next, his hand was suspected in a mysterious purchase of the Ann Arbor by the Wabash-- which, as is well known, Air. Loree covets lor his "fifth system." As yet, however, this proposal for another Eastern railway merger is not taken seriously, except as an obstructing move to the recognized "Big Four." For Loree's "fifth system" must apparently include the Lehigh or Lackawanna to gain its indispensable entry into New York. In both of these roads, Mr. George F. Baker and allied interests are deeply interested; and Mr. Baker's obvious interest in disposing of either of them would seem to consist in turning them over to the N. Y. Central. While the Interstate Commerce Commission debates the Nickel Plate case, two sides are said to be forming in regard to railway mergers in the East. The first consists of the First National Bank (Air. Baker) and allied interests (J. P. Morgan & Co.), the N. Y. Central and the Nickel Plate crowd; the second, of the Pennsylvania, Delaware & Hudson, Wabash and affiliated interests, including Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Thus it is within the possibilities that another duel between J. P. Morgan & Co. and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. may be already brewing.