Stock Gamble

The dinky, little, 512-mile Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad that connects West Virginia coal fields with Lake Erie ports caused a petty flurry on the New York Stock Exchange last week. Someone wanted a few shares. Others thought they knew why. They knew that Leonor Fresnel Loree had mentioned the road as a connecting link of his proposed fifth eastern trunk system. They knew that Chairman Frank E. Taplin of the Pittsburgh & West Virginia also had mentioned a feasible hook-up of his road with the Wheeling & Lake Erie and the Western Maryland to form a Great Lakes-Atlantic Coast chain. It might be that either of these two were buying, or that the "New York Central crowd" had stepped in to prevent some competitive merger. Or it might be that John D. Rockefeller, to whom the road owes $11,396,100 plus 71% accumulated interest, was having a little fun with a dud investment. At any rate Wheeling & Lake Erie stock popped up from 54 to 65; Exchange Governors, thinking a corner had been created, ordered members to report their dealings; and trading slowed up. Obviously little gamblers had taken fliers; certainly they had been caught short for about $2,000,000.