Standard Shift

Standard Gas and Electric Co., holding company for many potent utility operating companies, supplies electric power and light, gas, water, telephones and street railways, reaching, with one or more of its services, 1,514 U. S. communities with a population of more than 6,000,000. Large Standardized communities include Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Louisville, Tacoma, San Diego, Stockton and San Francisco. Under the control of Henry M. Byllesby & Co., Chicago utility financing house, Standard rates as the largest U. S. electricity, gas and traction system.

Last week there came a realignment of Standard's controlling interest. Through a complicated rearrangement of Standard's financial structure, a group of capitalists headed by Harris, Forbes & Co. secured control of the Standard System, although leaving to the Byllesby Company the management and operation of Standard properties. The reorganization represented the amicable settlement of a dispute which had arisen between Byllesby & Co. and Standard's common stockholders. Byllesby's control of the System lay in its ownership of a special issue of 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock which carried a vote with every share. Through United States Electric Power Corp., a utility investment company organized by Harris, Forbes and its associates, the Harris, Forbes group had secured large holdings in Standard's common, but the Byllesby voting preferred still carried the control. The gist of the reorganization agreed to last week (subject to stockholders' ratification) was the retirement of the Byllesby voting preferred, leaving control of the directorate in the hands of the Harris, Forbes interests. Under this arrangement, Standard Power & Light, at present a subsidiary to Standard Gas & Electric, will become the parent company of the System, while Standard Gas & Electric, still under Byllesby control, will look after actual operations. The Byllesby Company will also have a large interest in Standard Power & Light.

The shift in Standard's financial backing was generally interpreted as the initial step toward the merger of the Standard System with other utility systems connected with the Harris, Forbes group. Specifically mentioned was Associated Gas & Electric, which, rapidly expanding in the New York and New England territory has recently joined the ranks of the one-billion-dollar companies. Utility Manager H. C. Hopson, executive vice president of Associated Gas & Electric, was considered the likely head of any Standard-associated combine.

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