Eighth Receiver

Of its own volition last week Central of Georgia Railway went into receivership. It operates 1,900 mi. of track and a steamship service between Savannah, Boston and Manhattan. The first section of the road was finished in 1833. It ran between Savannah and Macon (191 mi.) and was the longest railway in the U. S. Outstanding against it are $58,000,000 worth of bonds. At Birmingham its lines connect with those of Illinois Central which owns all of its common stock. These holdings have been pledged with the R. F. C. as collateral on a loan to Illinois Central. President Lawrence Aloysius Downs of Illinois Central said the receivership did not affect his company "in the least. . . . Our only interest in the sityation is the ownership of about $20,000.000 face value of the common stock." Central of Georgia was the eighth railroad to go into receivership since 1929.

Heavy selling came into railroad shares last week. Wall Street's explanation: the Coolidge Commission is expected to come put soon with a "hardboiled" report urging that railroads scale down their capitalization. One suggestion Wall street did not expect the Commission to follow was made last week by Nathan Leonard Amster, president of Manhattan (elevated) Railway. He reiterated his plea of long standing: that if all roads were merged into one the railways would save $500,000,000 a year, "enough to practically pay the interest on all outstanding railway bonds." Nor was W'all Street stirred by the outcome of the wage negotiations in Chicago, few people thinking last year's reduction would be either increased or canceled (see p. 12). But last week's carloading report showed a less-than-seasonal decline and a total only 11% below the same week in 1931. For two days last week New York Central's loadings were above those of the year before, breaking three years of minus signs. And last week Wall Street was pleased to learn that Baltimore & Ohio's plan of meeting its 1933 maturity partly in cash and partly in new bonds is close to success. All but 18% of the maturing bonds had been deposited for this purpose by last week.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.