Rockefeller's Cross

Nearly 20 years ago John D. Rockefeller Jr. was uncomfortably quizzed and criticized by Congressmen about the labor policies of his Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. On Ivy Lee's advice he later traveled all the way to Colorado to placate public opinion and the company's troublesome miners. Since then the Rockefellers have tried to put good men in charge, keep their own hands off. Yet labor troubles and ups & downs in business have more than once given the Rockefellers cause to regret their Colorado investment. Last week Colorado Fuel & Iron gave the Rockefellers one more cause for regret: with other steel businesses doing nobly, Colorado Fuel & Iron defaulted on its bond interest, passed into receivership.

Trouble came partly from the fact that the company's coal sales have been cut into by greater use of natural gas in the West, but chiefly from the fact that, lying 1,000 mi. east or west of good steel markets, some 65% of its normal steel business has been the manufacture of rails. Since railroads have not yet begun buying rails, Colorado Fuel & Iron did not feel the force of the last three months' pick-up in the business.

Immediate reason for default was that the operating deficits of two and a half years have cut the company's working capital from $12,600,000 to $6,000,000. Directors feared to impair it further by paying $800,000 in interest due Aug. 1. The able president (now receiver) Arthur Roeder (procured in 1929 from American Linseed Co.) will have a tough job to bring the company around the corner in time to refund $27,000,000 of bonds falling due a year hence. Saints have their crosses, the Rockefellers have Colorado Fuel & Iron.

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