No. 512. SOME SPECULATIVE STOCKS students of transportation questions, justifies the have their rights recognized. Of course, there are demands which the railroads are now making of a good many circumstances under which corporathe Interstate Commerce Commission for permis- tions seem to be perfectly justified in withholding sion to raise their rates. But to return to Union information about the details of their business. It Pacific; the dividend on this company's common might frequently happen that to give such inforstock is made up only in part from net earnings mation would mean giving undue advantage to resulting from railroad operation. The balance is some competitive corporation, or to some person from income derived from the company's invest- whose motives were base. But where the demand ments in stocks and bonds of other companies. In for such information is the fruit of a sincere desire this connection it is important to consider the fact on the stockholder's part for a reasonable knowlthat for some time past the directors of the Union edge of the condition of his corporation's business, Pacific have had under advisement the question of it ought to be met. distributing to stockholders, not only the large sum of cash received from the enforced sale of Southern Pacific stock which had been carried in the treasury, but also part of its other investment holdings. A short time ago it was officially stated that the conclusion had been arrived at that existing circumstances made it. inexpedient to deal with this subject at present, but stockholders were left to infer that it might be taken up at some subsequent time. To avoid misunderstanding, how- You do not tell us enough about your general ever, the official statement made it clear that none investment situation to enable us to discuss these of the various plans thus far considered and dis- securities in as much detail as we should like. cussed contemplated any division of surplus either If, however, we are correct in assuming that you in cash or in securities, which in its result would are a relatively small investor, with only a limited have increased the present yield on the stock. amount of investment experience, we should be inWhich was to say, in effect, that if the time does clined to eliminate from consideration entirely come when it seems expedient to make a distri- stocks like Butterick and Nevada Utah. They are bution of assets the current annual rate of divi- speculative, not investment, stocks. National Lead dends on the stock will probably be reduced ac- common has a good deal of merit, as industrial cordingly. issues of that kind go, and it is possible that a few shares of it might be considered in your case. Butterick, Nevada Utah, National Lead common; and No. 511. THE STOCKHOLDER'S RIGHT TO HAVE To be on the side of conservatism, however, there INFORMATION ABOUT HIS CORPORATION'S BUSINESS I am a stockholder in a company doing business in New York, and incorporated under the laws of New Jersey. I have made a request of this company for a statement of business transacted at directors' meetings. I want information as to how the business stands, but I have been unable to get it, and I should be glad if you would tell me whether the company ought not to comply with my request. is little doubt that you ought to confine your in- No. 513. SUGGESTIONS FOR A SMALL INVESTOR ties. On principle, it ought. As a stockholder, you are a partner in the business, and you have a right to know how the business is being conducted; that is, whether it is being conducted in your interests, or, as has so frequently been the case in times past, in the interests of the officers and directors. There are always grounds for suspecting the latter cendition of affairs, where such information as you appear to be seeking is persistently refused. The situation you describe is one with which stockhold- Under these circumstances we cannot do better ers of many another corporation have been con- than to repeat a suggestion we have made on a fronted, but it is a situation that is met with much good many different occasions lately, namely, that less frequently nowadays than it was a few years ago. One after another the recalcitrant corporations have been brought to terms on the question of full publicity of their affairs through organized effort on the part of the stockholders. There have been several recent instances of this sort, all of which have gone to prove that if small stockholders will take more active interest in the affairs of their corporations, particularly making their presence felt at the annual meetings, and voting their stock according to their own convictions, instead of delegating, by means of proxies, all their power to those in actual control of the business, they can the money be divided among very carefully selected bonds that come in small denominations. To begin with, we would suggest for a part of the money a $500 bond of the issue of Pennsylvania convertible 32's of 1915, which may be had now at a price to yield a little more than 5 per cent. net on the investment. The remaining $300 might be divided among $100 bonds like the Virginian Railway first mortgage 5's, yielding about 5.10 per cent., Southern Pacific-San Francisco Terminal first mortgage 4's, yielding about 4.60 per cent., and American Telephone Telegraph collateral trust 4 per cent. certificates, yielding about 4.70 per cent. TERMS:-Issued monthly, 25 cents a number, $3.00 a year in advance in the United States, Porto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. Elsewhere, $4.00. Entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office Department, Ottawa, Canada. Subscribers may remit to us by post-office or express money orders, or by bank checks, drafts, or registered letters. Money in letters is sent at sender's risk. Renew as early as possible in order to avoid a break in the receipt of the numbers. Bookdealers, Postmasters, and Newsdealers receive subscriptions. (Subscriptions to the English REVIEW OF REVIEWS, which is edited and published in London, may be sent to this office, and orders for single copies can also be filled, at the price of $2.50 for the yearly subscription, including postage, or 25 cents for single copies.) THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO., 30 Irving Place, New York Feb.-1 129 DR. S. WEIR MITCHELL, THE GREATEST PHILADELPHIAN SINCE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PHYSICIAN and author of international reputation, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, who died at Philadelphia on January 4, at the age of eighty-five, was a typical American who lived to understand and embody the ideals of two generations. He was already known all over the world for his skill in curing diseases of the nerves when he caught the ear of the novel-reading public with his book, "Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker." His fiction was all written during the last twenty-five years of his life, and numbers twenty-one volumes. The last to appear, "Westways," was noticed in this REVIEW for December. Dr. Mitchell was poet and public-spirited citizen, physician and patriotic American thinker. He was an army surgeon during the Civil War and later devoted much time to research work in medical science. His character was marked by an unusual amount of sympathy and intuition. THE AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS VOL. XLIX NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1914 No. 2 THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD With the turn of the new year sustained by a vote of five to one, which History-Making there was evident throughout may be said to have lifted it far above the Achievement the United States a far more plane of a mere party enactment that might hopeful feeling than had prevailed during be threatened with overthrow in case the 1913 regarding the course of affairs politi- other party should come into power through cal and economic. It was something of a a backward swing of the political pendulum. relief to the country, as well as to the legis- This, indeed, is matter for profound conlators themselves, to have Congress adjourn gratulation. While the Senators did not just before Christmas for a much-needed fall so generally into line for the measure, acation of about three weeks. A resting they passed it by a vote of 43 to 25, which point had been reached by virtue of the was almost two to one. And the Senate completion of the great Currency act, which opposition was not fundamental in diswas signed by President Wilson in the even- approval of the bill, but had reference to ing of December 23, with certain admirably one provision or another which individual conceived phrases of congratulation to Con- Senators did not like. gress and the country. Seldom has a public measure been more thoroughly debated, and seldom has the process of debate been better justified in the results attained. On its final passage in the House, after coming from conference committee, the Currency bill was Bankers Beatific More remarkable, however, than the acceptance of the measure by Congress was the amazing dispression that had beclouded the minds of the appearance of those fogs of doubt and debanking fraternity. Even as in the period of the establishment of the national banking system, half a century ago, when the American bankers rose to the situation, shaped their affairs to meet the new law, took out national charters, bought bonds, and issued banknote currency on the security of those bonds, so now in the opening weeks of 1914 the American bankers by the hundreds have been sending in their applications for membership in the new system. They have shown a practically unanimous determination to do their full part in helping to make the system work in a practical and successful way. The National Banking Act of half a century ago, in view of all the circumstances, was a great measure; and we have somehow got along, ever since the resumption of specie payments -in spite of the dangers involved in the Silver Purchase Act-without any irretrievable disasters in our business life due to our systems of metallic and paper money, of From the World (New York) 131 national and State banking, and of fiscal difference. The banks will continue to be management under the subtreasury plan. independent business concerns, receiving deposits and lending money as heretofore. "Vox Populi" But we have come close to But in exceptional times, as in 1907, a great in a terrible disaster in several periods difference will be visible. In the panic of Technical Issue of emergency. We are the only 1907, the banks would not even allow a great country in the world that has under- depositor to draw out his own money-much taken to deal with the most technical and less would they make customary loans on difficult problems of money, banking, and approved security, even to their most reliable finance by cross-roads oratory and appeals customers. It was as if, in a time when the to the passion and prejudice of the voting fire-alarms were ringing to an unusual ex "THAT SETTLES ONE CROAKER!" From the Public Ledger (Philadelphia) tent, the fire companies should decide to respond to no calls, but to keep the men and apparatus solely for the protection of the engine-houses. At the very time when the banks have been most needed in the exercise of their functions, they have ceased to function at all; and have thus magnified and intensified the business troubles that with a better system they could wholly have prevented. Under our plan of having each bank an independent affair, the first symptom of financial stress led every banker to protect his own reserves lest he might become the victim of a "run." He lacked a higher financial power upon which he might rely for support in trying to help his business neighbors. The new system promises something like a complete remedy for such conditions. The banks are to be federated for mutual help under the auspices of a central government board. Some These passing remarks are not intended for the banker, or for Explanations the man well instructed in these matters, but rather for the ordinary reader who may like to have a simple statement at the end of a debate so prolonged as perhaps millions. Yet it is one of the triumphs of to have become a little confusing. The new democracy that we have debated these ques- system, then, calls for the establishment of tions in the open, up and down the land. a series of so-called Federal Reserve Banks We have educated some scores of thousands in suitably located cities, each one of them of men to a considerable knowledge of the serving the district assigned to it. The law scientific and technical aspects of money and says that there must be at least eight of these banking. We have won a series of popular banks, and there may be as many as twelve. verdicts, sustaining the public credit and This question will be decided primarily by maintaining sound standards of value. And an organizing committee that is now taking now, with popular acceptance, we are pro- testimony and surveying the entire country viding by far the best arrangement we have in order to mark out the banking districts ever had for making the banking system and determine upon the banking cities. It responsive to the needs of trade, and the seems to be agreed in advance that New York, monetary system elastic enough to prevent Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and the recurrence of once-dreaded panics. New Orleans are to be designated; but as regards the other cities to be named we shall Under the new system, in ordi- not know until the committee has finished nary times the business of bank- its inquiries. The arrangements of this coming will go on very much as at mittee will stand, until modified by the Cenpresent. Merchants and citizens will see no tral Reserve Board, which has final authority. What the |