Corporate Watering and Armenian Relief
The unprincipled course taken by some corporations to increase their wealth-producing capacity is well illustrated in the attempted reorganization of the United States Shipbuilding Company, of New York. The upset price to be demanded at the coming foreclosure sale is to be $11,100,000, of which $7,500,000 is to be for the Bethlehem Steel Company. The promoters put the Bethlehem Company into the trust two years ago at the enormous price of $30,000,000. The lawyers representing all sides of the controversy have agreed that the true value of all shipyards in the trust is $3,600,000. The promoters put these shipyards into the trust at $41,000,000, while the price at which the promoters attempted to sell to the public was $71,000,000. The watered stock now admitted amounts to $59,900,000. Great Britain has successfully brought pressure to bear on the Turkish Government for the relief of the persecuted Armenians, according to statements in a letter written by the British Foreign Secretary to the Anglo-Armenian Association. The grand vizier has acquiesced in the British ambassador’s demands, and has telegraphed to Turkish officials in Armenia that the Armenians be protected and allowed to return to their homes. The British official there has been instructed by the ambassador to watch the effect of the grand vizier’s orders and report. The Turkish Government has also granted permission for a British officer to accompany any troops engaged in expeditions against the insurgents. A tornado swept the city of Moscow on the night of June 29, causing a great amount of damage. Forty-five persons were killed there. Two villages near Moscow, in the track of the storm, were destroyed, and the number of deaths there is said to be 150. Hailstones weighing three-quarters of a pound fell during the storm. In one grove of 250 acres only one tree was left standing. During an incendiary fire at the Russian port of Cronstadt on the night of June 29 twenty Whitehead torpedoes were destroyed. Five of these were equipped with the war heads, and exploded with terrible effect on the surrounding buildings, adding to the fire and the excitement. The torpedo works were practically destroyed. A strike of street-car employees, in Buffalo, Texas, is thus noted in a letter dated June 26: “A bitter and determined spirit exists on both sides. The cars are running, but doing little business. Transfer wagons operated by the union are driven over the same lines as the cars, and seem to do about the same amount of business.” On account of the recent terrible disaster in New York harbor, Secretary Cortelyou, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, has ordered a reinspection of all passenger-carrying vessels plying on the waters of the harbor.