Melon

Last week the U. S. Steel Corporation cut a melon. J. Pierpont Morgan, George F. Baker, President James A. Farrell and the other directors sat in a small expensive group around a committee table on the 17th floor of No. 71 Broadway, while Judge Elbert Henry Gary read his announcement:

"Unanimous recommendation . . . common capital shares of the corporation be increased by 2,033,210 shares . . . for the purpose of distributing the same as an extra special dividend to the common stockholders. . . ."

It was after three o'clock. The ticker had stopped for the day, but reporters telephoned their newspapers and special evening editions appeared displaying the sly, stable features of old Judge Gary. He was permitting a dividend of 40%, a Christmas present estimated in eventual value at $203,321,000 to some 90,000 shareholders. Some shareholders had waited 25 years for that present.