Railroads & Bankers

The Interstate Commerce Commission last week approved the Baltimore & Ohio R. R.'s issuing $63,242,500 of new common stock. Kuhn, Loeb & Co., the company's bankers, with Speyer & Co. and the National City Co. underwrote the issue, receiving $1,422,956 for their work; 90% of the stock was subscribed for as soon as the books were opened. Union Pacific R. R., large holder of older B. & 0. stock, bought a large block of the new.

Although I. C. C. Commissioner Joseph B. Eastman approved the B. & O. stock issue, he struck at railroads clinging to their private bankers, as the B. & O., the St. Paul, the Union Pacific, or the Illinois Central to Kuhn, Loeb & Co., the Sante Fe, Great Northern to J. P. Morgan & Co. Said Commissioner Eastman: "I question seriously, whether there is any sufficient reason why a railroad like the Baltimore & Ohio should give any group of bankers a monopoly of its financing.

"We have made a start in escaping from dubious practice, for competitive bidding has now become the general rule in the case of equipment trust certificates."