Penn Stroke

A century-old real estate dream came true last week in Baltimore. Back in 1828 Peter Cooper, Manhattan financier and philanthropist, of Cooper Union fame, and a group of Baltimore businessmen organized Canton Co., purchased Canton--a strip of land along the Baltimore water front for $105,000. It was thought at that time that the then-young Baltimore & Ohio R. R. would want the Canton district for a Baltimore freight terminal. No purchase was made, however, and for many years Canton remained comparatively undeveloped, its chief industries being cockfighting and politics. Shortly before the Civil War, Canton did become prominent as a coal port, and the Canton Iron Works was built. Here were cast the armor-plates for the ironclad Monitor, whose famed battle with the Merrimac marked the passing of the wooden warship. In the general industrial expansion of post-Civil War days, Canton grew into a great manufacturing and shipping centre.

The modern Canton includes about three miles of water front, 1,700 acres of land, many a pier, warehouse and factory. It includes also the short (32 miles) but vital Canton R. R., connecting Canton with Baltimore's trunk lines. But, though the importance of Canton increased with the years, the Baltimore & Ohio still failed to purchase it.

Last week it appeared that the B. & O. had waited too long, that another railroad had stepped in to make the Canton dream come true. For Canton was sold (price, $13,000,000) to American Exchange Securities Corp., investment affiliate of Manhattan's Irving Trust Co. Obviously the bankers were acting as agents, but for whom they would not state. After many questions, denials and guesses, however, it was stated, unofficially but definitely, that the purchaser was not Baltimore & Ohio but Pennsylvania R. R. Whether the Pennsylvania would keep Canton for itself or sell it to the friendly Wabash road was not announced.* It appeared evident, however, that the Pennsylvania, long opposed to Baltimore & Ohio expansion, had made a successful foray into the heart of the hostile camp.

*A current trunk-line proposition involves the Wabash (controlled by the Pennsylvania), the Western Maryland, the Pittsburgh & West Virginia (Taplin property) and the Wheeling & Lake Erie (disputed between Taplins and Van Sweringens). The Wabash and the Western Maryland are units in the B. & O.'s merger plan now before the Interstate Commerce Commission.