Road for Sale

Any one who wishes to buy a railroad will soon have a chance to pick one up at a forced sale. Last week the Chicago & Alton R. R., in receivership since 1922, was ordered sold by Federal Judge George A. Carpenter of the Chicago District Court. Date of the sale will not be announced until priority between conflicting creditors has been settled. The Chicago & Alton is valued at approximately 100 million dollars. Prospective purchasers are said to be Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and Samuel Insull.

Founded in 1861, the Chicago & Alton claims to have been first to introduce dining and sleeping cars. Its main terminals are Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City. The road was a prosperous dividend-payer for many a year, but after E. H. Harriman purchased it from T. D. Blackstone it grew more mortgages than it could carry. In 1889 it acquired a $45,000,000 mortgage, on which it has steadily paid interest. In 1900 came a $22,000,000 mortgage, held by Farmers Loan & Trust Co., Manhattan, and in 1912 an $18,000,000 mortgage held by United States Mortgage & Trust Co., Manhattan. No interest was paid on the $22,000,000 mortgage after the receivership of 1922 and no interest was paid by the $18,000,000 mortgage at any time. The Federal Court decided that the Farmers Loan & Trust claim had priority over the U. S. Mortgage & Trust claim. It is this dispute which remains to be settled before a sale-date is named.