Deals

Mail Order. Rumored and vigorously denied last week: that Sears, Roebuck & Co. will merge with its biggest and bitterest competitor, Montgomery Ward & Co. To tales that Sears, Roebuck's General Robert E. Wood and Montgomery Ward's George Bain Everitt have been engaged in conferences, General Wood stated: "We had luncheon together several times and have discussed certain things of mutual interest, hut if there is any trend toward consolidation I do not know about it." Wall Street cynics read the denial, remarked that a problem of mutual interest must be how to get mail order shares back to 1929 levels.

Corrigan-McKinney. One of the finest U. S. steel plants is that of the $65,000,000 Corrigan-McKinney Steel Co. of Cleveland. Last week Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co., allied with the Eaton-Otis-Mather interests, bought Corrigan-McKinney control from four women relatives of former officials.* An eventual merger with Republic Steel is generally expected. Previous to the deal's announcement, both U. S. Steel and Bethlehem were supposed to be after Corrigan-McKinney, thereby leading to the conclusion last week that the purchase was a strategic move in the Eaton v. Bethlehem contest.

I. T. & T. In nine foreign countries does International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. operate telephone systems.* Last week it added a tenth country to its list by buying control of Constantinople Telephone Co., once the Anglo-French Societe Anonyme Ottomane des Telephones de Constantinople, and long, for no apparent reason, a favorite of I. T. & T.'s shrewd president. Col. Sosthenes Behn. I. T. & T.'s next international move will be established next month by radio telephone communication between the U. S. and Argentina.

*The largest block of this stock (53% of the total) came from Laura Corrigan, widow of the Founder's son. Mrs. Corrigan, a onetime waitress, was never received by Cleveland society when "Young Jim" took her there to live (TIME, Feb. 13, 1928). She and her husband thereupon moved to London, climbed socially, spent fabulous sums in entertainment. During this time the steel firm was Corrigan-McKinney, a partnership in which McKinney exercised trusteeship over Founder Corrigan's estate. In 1925 he used this power to transform the partnership into a corporation, the McKinney Steel Co. Corrigan returned from London, bought control, gave the company its present title. When he died last year, his wife received his interest, but it was deposited with the Union Trust Co., Cleveland, as voting trustee. With power to sell it, but not vote, she returned to London, continued spending. Last week she was in Cleveland for the deal, is said to have been warned by local women that still she would not "do" socially. Apparently too shrewd to care, she prepared to return to London. One of the other women to sell stock last week was McKinney's widow, credited with having 30% of the total. *Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Porto Rico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil.

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