Deals & Developments

In The Northwest. Northwest Bancorporation has three livestock loan companies. Its great rival, First Bank Stock Corp., has none. Therefore it was not surprising news last week when First Bank Stock Corp. prepared to acquire a large livestock loaning agency. For between these two banking groups, each a classic example of group banking, there is hot, hearty competition. Each has the Twin Cities as headquarters; both were formed in 1929. Since the first of the year North-west Bancorporation has acquired eight new banks while First Bank Stock Corp. was getting six. Northwest now controls 125 banks and its system boasts of $496,000,000 in resources. First Bank Stock Corp. has in banks, $480,000,000 in resources.

The livestock loan company sought by First Bank Stock Corp., is Agricultural Credit Corp., formed in 1924 by Minneapolis men, backed by railroads, newspapers, business firms. At first the company loaned its money only to banks, but in July of that year it started to lend directly on livestock. During the past seven years 14,000 Northwestern farmers have borrowed $7,000,000 from it. Its chairman is Clive Talbot Jaffray, who is also head of First Bank Stock Corp. In addition to banking, Mr. Jaffray is president of Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie ("Soo") Ry., subsidiary of the C. P. R. When he attends First Bank Stock Corp. directors' meetings he is joined by five other presidents of Northwestern railroads; Ralph Budd of Great Northern, Charles Donnelly of Northern Pacific, Fred Wesley Sargent of Chicago & Northwestern, Henry Alexander Scandrrett of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific, Frederick Ely Williamson of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. President Jaffray is spectacled, quiet, usually law-abiding. He was not law-abiding last autumn when he and two other bankers had too many wild ducks in their possession, were fined.

Bond & Mortgage Receivership. As long ago as September 1929, American Bond & Mortgage Co., Inc. was in trouble and Chicago Title & Trust Co. was endeavoring to extricate it. Last week hope for a reorganization was abandoned. On the application of Harley T. Clarke, powerman, a "friendly" receiver was appointed. American Bond & Mortgage financed apartments, hotels and office buildings, usually kept the common stock of these buildings. Its financing of Washington's big Mayflower Hotel (in which Halsey, Stuart & Co. participated) was under Congressional discussion. Last week five Mayflower bondholders, with Mabel Walker Willebrandt as attorney, obtained a receiver for the hotel.

Mather into Continental. Once again last week there was a shift in the affairs of Continental Shares Inc., the $150,000,000 investment trust founded by Cyrus Stephen Eaton and now dominated by Cleveland bankers (TIME, May 4). William Gwinn Mather, Cleveland iron & steelmaster, together with associates, bought 300,000 Continental Shares at $5 each from the Eaton-Otis interests. In Cleveland it was believed that this does not mean Mr. Eaton has surrendered his big personal interest in Continental Shares (estimated at more than 600,000 shares). It was thought that most of the 300,000 shares came from Otis & Co. Mr. Mather did not state whether he would seek election to Continental's board, merely asserted he would remain "in harmony with its bankers."

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