Deals & Developments

Frustrate Empire. Fifth largest maker of sheet steel (used by automobile, refrigerator and metal furniture trades) is Empire Steel Corp. of Mansfield, Ohio. Empire was formed in 1927 by the seven Davey Brothers of Mansfield whose boast was that their ancestors had worked iron ever since the Romans conquered Britain. Last year when Empire was having difficulty facing Depression, Pickands, Mather & Co. of Cleveland bought the holdings of William H. Davey, estimated at 14%. In March Empire planned a reorganization, but shareholders did not show any willingness to invest in additional securities. Last month it ordered wages cut 15%, was blocked by a strike. Thus twice frustrated, last week it went into receivership. President Carl H. Henkel was appointed receiver, hopes to keep the plants running. Empire's receivership (involving $20,000,000 in assets) was the first notable one in the steel industry for some time, made steelmen hark back to the similar fate of the $21,000,000 Wickwire-Spencer steel in 1927.

Steel's Pineapples. In the name of the National Foreign Trade Council (see p. 53) last week Steelman James Augustine Farrell wired good wishes to 87-year-old Capt. Robert Dollar of San Francisco who was too ill to attend. Despite these felicitations, many a Pacific shipper last week was angry at Steelman Farrell. From Hawaii to the Atlantic, via Panama, ply the steamers of Isthmian Steamship Co., United States Steel unit, pet & pride of Mr. Farrell who has sailed before-the-mast. Last week Isthmian ships, accustomed to return from Hawaii practically empty, contracted to carry James Drummond Dole's Hawaiian pineapples direct to destination at $10 a ton, $3.95 less than the route via San Francisco. Since Dole pineapples fill 5,000.000 cases a year (125,000 short tons), 33% of the Island's total, other steamshipmen protested, wished Godspeed to President William P. Roth of Matson Navigation Co. when he set out for Manhattan to chide Mr. Farrell.

Saxet. "The present name of the Saxet Company--Texas spelled backwards--no longer is sufficiently descriptive," said Chairman Odie R. Seagraves to his directors last week. They recommended changing the name to Republic Gas Corp., asked shareholders' approval. Saxet has large gas holdings (340,000 proven acres) in southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle.

Textiles, Inc. While throughout the U. S. National Cotton Week was proving a boon to the cotton-textile industry, apparently one of the first trades to start regaining its composure, stockholders of 14 textile plants voted to merge. Most of the plants are in Gaston County, N. C. They control 300,000 spindles.* The new company will be Textiles, Inc., with a capitalization of $17,500,000. Expected to be its president is Albert G. Myers.

* To a cotton mill the number of spindles is what ingot capacity is to a steel mill. Likewise, the number of spindles in operation is the gauge to the industry's activity. In the U. S. are 34,631,000 cotton spindles; 26,645,404 were busy during April. Biggest cotton company is Pacific Mills, New England, with 618,906 spindles.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.