Statisticians' Merger

Wall Street's flood of red ink (see above) has sloshed over into many a side street where dwell firms catering to the stock-market and the market's customers. One flood victim: the publishers of financial statistics and advice.

Poor's Publishing Co., oldest of them all (1849), went bankrupt in 1933 and had to be rescued by wealthy Paul Talbot Babson, who now owns practically all the stock. The reorganization failed to create any important profits; early this year the company announced it would be unable to pay on its notes. Standard Statistics Co., biggest of them all, began an expansion at the time of the 1929 crash, by 1931 had 1,300 employes, a lease on six floors (plus an option on two more) of a brand-new building and its own printing plant. When public interest in the market sank to apathy, Standard could not retrench fast enough. Salaries were cut, the staff was trimmed, executives went months without pay. Nevertheless, the company probably lost money steadily from 1933 through 1939.

Last week the oldest and the biggest decided to pool their facilities and troubles, become Standard & Poor's Corp., slough off Standard's expensive printing plant, do business henceforth with a combined staff of about 900. Chairman of the board of the new company is Paul Babson, 46, cousin of famed Statistician Roger Ward Babson, who runs the Babson Statistical Organization. With the Standard-Poor's merger, the Babson family moves a long way toward cornering the market on advisory services. Other Paul Babson enterprises: his own United Business Service, a directorship in the Kiplinger Washington Agency.

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