Control of Willys-Overland

When the Willys Corporation went into a receivership, it owned 739,866 shares of the Willys-Overland Company--about a third of the voting issue of that concern. Two factions are bidding $3,000,000 for the stock, and the one that obtains it will control. One faction is headed by Thomas H. Tracy, and the other by Henry L. Thompson, Chairman of the Board of Directors. President John N. Willys, until recently neutral in the contest, has now swung over to the Tracy party.

The Willys-Overland concern is the biggest industry in the state of Ohio, and dominates the city of Toledo, where it has a plant covering many acres, and employs thousands of workmen. The Company is now producing nearly 1,000 cars a day, and the demand is apparently increasing.

The Tracy group stress the desirability of retaining for the Company the services of Mr. Willys, and its plan is endorsed by J. P. Cotton, counsel for the first preferred stock-holders of the bankrupt concern. The Thompson faction is assisted by the investment banking firm of Dillon, Read & Co., Manhattan.

Both Federal Judge Knox and the receiver, Col. Francis G. Caffey, are endeavoring to protect the 6,000 odd stockholders of the Willys-Overland Company, many of whom are small salary workers in Ohio.