"Sold"

Some years back, when George Leon Loft, son of George W. Loft, famed "penny-a-pound-profit" candyman, was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, he appeared on the trading floor in a smart new spring suit. Knowing his reputation for being ready to buy or sell anything, friends of Mr. Loft surrounded him and began to auction off the suit. When the price reached $100, George said "sold." Into a telephone booth he stepped, removed the suit, tossed it out to the purchaser, remained in seclusion until another suit was brought from his home.

Last week this same Mr. Loft was busily engaged in trying to keep, not a suit, but a job. He is president of Loft, Inc., candy chain which for more than 50 years has been a Loft property. Now a group of stockholders is attempting to oust the Loft family (Mr. Loft Sr. is cruising in the Mediterranean) and elect as two of the eleven directors Mr. Otis Emerson Dunham, president of Page & Shaw, Inc., and Mr. Edward T. Williams, vice president of Page & Shaw. At a stockholders' meeting last week (reminiscent of the late Rockefeller-Stewart and Childs-Barber controversies) the Page & Shaw interests rounded up an apparent majority of the company's stock. But President Loft challenged so many of the Page & Shaw proxies that the meeting was adjourned with no decisive action.