Downtown

P: Last week for the first time in nine years Auburn Automobile Co. omitted its quarterly dividend (50-c- per share). In 1929 Auburn stock hit $14. Last week it was down to $6, an alltime low. A speculative favorite during the early years of Depression, it gyrated between 84 and 295 in 1931, sold above 150 even in 1932. Out of Auburn stock President Errett Lobban Cord reaped the quick fortune which put him into aviation, shipbuilding. P:Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of Boston last week filed with the Federal Trade Commission for registration under the Securities Act, a $35,000,000 coupon note issue, biggest since the Act was passed. Proceeds were to be used to pay a $25,000,000 two-year note issue due July 16, and $7,000,000 in bank loans. Boston Edison last made memorable headlines in September 1929 when its stock dropped 70 points on news that the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities had refused to allow a 4-to-1 stock split. Selling quickly spread to other public utility shares, helped precipitate the Crash. P:Nine months after Manhattan's Hardman National Bank & Trust Co. closed last year, the Federal Government brought suit to compel the 19 members of the New York Clearing House Association to cover a $6,300,000 deficit in the bank's funds. The Government charged that the Clearing House members had promised Harriman Bank officers that they would not let the bank fail. Last week nine Clearing House members, including Chase National Bank, Corn Exchange Bank and Central Hanover Bank & Trust, agreed to settle the suit out of court, pay $2,835,000 as their share. That will bring payments to Harriman's 11,000 depositors up to 65-c- on the dollar. The other ten Clearing House members, including National City, Guaranty Trust Co. and Bankers Trust refused to settle, will contest the Government's suit on the ground that they were not aware of the Association's alleged pledge to support the bank. P:Day before the House of Morgan became just one more private bank last week, the partners issued their first voluntary statement of condition. Since the Senate Banking & Currency Committee revealed the Morgan secrets last year, the combined assets of No. 23 Wall Street and Drexel & Co.. the Philadelphia branch, have increased $26,000,000 to $344,000,000. Chief assets were $59,000,000 cash, $169,000.000 in Government bonds, $53,000,000 in loans & advances. Deposits were up $33.000,000 to $271,000,000. Net worth, which represents the stake of 20 partners, was $57,000,000, now arbitrarily divided between $25,000,000 capital and $32,000,000 surplus and partners' balances.

P:First of what President Roosevelt likes to call money changers to flee his temple was Charles Edwin Mitchell of Manhattan's National City Bank. On the strength of Mr. Mitchell's testimony in Washington last year, countless stockholder suits were promptly launched against National

City directors. Last week in a 10,000-word opinion on the consolidation of suits totalling $70,000,000 Justice Edward S. Dore of the New York Supreme Court cleared Mr. Mitchell and his fellow directors of all mismanagement charges. Justice Dore deplored the sad errors in judgment but held that no director was legally responsible for bad loans ''merely because such loans appear to have been unwise and hazardous ... in retrospect." Only charge on which National City directors were not exonerated was the question of $1,000,000 bonuses. The court declared that the bonus system was quite justifiable but ordered further investigation to determine whether payments to Mr. Mitchell and other officers were in line with services rendered. Many a U. S. banker, big & little, heaved a mighty sigh of relief last week, knowing that the National City decision would discourage hundreds of similar stockholder suits.

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