More Mergers

Kaffee Hag. The Kellogg Co. (cereal foods) has bought the Kaffee Hag Corp. of Cleveland, makers of decaffeinated coffee, and will immediately increase the production and sale of Kaffee Hag. Said J F O'Brein, vice president and director of sales for the Kellogg Co., last week: "We realize that coffee is the great national drink of America. There are thousands of people, however, who like coffee, but who feel that they should not drink it with the caffein in it. These people, together with the non-coffee drinkers, including children, constitute a tremendous market for a caffein-free coffee." President George Gund of the Kaffee Hag Corp. will continue to manage its Cleveland factory. Furniture & Furnishings. If a hotel, restaurant, hospital, school, railroad or ship requires furnishings, the source of supply usually first thought of is Albert Pick, Barth Inc., largest company of its kind. Last week it became larger by absorbing seven companies that manufacture wooden or sheet metal furniture and sell the pieces through chains of retail furniture stores. A $30,000,000 consolidation, this was the greatest in the history of furniture and allied industries. Milwaukee Dairies. To make ice cream, cheese, butter and other milk products on a vast scale and to sell them in Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and the northern peninsula of Michigan--the Waukesha Milk Co., the Blommer Ice Cream Co., and the Bendfelt Ice Cream Co., all of Milwaukee, last week consolidated their interests as the Wisconsin Creameries, Inc.

This is the third recent occasion of Wisconsin dairies merging. Previously the National Dairy Products Corp. absorbed the Luick Ice Cream Co.; and the Gridley Dairy Co. (largest milk distributor in the Milwaukee district) bought the Mansfield Ice Cream Co.

Detroit Banks. Directors of the American State Bank of Detroit last week approved a proposal to merge with the Griswold First State Bank of Detroit.

Chicago Banks. Three pairs of Chicago banks last week completed arrangements for their respective mergers: 1) Albany Park National Bank with the North Park Trust & Savings Bank; 2) Chicago Trust Co. with the National Bank of Commerce; 3) Humboldt State Bank with Keystone Trust & Savings Bank.

Land Banks. There are about 50 joint stock land banks in the U. S. They have loaned out, chiefly for long terms, more than $600,000,000 during the last ten years. Last week one of the most important ones, the New York Joint Stock Land Bank, became more important by purchasing another important one, the New Jersey Joint Stock Land Bank of Newark. The New York bank in its turn is controlled by bankers from Cleveland, who also control the Ohio-Pennsylvania Joint Stock Land Bank. Notable among the Cleveland men are Parmely W. Herrick (son of Ambassador Myron T. Herrick and president of the Herrick Co., investment bankers), Samuel L. McCune (investment banker), James Arthur House (president, Guardian Trust Co.), Arthur H. Seibig (president, United Banking & Trust Co.), Thomas H. Hogsett (attorney). On the directorate of the merged New York and New Jersey banks will be one-time (1915-27) Senator James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. of New York and onetime Senator (1917-23) Joseph Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. The Federal Farm Loan Board (Eugene Meyer, chairman), cooperates with the joint stock land banks in extending credit on long and relatively easy terms to farmers. Cans. Appraisers last week studied the worth of U. S. Can Co.'s factories at Cincinnati, Baltimore, Roanoke, Chicago and St. Louis, and of the factories belonging to its subsidiaries (Dixie Canner Co. of Little Rock and Old Dominion Packing Co.) Those factories produce 3,000,000 tin cans a day and are worth about $7,000,000. When the appraisers ascertain the value tha Continental Can Co. will arrange a merger with U. S. Can Co., explained President O. C. Huffman of U. S. Can Co. last week. Brick Furnaces. At Mexico, Mo. was the Liptak Fire Brick Arch Co.; at Detroit was the Bigelow Arch Co.-- both companies specialists in constructing those huge brick furnaces needed by industrial and power plants. Last week they were merged as the Bigelow-Liptak Corp., Frank B. Bigelow president.