Air Stocks

Thousands of small speculators, who have been largely responsible for the three months hubbub in Wall Street, were last week seized with the same idea. Each of them suddenly became air-minded; each of them wanted to stow away, or play with, a few shares of air stock. True enough, they had played intermittently with air stocks since the Paris flight of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, but never as they did last week.

The immediate cause was the formation of Transcontinental Air Transport, Inc. with plans for a train & plane passenger service covering the U. S. (see p. 22). Five hundred thousand shares of T. A. T., Inc. common stock at no par value were offered on the New York curb market. They found plenty of takers at $25, quickly jumped to the vicinity of $30. Yet it was reported that $12.50 was the price at which T. A. T., Inc. was privately placed by underwriters.*

At the same time, the stocks of Wright Aeronautical Corp. and of Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co., were soaring on the New York Stock Exchange. A contributing factor was that both President Clement

Melville Keys of Curtiss and President Charles Lanier Lawrance of Wright were on the board of directors of T. A. T., Inc.

Wright, now producing 100 motors a month, also announced the second melon* of the U. S. aviation industry. It offered holders of five shares the right to buy one new share at $100. With Wright stock selling at $214 on one afternoon last week, each right was worth some $19. With 250,000 shares of Wright stock outstanding, the melon has a paper value of some $4,750,000. So stimulated, Wright stock jumped to $245, but closed the week at $202.50. On the day before Col. Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, this stock could have been bought for $28.50.

Curtiss, since its reorganization in 1923 under the leadership of Clement Melville Keys, has become a miniature General Motors of the air--makers of the complete plane (fuselage, engine propeller, accessories). Founder Glenn Curtiss, no longer with the firm, is in the real estate business in Florida. Last week, Curtiss stock reached a new high of $192.75 and closed at $145. On the day-before-Lindbergh, it was easily obtainable at $21.75.

-The financial houses underwriting T. A T Inc., are:

Blair & Co. of Manhattan Hayden, Stone & Co. of Manhattan Hemphill, Noyes & Co. of Manhattan Knight, Dysart & Gamble of St. Louis J. C. Willson & Co. of Louisville, Ky. Lend, Goodwin & Tucker, Inc., of San Francisco. -Curtiss cut the first melon several weeks ago.