Million-Dollar Names

Last week a select portion of the U. S. public was permitted to buy stock in Shenandoah Corp., a newborn investment trust which came into being with a silver spoon of $102,000,000 resources in its mouth. Eager, the public snapped up one million shares of common, one million shares of preferred, paying up to 42 for common offered at 17 1/2 and up to 60 for preferred offered at 50. By midafternoon of the first day's sale there was no Shenandoah stock available.

Shenandoah Corp. was broadly empowered to "buy, sell, trade in and hold stocks and securities of any kind . . . participate in syndicates and underwritings . . . exercise such other of its charter powers as its Board of Directors may from time to time determine." The Board thus broadly trusted contained great names, One was Goldman Sachs & Co., potent financiers. Another was Harrison Williams, potent utility man. After the House of Morgan has taken its bow as First in Finance, it is questionable whether any other banking house, from the standpoint of present and recent activity, much outranks Goldman Sachs. As for Mr. Williams, if all the utilities in which he is interested should suddenly be demolished, one U. S. electric light out of every ten would go dark. The investor in Shenandoah is virtually turning his money over to Sidney Weinburg and Waddill Catchings of Goldman Sachs and to Harrison Williams of Central States Electric Corp. --men whose names are million-dollar assets in billion-dollar industries.

Goldman Sachs. Simplest measure of a successful banking house is the success of the issues it has backed. Many are the winners that Goldman Sachs has sponsored. It brought out a Lambert Pharmacal issue at 41 3/4, Woolworth at 55, May Dept. Stores at 50, Continental Can at 52 1/2, S. H. Kress at 60, Sears Roebuck at 50, United Biscuit at 28. Special pride is taken in National Dairy Products, issued three years ago at 33. The stock has paid a 33 1/3-stock dividend, followed by a 100% stock dividend, is now selling at 78. One of the original $33 shares has become worth $624. Brilliant also has been the record of Goldman Sachs Trading Corp., Goldman Sachs Co.'s own investment trust. Issued last December at 104 its stock opened at 109, split two for one, is now at 116, making an original $109 investment now worth $232.

Original Goldman Sachs partners were Julius Goldman, Harry Sachs, Samuel Sachs. The company began as a buyer of commercial paper, with its funds so meager that Harry and Samuel Sachs are said to have spent part of their time as commercial paper buyers and the remainder as clothing peddlers with packs on their backs. When the sons of the founders became active in the business, difficulties arose between young Henry Goldman and the Sachs family, reputedly concerning Mr. Goldman's sympathetic War attitude toward the Central Powers. At any rate, there are now no Goldmans in Goldman Sachs. Founders Harry Sachs and Samuel Sachs sometimes visit the offices, are more frequently engaged in trips to Europe and other distant localities. Sons Walter, Arthur and Howard Sachs are partners. Walter Sachs lives at Darien, Conn. Arthur Sachs specializes in foreign exchange.

Able are the younger Sachses but the weightiest thinking and most potent activities of Goldman Sachs proceed from Partner Sidney Weinburg and Partner Waddill Catchings. Partner Weinburg, treasurer of Goldman Sachs Trading Corp., has the reputation of being the best "picker" (of likely issues) in the Street. A small but significant example of his selective ability has been furnished by the annual outings of the Bond Club. At this outing, automobiles are put up as prizes, tickets on the automobile are issued, and the Bond Clubbers trade in the tickets in such a manner that the smartest trader wins the car. In the last three outings, Trader Weinburg has won six automobiles. He and Partner Catchings handle all the syndicate business of the company and represent it on the Shenandoah directorate.

Tall, calm, quiet Waddill Catchings, president of Goldman Sachs Trading Corp., is widely recognized as a Coming Man of Wall Street. He graduated from Harvard (1901), took a law degree (1904), entered business in 1911 with the Central Foundry Co. From 1915 to 1917 he was a Morgan Man (export division), then spent a year as president of Schloss Sheffield Steel & Iron Co. on the Executive Committee of which he still serves. He has written on many an industrial topic, has been recently engaged with William T. Foster on a study of the Reserve Board v. Wall Street situation. Whenever Mr. Catchings can catch some leisure from his business cares, he travels to his Lake Placid log cabin.

Williams. It has been remarked that Harrison Williams has more utility knowledge in his little finger than any other utility man has in his entire anatomy. Exaggerated is this statement, yet not unfounded. Mr. Williams' Central States Electric Corp. is a holding company which owns more than 810,000 shares of North American Co., which, through subsidiaries, furnishes light and power in Cleveland, St. Louis, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Washington, and more than 900 other U. S. communities. Central States was prominent in the formation of American Cities Power and Light and of Electric Shareholdings Corp. It has large holdings in other potent utility companies. It is said that Mr. Williams has resigned from many of his holding company directorates because so much of his time was used up in meeting, entertaining and conferring with visiting executives of the numerous subsidiaries.

The Williams hobby is marine exploration. In connection with Vincent Astor, Marshall Field and Henry D. Whiton, and under the auspices of the New York Zoological Society, he financed Explorer William Beebe's expedition to the Galapagos Islands. On Galapagos there is a volcano now named Harrison Williams. In 1920 he bought the Krupp-built yacht Vanados, then Largest Yacht, rechristened it Warrior, equipped it with apparatus for testing ocean currents and temperatures. In 1926 he married Mrs. Mona Travis Strader Bush, onetime wife of James I. Bush, vice president of Equitable Trust Co. and took the Warrior on a round-the-world honeymoon. When the Prince of Wales visited the U. S. in 1919, he was Mr. Williams' guest at Glen Cove, L. I. Last May Mr. Williams bought the late Elbert H. Gary's house at 5th Avenue and 94th St., Manhattan.