Deals

Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. In Liberia 350,000 natives toil on the Firestone rubber plantation project. In Singapore is a Firestone rubber preparation plant. Firestone products include tires, tubes, steel rims, wooden wheels, rubber heels, batteries, boots, rubber clothing, brake-lining. Last week the company declared a 400% common stock dividend, offered a $60,000,000 issue of 6% preferred stock.

I. T. & T. Dr. Carl Friedrich von Siemens, German electric tycoon, last week grew wrathful over the "unpatriotic and growing practice" of letting foreigners buy into German companies. Direct cause of the von Siemens anger was announcement that U. S. Tycoon Sosthenes Behn's International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. had arranged with the Allgemeine Elektricitaets Gesellschaft ("A. E. G.," or "German General Electric") to establish a new company which would make telephones, using I. T. & T. patents. Indirect cause was the fact that last year the Siemens group of companies had furnished 70% of the telephones ordered by the German Reich.

Zonite-Forhan. Mention chlorine and the War and listeners will usually think of chlorine gas. Yet made up in the form of the Carrel-Dakin solution (NaOCcl), chlorine proved a valuable antiseptic, saved many a wounded soldier from infection and death. After the war the Carrel-Dakin solution became the basis for Zonite, was marketed by Zonite Products Co., has become familiar to millions of U. S. advertisement readers through its emphasis on "feminine hygiene." Last week terms were announced whereby Zonite Products Co. offered to acquire Forhan Co., makers of Forhan's anti-pyorrhea ("four-out-of-five-have-it"*) toothpaste. Other Zonite products include Larvex (moth-annihilator), Argyrol (anticold solution).

Southern Bell. Bond men were heartened by a $32,000,000 issue of 5% Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. bonds at par, the first bond financing by an A T & T constituent unit since 1926. Offering of the issue by a J. P. Morgan & Co. headed syndicate was taken to mean improvement in the demand for high grade bonds.

C. & O. Another step in making the Chesapeake & Ohio main stem of the Van Sweringen railroad system was seen last week when C. & O. directors proposed that by an exchange of stock the C. & O. take over the Hocking Valley Railway, already controlled. Before doing this it was planned to reduce the $100 par value C. & O. stock to $25 par value, a move rare in railroad financing, expected to give the stock wider distribution.

"Hansa." In many waters ply the steamers of the Deutsche Dampfschif-fahrts-Gesellschaft "Hansa." Served by the "Hansa" Line are Bremen, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Portugal, Spain, the Persian Gulf, Bombay, Karachi, Colombo, Madras, Calcutta, Rangoon, the Malabar Coast. Though its flag is unfamiliar in U. S. ports, last week the "Hansa" Line turned to the U. S. for capital, offered $5,000,000, of 6% bonds through the Guaranty Co.

*Recently the New Yorker, Manhattan sophistisheet, expressed dismay that the ratio has not yet become three-and-a-half-out-of-five.