Deals & Developments

Cool Competition. Pioneer in railway air-conditioning is Baltimore & Ohio. It has equipped all the cars of its 27-hr. Manhattan-St. Louis train with airconditioning, as a bid against the crack 22-hr, trains of New York Central and Pennsylvania over the same route.

Last week the Central and the Pennsylvania dropped their competition long enough to publish a curious joint advertisement about the coolness of their trains. Dining cars on the best trains will be air-conditioned. Into other cars, before leaving on hot days, will be pumped "a flood of fresh, precooled air" which will be "forced through all the aisles, around the seats, below the berths, into the compartments--penetrating to every nook and cranny of the car . . . affording full ventilation en route."

"Terraplane." Asked Hudson Motor Co. in advertisements last week: ". . . Does a generation which planes on water and in the air want the same gliding swiftness, the same fluid smoothness in land transportation?" Hudson's answer was a new car called the Essex Terraplane, on which a mammoth sales drive is centred this week. In the lowest price bracket the Terraplane boasts unusually high power to weight ratio. To Arthur Kudner of Erwin, Wasey Advertising Agency goes credit for the car's name. It has six cylinders, body & chassis as one structural unit, rubber engine-mounting, instrument panel directly in front of the driver. Reported price: $425.

Angling Atlas. When general management investment trusts went out of favor, fixed trusts became the financial mode. Last week for the first time was offered the spectacle of a general management trust out to acquire fixed trust shares. The angler was Atlas Corp. (formerly Atlas Utilities Corp.), most aggressive of investment trusts, run by Floyd Odium. In making an offer to exchange its own shares for fixed trust shares it sought to enlarge its stockholders' list. Also, it will acquire blocks of stocks held by the fixed trusts which it can keep or sell, thus adding to its large cash holdings. Included in the offer were 20 well known, widely held fixed trusts. Reaction of fixed trust sponsors to the offer was surprise, indignation.

Kreuger Aftermath. Whom did Ivar Kreuger not deceive? Last week another name was added to the small list of bankers and firms which doubted the late felonious match tycoon. It was that of Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. of Manhattan. In January 1931, the bank lent Kreuger & Toll $1,000,000. Vice President Roger Whittlesey then began to check up on Kreuger & Toll statistics, to search for more adequate information. He wrote letters abroad, never received convincing answers. In September the loan was called.

Last week a new estimate of Ivar Kreuger's estate showed that he left personal debts of $125,000,000, indirect liabilities of $100,000,000 more, practically no free assets of any sort.

The greatest problem of ownership revolves around $50,000,000 worth of German bonds taken from International Match's account in Berlin's Deutsche Union Bank, A. G. by Ivar Kreuger and pledged with banks in Sweden. Last week the receivers of International Match brought suit to recover the bonds, obtained an order enjoining the Swedish banks from collecting interest and the fiduciary agent from paying it to anyone other than Irving Trust Co., the receiver. The Swedish banks holding the bonds are: Skandinaviska Kreditaktiebolaget, Aktiebolaget Svenska Handelsbanken, Enskilda Banken I Venersborg, Sveriges Riksbank, Stockholms Intecknings Garanti.

Reasons. All customers of Universal Atlas Cement Co., subsidiary of United States Steel Corp., recently received a 16-page booklet of light blue tint with this title: "The Reasons Why the Depression Will Last Indefinitely -- Conclusions reached after consultation with the leading economists and businessmen of the country." Opening the book, curious customers found only blank pages.

Dismissal. Ten million dollars worth of damage suits brought against Coca-Cola Co. by Loft, Inc., Happiness Candy Stores, The Mirror, and Pepsi-Cola Co. were dismissed last week. The plaintiffs had charged interference with contracts (TIME, May 16 et seq.). Not dismissed however was $1,500,000 in libel suits brought by the three candy store chains against Coca-Cola Co. at the same time.

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