Now a Bottle Glass Trust; William Brookfield Treasurer

NOW A BOTTLE-GLASS TRUST

Arrangements Completed for the Organization of a Company on a $12,000,000 Basis.

Arrangements have been completed for the organization of a company, with a capitalization of $12,000,000, to absorb the principal bottle-glass manufacturers of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and practically control the market in this line. The company will be incorporated within a few days in New Jersey, and its headquarters and principal selling agency will be established in this city.

The capital of the company will be divided into $8,000,000 of 7 per cent. preferred cumulative stock and $4,000,000 of common stock. Of these amounts there are to be left in the treasury $1,500,000 of the preferred and $1,000,000 of the common stock as a fund for the absorption of concerns which have not yet entered the combination. The constituent companies have not been asked to take stock in the new enterprise, cash having been offered for their properties, but most of them have taken good sized amounts of the preferred stock receiving a bonus in common stock to the extent of 10 per cent. of their subscriptions. The same terms are offered too outside investors, but no person will be allowed to subscribe for more than $25,000 of the preferred stock, and preference will be given to employes [sic] employees and to those of whom materials are purchased or to whom goods are sold.

The new concern will be known as the National Glass Company, and its objects will be to manufacture all kinds of glass bottles, electrical glass goods, and fruit jars, and to deal in druggists' sundries. The officers of the company will be: President - Charles A. Tatum of Whitall, Tatum & Co.; Vice President — William Brookfield of the Brookfield Glass Company; Temporary Treasurer — Richard Delafield, Vice President of the National Park Bank; Secretary — John Whitall of Whitall, Tatum & Co. Besides the officers the Board of Directors will include the following: John Moore, Clayton, N.J.; C. W. Shoemaker, Bridgeton, N.J.; John V. Craven, Salem, N.J.; Richard M. More, Bridgeton, N.J.; F. Fox, Philadelphia; A. Garwood, Williamstown, N.J.; George Jonas, Minotota, N.J.

The concerns which thus far have entered the combination are Whitall, Tatum & Co., New York and Philadelphia; Brookfield Glass Company, Brooklyn; Moore Brothers' Glass Works, Clayton, N.J.; Cumberland Glass Works, Bridgeton, N.J.; Salem Glass Works, Salem, N.J.; H. C. Fox & Sons, Philadelphia; Bodine Glass Works, Williamstown, N.J.; More-Jonas Glass Works, Bridgeton, N.J.; George Jonas & Co., Minotota, N.J.; F. M. Pierce & Co., Elmer, N.J.; Standard Glass Works, Philadelphia; Lockport Glass Works, Lockport, N.Y.; S. M. Bassett & Co., Elmer, N.J.; T. C. Wheaton & Co., Millville, N.J.; Jeffries Glass Works, Rochester, Penn. and Fairton, N.J.; East Stroudsburg Glass Works, East Stroudsburg, Penn.

Edward Cragin of this city, to whose efforts the formation of the company is chiefly due, said yesterday that the accomplishment of this project marked a new departure in industrial combinations. "The organization is on new lines." He said, "in keeping with the demands of financial writers who have strongly depreciated over-capitalization and the placing on the Stock Exchange of such large amounts of industrial securities. The original features of the plan are: First, its radically low capitalization; second, no capitalization of proposed economies or future profits; third, the placing of the stock, not with underwriters, but directly with investors, and preferably with those interested in this line of business."

"A company with a capitalization of $30,000,000 or $40,000,000 was talked of at first, but the men selected for officers of the company would have nothing to do with it unless it could be shown that the common stock would earn at least 15 per cent. The last few years have been the least profitable in the history of this industry, but the concerns in the combination, in spite of low prices and keen competition, earned last year $725,000, this result being obtained with only 50 per cent. Of the capacity and, with the economies that will result from the combination, the new Directors expect to earn more than 18 per cent. On the common stock the first year."