Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1920 — MILLIONS IN U. S. OWN RAILROADS [ARTICLE]

MILLIONS IN U. S. OWN RAILROADS

Wage Earners Directly and Indirectly Affected by Roads’ Solvency. DIVISION OF ’ SECURITIES. Mutual Savings Banks Owned Entirely by Depositors Hold Large . Amount of Railway Bonds. X 1 * Millions of thrifty Americans who have laid aside something for a "rainy day” are directly or Indirectly owners of railroad securities. This ownership represents not only Individual investment in the railroads, but holdings of railroad securities by life Insurance companies, savings banks, fire and marine insurance companies, benevolent associations, educational Institutions, trust companies and State nnd National banks. A large part of the assets of these institutions depend on the solvency of the railroads. The ownership of railrood securities among these people is divided approximately ns follows: Individuals, numbering over 1,000,000, own outright about $lO,000,000.000 in railroad securities. Over 600,000 are stockholders with an average holding of $13,956. Life insurance companies, with 53,000,000 policies in force, own nearly $2,000,000,000 of railway securities. Savings banks, with 10,000,000 depositors, own $847,000,000. Eire and marine Insurance companies, casualty and surety companies own a total of $049,000,000. Benevolent associations, colleges, schools, charitable institutions, etc., own $350,000,000. Trust companies, State and Na-tional-banks own $805,000,000. According to statistics compiled for the Association of Life Insurance Presidents in 1018, 27.65 per cent of life Insurance companies' assets were Invested In railroad bonds, and during the flrot half of 1919 the percentage of railroad bonds held by the life Insurance companies was 26.21? of the total assets of these companies. Interest of Wage Earners. In addition to this widespread ownership of equities of American railroads by the people of the • United States every wage earner who puts money Into the savings bank has a direct Interest In the soundness of railroad Investment on account of the large part of the savings of men and women wage earners secured by the railroad bonds which are bought by the savings banks. A great inany M os these institutions are mutual savings banks which have no capital stock, pay no dividends, earn no profits for stockholders, and their entire property belongs to the depositors. Every dollar that the bank earns beyond the actual cost of doing business also belongs to them. The report of the United States Comptroller of the Currency for 1918 shows that 625 of these savings banks operated on the mutual plan had at the end of 1918 total deposits of $4,422,096,393.15 credited to 9,011,464 depositars, an average deposit of $490.72. THese figures covered mutual savings banks in 18 states of the Union. The Comptroller’s report gives the amount of railroad bonds held by mutual savings banjes in the six New England states —Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut —as $406,272,166. The report of the State Superintendent dr Banks of New York shows that the railroad bonds held by the mutual savings banks at the end of 1918 In New York amounted to $361,711,334.