STUDIES IN SECURITIES
point Southern Ry. earnings at the present rate became possible.
For the past four years net for the common stock follows:
1926..........11.20, 1924..........12.3¢
1825. . sina 183 1023 eae BO)
Meantime operating expense ratio was cut from 75.6% to 69.4%
wholly by saving in direct transportation costs.
Besides its own 6,795 miles of line, Southern Ry. controls 2,425
additional, with equities 99.5% in New Orleans & Northeastern
R. R., 94.29% in Mobile & Ohio R. R., 94.1% in Georgia Southern
& Florida Ry., and 29.2% in Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas
Pacific Ry. Including due proportions of the results of these the
real earnings behind Southern Ry. common were:
1926.. .......20.6% 1024... ... 10.00,
1925. 21.3 1928... conre12.9
The disposition has been to withdraw larger dividends from sub-
sidiaries and of course full taking of earnings by lease or merger is
possible some day.
As simply put by the company, ‘‘the Southern Serves the South,”’
and the twelve states covered by the system have forty millions
population busy with a rapid industrial development. Lines be-
tween chief traffic centers are mostly shorter than competitors’.
Ahead of many roads Southern has all main lines equipped with
automatic light signals and ahead of all it has the longest stretch
of 578 miles of automatic train control.
Rise of Southern Ry. common to an investment status, at the price
current giving 5.409% income, had a momentum not easy to stop,
so the 15% rate of 1927 earnings, plus around 29% of subsidiary
equities, will likely begin to increase soon again.
Standard Oil Co. of Indiana
The period since 1922 when Standard Oil of Indiana declared a
100% stock dividend has been marked for this company by two
developments of interest to shareholders: surplus accounts which
December 31, 1922 (after the stock dividend) stood at $69,032,000
increased to $174,420,000 as of December 31, 1926; and future
sources of crude oil have been assured by acquisition of interest
in widespread acreage and valuable plant and facilities in Colum-
bia, Venezuela and Mexico.
The 1926 year topped all others with earnings of $6.02 a share on
the 9,136,618 shares of stock (plus 91 cents a share additional
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