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Show THE INVESTORS IN RAILWAY SECURITIES. There are two kinds of corporations which are the chief mediums of this secondary Investment of tbe people In the railways Insurant companies and savings banks. Assessment and fraternal companies being excepted, tbe people who take out life and fire Insurance referring now to the so-called so-called working classes undoubtedly represent a class somewhat better off than the group of savings b'tnk de-Tosltors. de-Tosltors. But they are practically Identical In kind, t Is unfortunate that the Insurance returns do uot summarize the corporate Invertmf nt In railways so as to give a measure of the railway Interest of the policy holders. Still, from tho latest re- I turns available, one may direct attention at-tention to tbo $1,380,294,050 of assets of the mutual life Insurance corporations corpora-tions with their 2"..852,40C policy holders: hold-ers: to the $122,606,400 aHet8 and s.ts:,iii memoeranip or tne assessment assess-ment companies; to the $11. 896.763 of assets of the mutual and stock fire companies, besides the larjre assets of the accident, surety and other corporations cor-porations In the miner insurance companies com-panies at $l,rfH000.000, the Inquiry as to what proportion of them are railway rail-way securities becomes difficult, but a rough approximation may be reached. reach-ed. Under date of January 15, 1903, the Insurance Ierartment of N'ew York State fflves a list of all securltleH held by life, fire and casualty companies com-panies doing burlncss in New York State and Massachusetts. The sets of securities are some 13,000 in number, num-ber, counting the different sets la-sued la-sued by the same corporations. Including In-cluding the municipalities. Of these the railway securities form about one-flfth one-flfth Applying lhat ratio to all the Inmirance companies, a total railway invertment of about $900,000,000 is Indicated. This Is undoubtedly too low It Is very much too low for the great vested Insurance Interests, for example, exam-ple, of Connecticut; moreover, the g?n eral returns for the company are Incomplete, In-complete, nut the minimum figure Is big enough to suggest the absolute vaftness ef the policy holder's Indirect railway Interest. Coming to the savings sav-ings banks, the returns are more definite, though not so recent as we could witih. The figures of the United States Treasurer for 19"9 give total resources nf tho mutual navlnp-a banks of the country as $3,394,926 Oo5, with $713,425,893 Invested In railway bonds alone, and with 7,204,579 depositors. depos-itors. About 22 per cent of the resources re-sources were thus In railway bonds. The returns of the Controller of the Currency for the previous year for savings banks of all kinds give the smaller irconta?e of somewhat more, than 16 per cent In railway holdings, and 8,0SS,866 depositors. In I he case of depositors In all savings banks returns re-turns It must, of course, bo remembered remem-bered that each deposit In a separata bank counts as a 'depositor,' which thus. In the case of multlnla Arn.i I by a single depositor, increases the total number. In the comparative returns re-turns of the Controller of the Currency Cur-rency may bo noted the Increase of .savings hanks investments in the rall-wa)s rall-wa)s from $291,978,055 to $G1R,j J3.415 !n live years. Railway Investments considerably more than doubled, while the resources of the savings banks increased only about one-fifth. The total of railway Investments held as security for savings bank depositors de-positors and Insurance policy holders hold-ers thus by one rough (but. In such large figures, approximately correct) computation amounts In round numbers num-bers to 1.643,000.000. Beyond lie the great Investments In railways by tho trust companies and by Institutions of education and charity. About half, for example, of Yale University's to-' tal Investment of some 13.000 ,00ft Is In railway securities. Beyond 'still are the large holdings of Individual Inves-tors. Inves-tors. But. excluding Ihese, the Indirect In-direct railway Investments of the people peo-ple in the various Intermediary hold Ing corporations probablv amount to $2,000,000,000 as a minimum, or. say, 13 per cent of all steam railway stock j and bonds outstanding, and about 36 per cent of the outstanding railway bonds alone. Railway Age Gazette. |