Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I Need Money? I I $50 to $500 I I YOUR CAR I I LOANS I I Re-Financing I ! I Confidential Service ! i i I M I i ! W ; 11 IStogner Motor! I Company I 11111 Broad Street I i PHONE 210 Jjl Mrs. Lela Snipes, Lee County, Dies Floronco, April 12.?-Funeral services for Mrs. L?ela Snipes, 61, were held at 3 p. m., Saturday at Savannah Christian Advent. Interment was in church cemetery. The Kev. Mac Mcl^amb officiated. Mrs. Snipes was originally from . d^amar and was living at the time of /her death near Blshopville in I^ee / -county. Surviving are her husband, James Snipes, and several children and other relatives by a former marriage. Baskets were the cooking utensils of American Indians of the Yosemlte valley. DELINQUENT TAXES Sheriff's Notice To Owner Of Mortgage Not loo Is hereby given to Ella E. Twltty, who Is the owner of a certain mortgage recorded In the office of the Clerk of Court for Kershaw County, State of South Carolina In Hook B. C. of mortgages at page 44, that there are nhw clue and unpaid taxes for the years 1931 through 193k, both Inclusive.amounting to Eight Hundred Eighty-five and 15-100 ($885.15) Dollars, with accrued costs of Twelve ($12.00) Dollars, for which a tax execution was Issued and levy made upon the following described lands owned by the o.-tate of Leila Truesdale, and embraced within said mortgage; that the said property was duly advertised for sale and sold tinder said execution and levy on the ?th day of April. 1939 rtitii ih<?t .said tuxtiti are paid within thirty days after service of this a**lice, title to the said property will !> delivered to the purchaser thereof at tin* said tax sale. The description of the land levied upon and sold is as follows: Tint' ioi of land. with Improve nu nis thereon situated In the city of Camden, comity of Kershaw, State of South c.tioiina. bounded on the north by lands of E P Truesdal", east by Broad Street t)f tie* city of Camden, south hv let now or formerly of Turner ami on the w >t by property of Horace E\ans, and I* vied upon and <>M as the prop. r:y of the estate of l.eila Truesdale J li M.LKOD StvrtfT f : !< :.-haw County. < i n; i' ti S C A [irii 4 PM't STATW THtf ATT?1?I M. A. m. JL M.j! J? * A. A A a ? 1 A V JL-i KERSHAW, S. C. Telephone 98 FRIDAY, APRIL 19 "HIS GIRL FRIDAY" a * , ' " i \ t; i .i:; tlind Russell SATURDAY, APRIL 20 "WEST OF CARSON CITY" a:" " -. > V . k Frown 1 - . \ Late Show 10:30 P. M. "MUSIC IN MY HEART" v* : ] >:iM , 1 : . ' h MONDAY and TUESDAY ! APRIL 22 and 23 "BROTHER RAT AND A j BAB V" .v : . li i. :: . \V .. M I WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 "HENRY GOES ARIZONA" j u;::. Frank Morgan Y.rg.ni.i Welrtler THURSDAY, APRIL 25 "VIVA CISCO KID" with Cesar Romero ADM IS8ION: Matinee, 20c; Night, 2So. Children 10c any time. How To Amass Millions In Hard Times ; Floyd Odium, Who Did, Says Anyone Can I New York ?Floyd Odium. ouUtandliiK American alnce the World War to cook up ? and preserve ? u really huge fortune, expecta to inako more In the next few years for himself, his stockholders, and his associates. The $160,000,000 corporate omelette he hie tided recently using as Ingredients his Atlas Corp.. spectacular depression time Investment trust, und Curtlss-Wrlghl Corp, outstanding aircraft manufacturer, was concocted primarily to clean the Odium pantry shelves of excess capital This will permit Odium's undivided attention In the future to bo given to what he calls "special situations, friends said today. Odium thinks anybody could build up the same aggregation of capital Just by using plain "horse sense." Want to try? Just listen, and you'll hear everything he did?No secrets. And how! His axiom for financial success is the regular admonishment to customers that many reliable brokerage and Investment houses give their clients?pay no attention to day-to-day stock movements; study the trends; sell while the "public" Is doing Its wildest buying; buy while the "public" la doing Its wildest selling. Buy the things the "public" doeew't like just now, for they often will be bargains. That's all there Is to It, ho says. But Odium Is one of the few active traders who has the courage of his convictions. Considered the shrewdest stock trader of our time, he never looks at a ticker tape; doesn't even know how to decipher one. In his office which Is far from Wall Street, away across the Hudson river in Jersey City, he doesn't even have a atock ticker. The luxurous mahogany panelled office near Wall Street which he Inherited along with a squash gym und a roof garden private restaurant when he bit off a big chunk of another Investment trust, was given up years ago. He will spend weeks at a time, out of touch with the stock market reading up on economic conditions and business trends, or more likely studying in minute detail some "special situation" that he Is planning to buy into or rehabilitate. Odium at 48 Is one of the most unaffected small town boys who ever made a big success In the big city. He is lean, vylry. with sandy hair that Is getting Just a trifle thin, lively dark blue eyes, plain, quiet clothes. Tie doesn't smoke or drink liquor. He likes to tease the girls, put his feet on the table, and sit on the back of his neck with his thumbs stuck through his belt and his vest unbuttoned. When Odium came to town with a Job as a law clerk, he left his wife and babe sitting on a bench In Grand Central with a ham sandwich and a milk bottle, nnd started to walk to Wall Street?a five-mile jog. He painted his yellow shoes black the first time he was asked out to dinner, nnd everybody wondered what smelled so funny. "Little Od"?a nickname from the time he worked his way through the University of Colorado?Is one of the world's rich men now but he still retains the horse sense and simple ways of his early days in the west. He sat three days and three nights at his desk in his apartment living room overlooking the Hast River, munching ham sandwiches and gulping milk at meal time, working out rhr t*trrTi=p wrtchr rtmt The desk is something About thirty fee? long ten tUct high, with doors, drawers, panels, almost enough room to hide a piano and a small elephant Looks like something the I >uke of Marlborough stole out of a palace somewhere. Odium is one of the few people who can tell a success story without omitting a few vital chapters. He was a poor Methodist minister's son. After he worked his way through college and law school, he bought a bargain round-trip ticket to Salt l*ake City for $.V No particular reason?just a good bargain He walked into the office of Utah Power and Light Co.. a Jobless. penniless, newly admitted-to-thebar lawyer. He made a Job for himself?coping with "ambulance chasers" for whatever it was worth. They paid him $f.o the first month. After three jUQUths they paid him $7*. so In- got married to a daughter of n Mormon older This w is inst )?< ?'.ir<. ?he World War and the great utility systems were being assembled "Little Od" did good nough legal work to win an offer of a law clerk's Job in the New York law firm of Simpson. Thatcher A- Barlett. attorneys for the Electric Bond <v Share System, largest of the big utility holding companies la the firm he. made fast friends wph (b-orge Howard, then a lawyer, later head of United Corp.. which was founded b> .1 P Morgan A- Co.. Bonb: i g h' \ Co. .'to! associates as a sup : .'. - nn:r holding company of u'il.'. holding company stocks S. !-.e\ / Mitchell, then all-power!, ir of Lie. Tic Bond <V- Share, had i up b-c'! job "Little Od" was | . a: .at: 1 lie did the jot) j - - -v ; M had him moved onr | a:. "... >.i he would be more i 1 for future work M n... h fa'h ? r'-? ihi nerd him rapid I t." en re I ,i k o !; I speculating In ' I . * ,. i -> w , , i good pai t oli it - speculation was i a. as people's. Hi lost .Cei it o. k some time for him " ;.a> p off od'.utv. Con beg.m ignoring the bus'!o-!mis;;,. ,,f ;he Wall street rumor j *er:or and to can studying economic 'rend.s on a broader basis When he began using ' plain common -sense" he began to make money. Some of his associates, HTTward and other*, were interested They formed a syndicate. or "pool." It went well. Odium imported his brother-in-law. 1^ Boyd Hatch, from Utah, to act as manager. , r - ? ' f.T&'rjt M wan time,. Odium was doing a fulltime Job of work for E. II. & 8. He took u leading purt In assembling the far flung operating companies of American & Foreign Power Co,, Its subsidiary for properties overseas. Up to thle point, Odlum'a career wan not unlike thoae of abverul score bright young men of the time lit Wall Street- except that after one phytical col la paw due to overwork, ho determined not to abuse hla lualdea by careleaa eating or drlnklttg. r? From this point on. however. Odium's career became unique. Hy the summer of 1929. a number of the most. Influential men In Wall Street were saying prices were too high Russell C. Lefflngwell, a leadlng Morgan partner, for example, whose advice was regularly sought by many top flight executives who had no Morgan "tie-up" was giving that advice to all who asked it. But Odium was one of the few men who took it. While the "public" was still buying stocks at a madder rate' than ever, Odium was selling uearly all that his pool owned to have plenty of cash on hand. When the break came. Odium, who had started his second speculative climb with capital of $40,000, had control of $14,000,000 In hard cash and Vuuluk ". assets. It came from sailing stocks In the portfolio of the syndicate, which had now become Atlas Corp., and from selling a new Issue of AtlaB securities. Just as an Idea of what hard cash meant In those times, remember that "Van Swerlgen Hail Empire," valued before the crash at $3,000,000,OOP? The Van Swerlgens pledged control for a loan of $40,000,000 which was later defaulted, whereupon "control" was sold at auction for $3,121,000. (Odium had nothing to do with that). Just before the 1929 debacle In Wall Street some of the heaviest "public" buying had been In shares of huge Investment companies sponsored by big banking and Investment groups to buy a wide range of securities. Spurred by this wild "public" buying. the securities of the Investment trusts had Increased In value relatively higher than the worth of the securities In the trusts' portfolios. After the crash. Odium looking around quietly with more ready money than almost anybody In Wall Street except a few of the big banks (whose operations of course are limited by law) noticed that the trend In trusts had reversed. The "public," now dissatisfied with Investment trusts, had been selling trust securities so heavily that the securities had gone below the values of stocks In the trusts' portfolios. Moreover Odium discerned that the harassed sponsors of the trusts In many instances would willingly dlsocmany instances would willingly dislocate themselves frOm their control over them. He also noitced that most of these trusts had large holdings of marketable stocks. He figured out that by buying all the outstanding shares of a particular trust, he was really buying cash or Its equivalent at 60 cents on the dollar. His friend. Sidney Weinberg, created the nickname then?"Fifty Cents On the Dollar Odium." It worked this way: Suppose XY7. Trust owned stocks and bonds of V. S. Steel and other corporations which had a total value according to Stock Exchange prices of $1,000,000. But the capitalization of the trust itself was in the work of 10.000 shares of XY/? capital stock, now. because of public dissatisfaction, selling at $60 a share. Hy buying all of XYZ stock at a total price of $600,'OOP, Odhun would ty*t XYZ's portfolio of investments which he could thou sell in the market for $1,000,000. But he didn't by any means have to buy all such trust stocks He could give Atlas Corp. stocks In exchange. And when be had a new trust, he would dissolve it or merge it with Atlas. Thus. Odium gradually accumulated a pool of capital amounting to about $1.10,000,000. In its operation, he has told friends it was like a rolling snowball, for when one Investment trust was acquired. it would oftentimes Join the party and start acquiring control of others. Odium always made it a point to satisfy the minority, or "non-pontrol" stockholders, to the point of what he considered liberality. Usually most of these stockholders were glad to ex-j change declining securlt'eo in which they had lost confidence on a fair basis for Odium's Atlas Corp securities. Those who did not want to swap were paid off. It is Odium's boast tha-t the profits on the work of swallowing and assimilating these hidden values were fairly distributed amongst his own At'.us shareholders (I. E; to Odium himself in part) and to the new Atlas shareholders who had received the Atlas stock in the exchange on which the profit was made. There was another marked dift'eenoe between Odium and most bi_' Wall Street operators He foresaw tho rise of popular feeling against some utility companies, and excised the name "Utilities" from Atlas' on.inal title. He worked realistically and cooperatively with all public authori ties. Including the 'New Deal" aeon| cies He sought out and confcrr with loading Democratic party an! ofh??r "liberals" He has fri-qu?-nt!? privately asked the informal advl.e of the S F. C in advance of major transaction, to make sure he did no* offend against public policy or law Odium, through Atlas, successively in tho depression years bought in more than a score of major investment trusts, including such once potent ones as Goldman Sachs Trading Corp., All America General Corp. Ungerleider Financial Corp., Sterling Securities. Chatham Phenlx Allle, and National Securities Investment. After disposing of marketable securities In portfolios, Odium found himself with capital structure or man?ac&fe > , ,v Til ugement problems in such widely varying companies as: * Central states Electric. American Trust Co., of San Francisco (third largest U. 8. bank west of Chicago), Greyhound Transcontinental Bus Byslorn, Mississippi Valley Barge L4ne, Albert Pick Co. (a leading hotel supply house), a 1,300-acre fruit farm lu the Sun Joaquin Valley, Bon wit Teller, fashionable Fifth Avenue Store, and huge office buildings. Small wonder, said his friends, that the original title of his company, United States Corp., didn't carry big enough implications. Odium had the world on his shoulders, so Atlas seem- i ed like a better name. Innumerable are the anecdotes of, Odium's strenuous and complex efforts to help work out the management problems of manifold distressed companies in order to Improve their prospect. ' ! Thus Odium changed his Investin en t trust ideas fundamentally as he went along, and some of the changes at his recommendation, ? seem likely to be embodied in U. 8. law. Odium found that most Investment trusts, despite great concentrations of capital and presumably of super- 1 lor Investment brains, did not make a 1 better showing than the "bralnlesa" behavior of the public at large in the stock market as represented by "stock price averages. So he decided to get out of the tleid I (and take Atlas with him) of merely buying readily marketable or "blue chip" securities. Odium like most financiers thinks good times and more widespread employment In the U. S. ai% being held back by lack , of "venture" capital, in large amounts, for common stock Investment. He found straightening out the affairs of the "special frozen" Investments that his Atlas Corp had inherited in the Investment trust acquisition program, to be a work that was "constructive" Interesting and profitable. ? He deliberately took on other "special situations," such as Paramount, R.K.O., and Utilities Power & Ldght Co. He liked them so much that now he wants to specialise in "speolal situations"?to UBe his great accumulation of capital, Including ready cash, for Investment In companies In which he could himself take an active part In rearranging capital structure for more efficient operation, and sometimes temporarily supervise management problems. Some friends say he likes to think of himself as a corporation doctor. But Odium Is a one-man concern Ifthere ever was one. He has no great management organization set up, as have some of the big engineering firms, for example. The Atlas organi- j zatlon numbered altogether around 100 persons. His chief executive and right hand man Is still Boyd Hatch, whom he brought from Utah to New York to help him in 1923. His closest adviser out of the organization is still George Howard, although he Is 9aid never to have participated in the management. But despite this able assistance and advice, nearly every detail of policy must be conceived and expressed by Odium himself. He works in odd ways. At times he will work days and nights at a time to solve a particular problem. Then he will hide away on his ranch to rest up. He leaves the administration of the organization and all office routine entirely to Hatch. So he has found he has reached a limit. All the venture capital he can profitably use is about $30,000,000, he thinks. He pared down the peak of $150.000,OOO by buying in and retiring At* las Stock until he got it down to something over $60,000,000 ? the recent figure. This be thinks foF tlie time being at least, is twice too much. With this amount to keep Invested profitably he did not have as free a hand as he would like. There were numerous preferred stockholders of Atlas who had to be taken care of because pact of the capital was represented by preferred. And. as Atlas grew, he had mad* It a practice to Issue optlou warrants to buy more common stock In stock swaps. These options, inctfwtnlently. were perpetual, They weie Issued largely i Ha an effective detachable, convertible feature of the preferred stock. Therefore. Odium decided the options must be yloaned up along with the preferred stock. What to do? I Odium decided all his problems could be solved by a good merger with some company that cpuld use capital and had corporate structure, problems to solve. I He would thus get rid of his excess j capital, his preferred stockholders and the option warrants would be taken care of together and he would retain Atlus on a plain common stock basis with around $25,000,000 capital, plus some other liquid assets. If that should retain Atlas on a plain common rftock assets. If that should prove too small, he had no doubt he cpuld get moro capital when needed. Odium had been for years a director of Curtlss-Wrlght. He t? a longstanding friend of Guy W. Vaughan,! president of Curtlss-Wrlght. fle went on the board of the company because of friendship and respect Jor Vaughan. Odium was also an aviation enthusiast, as Is his second wife, Jacqueline Cochran, th?> twlce-ln-auow^ soloeiUM^ of the International League of Aviators as the world's outstanding woman pilot. I Curtlss-Wrlght had a complex capl| tal structure and needed capital. It was a deal. Odium Intends to remain merely a director of Curtlss-Wrlght to help Vaughan In the future as he has in the past. He does not Intend to attempt to exercise any management control, he says. He points out that the 60,000 shareholders of his company will become a part of the 175,000 who own Curtlss-Wrlght stock and none will own more than a small per?cent of the stock, much less control 4 But he sees the deal as the deal as benefitting Curtlss-Wrlght In. this wise (besides strengthening Its capital structure): 1. If the war continues, CsrtissWrlght's simplified capital structure and excess funds will give It a great head start in getting a lion's share of the business, If desired. 2. If the war comes to a stop, smaller airplane and airplane engine manufacturers In the country may suddenly And themselves In financial straits, in which case Curtlss-Wrlght may have a fair chance, with its huge supply of cash and liquid assets, to become a sort of General Motors of' the aircraft field. As for Atlas, which will continue to be Odium's "baby," he declines prudently to say what it will do next. However, friends of Odium pointed out these Interesting coincidences: 1. Odium earned big salaries as a lawyer and financial executive helping to assemble several of the biggest of the utility holding companies, and knows the technical aspects and the problems Inside out. 2. Bankers and executives associated with some of the big utility holding companies privately express considerable gloom over their financial prospects In the forthcoming battie with the S.E.C. over the integration or "death sentence" clause of the 1935 law. 3. The holding companies have had great difficulty getting nCeded new "venture" capital in the form of common stocks to help them comply with the law. A. Most, of t>dlmn^ -vealtlr" KffF' been gained from Intervening financially in the affairs of distressed corpOTatiorif*. ~ Odium has said he wants to supply "venture" capital in large amounts where it is needed, and where banks, investment houses, insurance companies and other usual sources are unable to supply it because of legal re atrlctiong or other conditions. They say he does not want to oq. j dertake any further managemeqt problems In utility companies. Can he do it? Despite the physio] strain Odium has been under (or ! more than t$n years, (those who have followed his career from the start say for more than 20 years), he looks fit as a fiddle, and says he has no tj. j tentlon of letting dowip. p His diet, his qare of his body, and the frequent long rests he takes?usually in the California desert?In his opinion will make it possible for him indefinitely to carry oh his multi-milllon-dollar one-man business. ' 7 ] FOR MAGISTRATE I hereby announce myself as a can- : didate for the office of Magistrate for DeKalto Township, subject to the rules of the Democratic party and j will appreciate the support of the volers. _ , v Respectfully yours, H. O. BURNS. /J CITATION The Bute of South Carolina, County of Kershaw. By N. C. Arnett, Probate Judge Whereas, Mrs. Lula Watson mede suit to me to grant unto J. H. Watson } Letters of Administration of the St' tate and effect? of Mrs. Bailie Watson, deceased. These are, therefore, to cite and admonish all and singular the Kindred and Creditors of the said Mrs. Sallto Watson decease that ..they be uod_ appear before me, in the Court ot ~ Probate, to be held at Camden, S. CL,on May 1 next, after publication here- ; of, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, to show cause, if any they hare, why the said Administration should not hii granted. Given under my hand this 16th day; of April Anno Domini 1940. N. C. ARNBTT, Judge of Probate for Kershaw Countl : J ' " ' - Goodrich Tires?Batteries EASY TERMS RADIUS '?BICYCLES ECONOMY AUTO SUPPLY CAMDEN, S. C. I Going "1 I Fishing? * * ' ti I We invite you to com* I to our itore and look over , our lino of ?I Fishing Tackle ! I We believe that we have j I juat what you will need to | I make your Ashing trip * i I pleasure. I Western Auto I Associate Store | j Phone 21 CAMDEN, S. C. [ I buy everything from homefolks * A itoo in. MIT - tlx NtTHOilM CUAAAMTH) - I the mmK&u % I NIT RAT ? OF 1 "li: SODA | LP AUI> at -. -"jS ? EL-. HOrtWIUYlHWBU P' NrTWIMOnCMKMNT ^ J '' M dMEFOLKS help me make 1 better crops. My fertilizer man knows my farm. I depend on him to supply me with fertilizer that produces bigger yields of better quality at lower cost. When I need extra nitrogen I buy ARCADIAN NITRATE, The American SODA, made in the South for Southern crops. I buy everything from homefolksl" THE BARRETT COMPANY N09IVM. II M. C. CMIMM, 1C. ^TIANTA. ?A. MOMTttOMttT, AU. pr ? | "1U ~ NEW , SOUTH' YOU are cordially invited to mo the new sound and color motion picture "Tha Now South'*. Ask your fertilizer matt whan it beofainc to your naifhborhootf.