344 SOLOMON HUEBNER 



for twenty two of these roads, representing $1,541,887, 088, 

 was $10,646. In twenty two of these roads, aggregating 

 $1,180,871,739 of stock, the average stockholding was $69,463; 

 while in nineteen roads, representing a capital stock of $829,- 

 041,555, the average stockholding reached $2,322,245. By 

 regrouping these railways, however, it was found that over 

 one half of the total capital stock of the first group is held in 

 average holdings of $18,561 ; that over 55 per cent of the total 

 capital stock of the second group is held in average holdings 

 of $108,000, and that five eighths of the total capital stock of 

 the third group is held in average holdings of $10,872,340. 



These averages, it is true, are modified by the fact that 

 as several small corporations become financially interested in, 

 or are merged into, a larger railway corporation, the number 

 of small stockholders may thereby be increased many times. 

 But the effect of this increase upon a wider diffusion of railway 

 stock, it is believed, is more than neutralized by the counter- 

 tendency of well-to-do individual stockholders to acquire 

 stock in a large number of such undertakings. Indeed, we 

 have seen that this multiple ownership on the part of individ- 

 ual stockholders exists to an exceedingly large extent. If 

 we recall, furthermore, that the average stockholding for the 

 roads of the first three tables has shown a decided tendency 

 to increase, and that great extremes of stock ownership exist 

 even in most of the roads of Table I, we may conclude with a 

 rough degree of accuracy that the above tables present, on the 

 whole, a far too conservative view of the actual concentration 

 of railway stock in individual hands at the present time. 

 Concentration certainly does manifest itself strongly in the 

 roads included in Tables II and III. And, if the composition 

 of the comparatively low averages of the railways of Table I 

 could be ascertained, to see whether they are made up of great 

 extremes or not, it seems probable, from the above considera- 

 tions, that by far the majority of the large number of stock- 

 holders cited for these roads represent small investors, and 

 that the majority of the stock, in many, if not in a majority 

 of these roads, is held by a comparatively few large holders. 



