BEAR VALLEY MATTERS. 



EX-PRESIDENT GREENE WRITES AN OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF 



"THE AGE." 



CHICAGO, June 13, 1894. 

 Wm. E. Smythe, Esq., 



Editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago, lit. : 



DEAR SIR: I have before me the June number of your journal, 

 containing an article which I understand to be a semi-official 

 announcement of a plan for reorganization of the Bear Valley 

 Irrigation Company, which has been in the hands of receivers 

 since December of last year. 



You seem to have carefully ignored any statement of the causes 

 which led to this great disaster, thereby denying to shareholders 

 any consideration of the reasons which have led to the adoption 

 of the plan as presented. The time occupied in reaching your 

 conclusions, and for carrying on the negotiations, has, I think, 

 been ample to have permitted the promulgation of something 

 more satisfactory. 



It is quite true that the Bear Valley Company won the confi- 

 dence of the investing public. How widely that confidence was 

 disseminated will appear from an analysis of the stock list as 

 given bejow. You make, as a statement of fact, that " Bear Val- 

 ley obtained for its own and dependent companies something 

 like $3,000,000. This came in part from New York and the New 

 England States, and in part from foreign countries, principally 

 from England, Scotland and Switzerland." It will interest 



shareholders, perhaps, to know just where it did come from, and 

 I submit an analysis of the lists of shareholders of the several 

 classes, as of date, May 3, 1883, since which time there have been 

 comparatively few transfers. 



There are 20,000 shares held en bloc by the Bear Valley and 

 Alessandro Development Company, as the equivalent of an equal 

 number of shares issued by that company. Besides these there 

 are 10,000 shares outstanding of the common stock, and about 

 half as many of preferred. 



ANALYSIS OF THE TABLE. Represented by percentages, there 

 are held of the total in the United States, 74 per cent.; in Eng- 

 land, 6Ji per cent.; in Scotland, 13 per cent.; in Switzerland, 5J 

 per cent.; less than 2 per cent, being held in British provinces. 



The number of the shareholders of common stock ($1.000,000) 

 is 387; of the preferred stock, 193; of the Development stock, 

 149. Total number of shareholders, 729. 



Of these, 71 hold but a single share each; 58 hold 2 shares; 216 

 hold 5 shares or less; a little more than half of all, 369 individuals 

 hold less than 10 shares; 133 hold from 10 to 19, inclusive; 104 

 held from 20 to 49, inclusive; 37 hold from 50 to 99, inclusive; 58 

 hold from 100 to 499, inclusive; 6 individuals and 4 companies 

 hold above 500 shares each. 



On page 226 of THE AGE you speak of the Company as being 

 floated on the " still-hunt plan, and about which investors made 



TABLE, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF SHAREHOLDINGS IN THE BEAR VALLEY IRRIGATION COMPANY. 



NOTE. There is an. apparent excess above the 10,000 common, but it is clearly an error, as the exact number as issued is regis- 

 tered by the Registrar. There are also 397 shares of the Development stock unaccounted for in this list, of which a part is held in 

 Switzerland. While all of the Swiss holdings stand above as'in the one name, they are in fact distributed among a number of holders. 



