Cuban Investments 



The railroad security market is in a chaotic 

 condition. As an evidence of this, less new 

 railroad mileage has been constructed in the last 

 year than in any year since the Civil War. 



The Federal Government has no power to 

 prevent railroads from "Stock Watering" and 

 unless some method is found to prevent railroads 

 from over-capitalizing, these securities are bound 

 to dwindle in value and be wrecked, as were the 

 Chicago & Alton and many other roads. A 

 member of the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 recently said, **To-day, we are called in only 

 after the horse is stolen. In order to be of any 

 real service, we should have something to say 

 about locking the barn door." 



The Interstate Commerce Commission has 

 charge of about eight hundred railroads, with a 

 trackage of about 247,000 miles and a super- 

 vision over 1,695,000 employes. 



Many of these railroads have one hundred or 

 more subsidiary companies and each of these 

 thousands of companies may issue securities 

 under their own titles. 



The Commission, if given proper powers to 

 regulate the issuance of new securities, might 

 possibly be able to prevent future bankruptcies 

 such as the Rock Island and the New Haven, 

 and yet have practically no control over the 

 financial history of trunk lines twenty years 

 hence. 



As an illustration of this, let us take the history 

 of the Boston & Maine Railroad. For several 

 years the laws of Massachusetts have been very 

 strict concerning the issuance of new securities. 

 The Boston & Maine has long been under these 



