New angle;

              Bulletin HASKINS & SELLS 87
A New Angle
ODDITIES relating to capital stock
having no par value are not uncom­mon.
Queer conditions attaching to offer­ings
of such stock have been so frequent
that one is no longer startled by peculiar
provisions surrounding them, no matter
how absurd such provisions may be. There
was noted recently, however, a somewhat
original restriction attaching to what may
be called old line preferred stock. In a
statement of the preferences, rights, privi­leges,
and restrictions or limitations attach­ing
to the six per cent. cumulative, par­ticipating
preferred stock of a certain
utility company, the following appeared:
"In case any stockholder of preferred stock
shall at any time desire to sell or otherwise
dispose of any such preferred stock, he shall
give written notice thereof to the company at
its main office; and the company shall have
the right within thirty days after the receipt
by it of such written notice to purchase the
preferred stock described in such notice, upon
the payment of an amount equivalent to the
par value thereof and the amount of any unpaid
dividends accumulated thereon to the date of
purchase plus a premium equivalent to 5 per
cent. of such par value if dividends of not
exceeding 6 per cent. in the aggregate shall
have been paid on the preferred stock during
the period of twelve consecutive calendar
months next preceding the purchase thereof,
* * *. No preferred stock shall at any time
be transferable by any stockholder unless he
shall have first given the said written notice
to the company, nor unless the company shall
have either consented in writing to such
transfer, or shall have failed to exercise its
right to purchase the said stock within thirty
days after the receipt by it of the said written
notice."
In justice to the company, it should be
said that this stock is provided largely
with the idea of offering it to consumers of
the company's product. The point in­volved
is the effect which the provision will
have on the transferability of the shares.
It is apparent that such stock will never be
traded in freely, and doubtful if it could be
listed on stock exchanges.
Book Review
Sanders, Thomas Henry. Problems in
Industrial Accounting. (Chicago, A. W.
Shaw Company, 1923. 643 p.)
As might be expected, this book deals
largely with the subject of costs. It gives
a good idea of the various cost problems
which arise in connection with manufac­turing
operations, and contains a vast
amount of illustrative material having to
do with cost accounting methods and tech­nique.
Most of the problems have been
collected by the Harvard Bureau of Busi­ness
Research, which has spent large sums
in research work.
The book in question is essentially a
case book, and should be found especially
valuable for teaching purposes. The text,
in so far as it covers the theory of cost
accounting, is rather meager, but the prob­lems
are clearly stated and furnish an ex­cellent
basis for study. Not the least
value of the book is that it sets forth the
problems of various lines of industry as
well as groups the problems under classi­fied
headings corresponding to cost factors.
Among the industries covered are min­ing
and lumbering, hardware and metals,
machinery and tools, food products and
chemicals, textiles, and rubber and leather.
The bibliography furnished is extensive
and well selected.