A fast-moving, three-cornered Wall Street fight ended last week with two battlers down for the count and much of the gilt knocked off the once-popular competitive-bidding method of selling bonds.
The fracas started when the Erie Railroad proudly announced that underwriters Morgan, Stanley & Co. would handle a $14,000,000 Erie bond issue. Up rose peppery, dollar-minded Cyrus Stephen Eaton, boss of Cleveland's Otis & Co. and a Midwestern underwriter, who believes that New York financiers get far too much of the underwriting business. He demanded that ICC stop the sale, open the bidding to all comers.
Next up was newly elected...
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