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Giant Challengers. The mutual fund industry has waxed so prosperous that several giants have grown up to challenge M.I.T.'s supremacy. Many of them have gathered several mutual funds under their wing. The other top fund managers: ¶ Investors Diversified Services, Inc., of Minneapolis, handles five different mutual funds. The biggest: Investors Mutual, Inc., a balanced fund with assets of $1.4 billion. Scholarly I.D.S. President Joseph Fitzsimmons likes to quote Don Quixote to explain his investment philosophy (" 'Tis the part of a wise man not to venture all his eggs in one basket"), but he keeps all his sales eggs in one basket by having I.D.S. sell all five funds itself, a practice unique among investment companies. ¶ The Wellington Fund, of Philadelphia, is a balanced fund with assets of $925 million and 275,000 stockholders. Launched in 1929, it is still run by President Walter Morgan, one of the founders, also has a second fund (Wellington Equity Fund), with assets of $41 million. Wellington topped all the funds in new sales over the past four years.
¶ Investors Management Co., of Elizabeth, N.J., runs one balanced and two common stock funds with total assets of $711 million. The shares of all three are sold by Hugh W. Long & Co., which did such a fine job that Hugh Long is now president of all the funds. ¶ Continental Research Corp., of Kansas City, Mo., manages four U.S. funds (including an income and a science fund) and participates in the management of a Canadian fund; it has 145,000 shareholders and total assets of $634 million. Founded in 1950 to take over management of the United Fund series, it is run by Cameron Reed, who concentrates on administration and sales from his Kansas City office, and New York Broker Chauncey Waddell. ¶ Lord, Abbett & Co., of Manhattan, was brought into the fund field in 1932 by Andrew J. Lord, who was killed when his horse threw him in 1946; it is now run by humor-loving Harry I. Prankard, 56, the author of several books on accounting. It manages one balanced and one common stock fund with assets of $580 million (Affiliated Fund and American Business Shares), is now concentrating on consumer-industry stocks.
The biggest funds are not necessarily the best performers. Over the past ten years the average fund has increased about 300%. M.I.T.'s gain over that period: 365%. Thus $1,000 invested in M.I.T. shares ten years ago would be worth $3,650 today v. $1,417 if it had been placed in a savings bank at $%. But many a smaller fund that has less to invest, and thus can get in and out of the market more easily, has done much better. Among the top performers in each fund category, the best record of all was turned in by Boston's Keystone 8-4 Fund, with assets of only $31 million. It recorded a 508% gain (see chart).