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Then, last week, the proposed absorption of Corn Exchange Bank fell through. Merger terms permitted Corn Exchangers either to exchange their stock for National City on a four-fifths for one basis or to receive $360 a share each. When the Market crashed, Corn Exchange stock accompanied it, at one time reaching a low of $160 per share. Obviously Corn Exchangers would gladly take $360 a share for their stock; equally obvious was National City's reluctance to buy up the entire Cora Exchange capitalization at a point far above its market value. Therefore National City stockholders refused to ratify the merger, and plop!—back went National City to a size well below London's great Midland Bank. This unfortunate development was followed by many wild rumors, so widespread as to call forth from Mr. Mitchell a denial that he contemplated resignation or that his directors were at odds with him. Rumors had been based partly on the suspicion of a difference of opinion concerning the calling of loans by National City branches.
Thus Mr. Mitchell and his troubles. But Mr. Mitchell likes exercise and combat. He daily goes through setting up exercises, frequently walks from his home (No. 934 Fifth Avenue) to his office (No. 55 Wall Street). He likes surf-swimming, the rougher the better. He plays tennis with slams and bangs. As he sits at his rather old-fashioned desk, overlooked by a picture of George Washington, and listens to his three telephones ringing, his curved eyebrows may become a bit more Mephistophelian as he remembers one of his pet business maxims—that the typical U. S. system is the concentration of responsibility in the hands of one accountable individual.