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Both men were oldtime railroaders. They met in 1904 when both worked for the Baltimore & Ohio. Mr. Byers left B. & O. to go to St. Louis & Santa Fe. During the War he was assistant to Carl Raymond Gray (no relation of Dudley G, Gray), who was then president of Western Maryland. When Carl Gray went to Union Pacific in 1920, Mr. Byers became president of Western Maryland. Dudley Gray was then completing his seventh year with Western Maryland. He apparently resented the much younger Mr. Byers becoming president. An arrangement had to be made whereby all of Dudley Gray's reports would be made to the Board of Directors, not to the president. But in 1926 Mr. Byers became also chairman of the board and in this capacity received the vice president's reports.
From that time the tension between the two men became tenser. They seldom spoke except when business demanded it. They disagreed on many a policy. This summer, when depression has caused friction between the friendliest of executives, the Gray-Byers rivalry reached its height.
The railroad industry is self-contained. A railroad is a self-contained unit. Rivalries that would not be tolerated in other modern industrial bodies are accepted by railroad men. Both the president and the vice president knew that their grievances were their own, not the company's.
Thus, while in contrast to murders for love, for revenge, for money, happened one of the few murders ever done for business jealousy. Ranking officer after President Byers was his murderer. Next in line was Vice President George Poindexter Bagsby, general solicitor. Promptly he assumed his duties, for although passenger trains were halted for ten minutes on the day of each funeral, service must continue.— That too is a rule of the railroad game.
Celotex Cycle
In Chicago last week stockholders of Celotex Co. approved a plan which will constrict the activities of Bror Gustave Dahlberg, the company's enthusiastic founder-president. And in Chicago last week the second receivership suit of the year was filed against Celotex.
Bror Gustave Dahlberg, 48, was born in Norway, soon was taken to St. Paul. About ten years ago he conceived of celotex, made from the fibre of sugarcane, as a substitute for lumber. He organized the company whose phenomenal growth in sales has added unto it many a subsidiary. Behind the expansion was Mr. Dahlberg, shrewd in matters of manufacturing and sales. Also, he is generally credited with being the architect of its financial structure. In the past decade he is said to have made $10,000,000.
Great is his faith in the company. When Celotex was around $50 last January he wired all stockholders, telling them the stock had only partially recovered, not to "unwittingly sacrifice" their holdings. But by June it had slipped to around $40, then broke sharply to $20 when one David Adler sued for receivership. It recovered somewhat when the suit was thrown out of court and charges made that Plaintiff Adler had stock manipulations in mind. But when last week's events transpired Celotex stock was at $10¼.