In examining the cost to the Moores it is at once to be said that these gentlemen did not pay 172½ for their old Railway stock. What they did pay is of course uncertain. It is known that much of their holdings was acquired in the early months of 1901, when prices ranged from 116⅞ to 136. An average of 140 would represent a conservative estimate of what they paid, at which price a majority of the $75,000,000 would have cost $52,500,140. In return for this stock, at the prices of January 2, 1903, they obtained $18,375,049 in Rock Island Company common stock, 21,918,808 in Rock Island Company preferred stock, and 32,765,712 in Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company 4 percent bonds. Since the preferred stock sufficed for control, there were left $18,375,049 of Rock Island Company common, and $32,765,712 of Railroad Company bonds, or a total of securities with a nominal market value of $51,140,761. Deducting this from the original investment, which has been estimated at $52,500,140, there is left $1,359,379 to represent the actual cost to the Moore crowd of control of the great Rock Island property. Beneath all of these figures lies, of course, the erroneous assumption that it would have been possible to unload large blocks of securities upon the market without causing a break in price; and yet, though large deductions must be made on this account, the figures are eloquent of the skill with which the Moores have manipulated Rock Island issues, and of the slender basis on which their control rests. It has been truly said that the question is raised anew as to what is legitimate in corporate finance. All this is very different from anything described before; and so far as motives go, the two Rock Island reorganizations stand by themselves. In the matter of methods some similarities appear. The great increase in capitalization resting on the Rock Island system was accomplished mainly by an inflation of stock, not of mortgage bonds, and involved a comparatively slight increase in fixed charges; the Rock Island Company closely resembled other holding companies in its method of operation, and seemed likely to offer some facilities for the consolidation of competing lines; and though the extraordinary privileges given the Rock Island preferred stock have perhaps never been paralleled in degree, the practice of granting such stock preferential treatment in other things than dividends is not unknown. On the whole, however, this kind of reorganization stands apart, and is rather instructive as showing what may be done in the handling of corporation securities than in indicating any sound principles on which bankrupt roads may proceed.