Business: Reading for Sale

The president and sales manager of the world’s oldest and largest maker of genuine puddled iron last week resigned in a huff. All President Presly Neville Guthrie Jr. and Sales Manager W. S. Shiffer of Reading Iron Co. would say was: “It is an entirely personal matter.” But friends disclosed that Reading is on the verge of liquidation. A 102-year-old subsidiary of gigantic Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co., which is being reorganized under the Bankruptcy Act, Reading Iron employs 1,700 men, has sales of $4,000,000 a year. But foot-scrapers, ornamental fretwork and wrought iron pipe are out of fashion and Reading has lost $4,000.000 since 1929. Last week Vice President M. P. McDermott said he would be very glad to get $3,000,000 for it.