When it began to pay regularly seven per cent dividends, the public appetite for Metropolitan became insatiable.

The eager purchasers did not know, what we know now, that the Metropolitan did not earn these dividends and never could have earned them.

The mere fact that it was paying, as rentals on its leased lines, annual sums far in excess of their earning capacity, necessarily prevented anything in the nature of profitable operation.

The unpleasant fact is that these dividends were paid with borrowed money merely to make the stock marketable.

It is not unlikely that the padded construction accounts, already described, may have concealed large disbursements of money for unearned dividends.