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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (42725)	1/8/1999 4:50:00 PM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Well, I guess I stick by my comments, too. If you look-- quote.yahoo.com you see that the fund has a yield of 8.44%, and seems to be maintaining its policy of high dividends. The capital gains distribution also helps explain the lameness of price towards the end of the year.Indeed, as I remember, it used to pay out 10% a year of assets, dividend and capital gains, so that holders could choose to live off it or reinvest as they wished. The $25 that I put in it has grown more than anything except Tricontinental (for which all distributions were likewise reinvested). When I get home I will get out the last annual report so that I can be more exact, and will retract if I am wrong. As to Baker Fentress, I admitted that it is a very odd and erratic thing that hardly qualifies as a diversified mutual fund and that I should not have mentioned it. It's just one remembers fondly things one has made money on. Once they all of a sudden had some huge gain from something called Tomoka Land Company. I am looking forward to the day when I can just put everything back into a few of these, particularly Adams Express. Oh--Central Securities also did well for me.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (42725)	1/8/1999 6:20:00 PM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

OK MB, I remembered wrong; you are more correct than I am about the worth of Source Capital compared to other funds. Here's my ranking, based on growth from an initial $25 investment in each fund, all distributions reinvested, taxes paid separately. These are actual valuations from my own statement of account: 1. Salomon Brothers (originally some other name): $336.78 2. Tri COntinental: $320.90 3. Adams Express: $305.46 4. General American Investors: $298.81 5. Source Capital: $ 263.08 6. Santa Fe Energy Resources (survivor of Madison Fund assets): $8.41 Two other funds either went open end or did a compulsory buyout of small holdings. At the time I set this thing up I couldn't put in Baker Fentress because it was OTC at that time and didn't qualify for this program. And I hadn't got onto Central Securities. I don't ever plan to cash in this account, which also has some Ford and General Motors stock; my daughter can inherit it tax free, I guess. It's 90% capital gains. However, Source has done better than 8% a year indicated by the stock price, because of the 10% distribution policy. As I said, I have not followed these things very closely since the market began to run away from decent valuation; there was a time when Source used to do a little better, but as you say, it has lagged in recent years.