The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-09-06
The "Ou Creek Speculation.

A correspondent begs us to explain what
We mean by our occasional references TO
the speculationS of Audftor-GeneTal Hart
ranft in s.Oil Creek and Allegheny Valley
We believe we never have put that story in
connected form before our readers, but tits
a duty we always intended TO perform, and
now is as good time as any other.
The argument, as the poets would
call it. of the precious little romaunt of the
Auditor-Generars S office which we are about
to relate is found in the following letter,
which was found among the assets of the
firm of Yerl<es and company, when the
sheriff seized them:
AUDITOR-GESERAL'S OFFICE, !
HARRISBURG, March 9, 1870. !
DEAR YERKES Buy as soon as possi BILE
one hundred shares OF Oil Creek and Allie
rheny Valley railroad, and then have my
acconnt or rather an abstract made from my
account so that l can see the exact loss |
have sustained in Oil Creek as soon as yOu
can The AttOrney-General has given his
decision against our settlement on Oil Creek,
which takes the starch right out. II you
think well of it You may think that the chan
cce are that it will go up, but AZ everything
else is dropping but little can be expected
from Oil Greek What do you think of gold2
Yours. &c, JOHN T. HARTRANFT.
The story that is founded on and explains
the shove epistie runs thus: John f. Hart
rauft was poor young man, who was elect
~
which place there pertains q salary of S3,-
600 a year YeVkes WIS n Philadelphia
banker agent Of the state treasury in
transactions which required secrecy and
ability of certain kind (See Yerkes' part
ner' testimony in the Evans case. Some
how, Hartranft got so well OFT on his ssla-
" that lie was able to speculate very eX-
tensively in oil, and railroad stocks, and
in gold. OF course nobody knows whether
state funds which he deposited with Yerlcs
or with his ''private fortune"
However that may be, the letter is evi-
dence that he speculated largely. And now
let us see how he speculated. What was the
decision of Attorney General, which he al
ludes to in his letter as taking the starchright
cut? 1t seems that some time before this
Iartranft and some of his friends discoy-
ered or thought they had discovered, a
claim Of the states against the Oil Greek
and Allegheny Valley railroad forone hun
dred thousand dollars. Such claim against
a small railroad was calculated to deprcSS
its stock considerably. Gen. HaTtrauft saw
III this a chance for good speculation, so
he went short in Oil Greek and Allcghc-
ny Valley to large amount and proceeded
at once to press the claim against the road,
Of course he had right to use his official
knowledge to bear the stock Of that cor
pOration, hadu't he? But it seems the claim
wasn't good after all. In fact, it was so
worthless that the Attorney-General pro-
nounced against it fatty, ard it had TO be
dropped entirely. 1t was groundless.
indeed, that there have been suspicious that
it was trumpod up in the autlit0r-general' 5
office. AT all events it was dropped, but
before that happened ard before the starch
extracting opinion of the Attoncy-Ge ener-
al had been made public Hartranft wrote
the letter above quoted to Gerkes. The
letter is merely order to his ban ker to
hedge a bad speculation. As '-Oil
Greek" was now released from the heavy
claim that had hung over it, its stock was
sure to rise. So Gerlzes was ordered to
buy this stock while it was yet depressed
by the shadow of the claim the Auditor
/ General was pressing against it, so that the
AuditoT-Gcncral could make a little some
thing out of the rise to reimburse him for
what he had lost on his unfortunate short
speculation. This seems to be the explain
alton to this singular letter Of thc state Of
fetal who is now running for governor.
! Whether it is creditable to him as an ac-
counting officer Of the state or not. whether
it tends to disSipate or confirm the SuSpi-
cionS that Evans due-biil has thrown upon
his character, whether its tendency is to
inspire the voters of Pennsylvania with an
enthusiastic confidence in him and desire
that he should occupy the gubernatorial
chair for three years, ornot-these questions
we leave with our readers for serious tho't.
Pittsburgh Leader.