Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-15
THE FREEDMAs'S FRAUD.
A Roster of Rotten Assets.
Only Four Per Cent. on Hand
for a Dividend.
The Books So Tangled That No
Dividend Could be De-
clared Anyhow.
The commissioners Want Con-
gress to Buy Boss Shep.
herds MOrtgaged
Property.

A Suggestion that the Treasury As
sume the Disbursing OF Funds, So
that the SaIary.Eating Branches
May be Closed.
WASHINGTON, Dec. I4.-The Commits
sioners Of the Freedman's Savings and
Trust Company will present a report to
Congress tomorrow. 1t will show cash
and cash items on hand at several branches,
as called for by the books of the company,
at the close of business, July IL, 1874,
amounting to S49, ,1S1. Of this the sum of
$3l ,6S9 only, had been received I'D to Nov.
80. The difference-S17, APIS found to
consist mainly of temporary loans, due
bills and shorts carried in the cash of some
of the branches. a portion of this amount
the commissioners fear will prove total
loss. The commissioners say that, owing
to defective system of booking, etc,
General Confusion
Of the accounts, and, considering the ma
terial they have had to rely on and the per-
sons to deal with, it is somewhat doubtful
whether they shall ever be able to obtain
correct statement of the liabilities and as
sets ofthe company. At any rate, it will
be a slow and tedious process.
The monthly reports of the branches
show that there. are on the books of the
company over IL, 900 depositors' accounts
still open, and each ofthem requires a care
ful examination. For long time it has
been known that the deposit ledger balances
Of several of the branches, including those
Of the Washington branch, were inaccurate
and unreliable, those Of the
Washington Branch Alone
containing at the time the commissioners
took possession, discrepancies of ever S70.-
600. The sum of S16,523 has since been
discovered to consist of a duplication of
portion of the depoSitors' accounts, they
having been twice transferred from one of
the old ledgers. On account of the irreg-
ularities thus existing, the commissioners
made the pass-books themselves the basis
of their examination. 1t soon became ap-
parent that designing persons were engaged
in exciting the suspicion of the depositors,
and endeavoring to prevent them from pre-
senting their pass-bOOks. All the schedules,
except those Of New Orleans and St. Louis,
have been received. Most of them show
the amount due depositors to be
Greater
than the amount previously reported by the
officers in charge of the several branches.
When the Commissioners assumed control,
the running expenses Of the branches Of
the institution amounted to about S155, 700 |
per annum. These have been cut down TO |
about $4,000 per annum. The collection |
of real estate loans is extremely slow and |
difficult; as to
SO-ealled Available Loans,
their collection is still more difficult. |
About half of them were made in the Dis |
trict of Columbia. The securities are now |
below par. Of many Of these loans the /
security is inadequate, of others, utterly /
worthless, and in some cases the funds of /
the bank have been loaned upon mere per-
sonal notes, without any security what
ever. The same may substantially be said /
Of the branch loans. As a class, these ap-
pear TO be the worst in possession of the /
company, and the Commissioners doubt |
whether even fifty per cent of this amount
will ever be collected. In attempting to /
realize upon the real estate property of the /
the Commissioners hope to Sc
cure the
Cooperation Of Congress,
IN making over some of the Washington
md Jacksonville properties to the United
states for uses and purposes for which they
ire admissible.
1uc udlduCC vi C<1ol anu C<ASu lltIlo Ou Il
land on Nov. 80, were S93,352. This does
lot promise very early dividend unless
Congress comes TO our aid, and authorizes
he purchase for the use of the government
If some of the real estate owned by the
Long Time
will elapse before We can hope to accumu-
ate sufficient funds to make a payment of
wenty per cent, for it requires nearly six
hundred thousand dollars to make such
'ayment, and the amount of cash in the
Treasury subject to draft at the writing of
his report is S11S,50S. The present con-
lition Of the books and accounts too,
5 such that even if we bad the necessary
unds, now to declare a dividend, it would
lot only be imprudent but unsafe TO do so.
Hence it is impossible for us to say how
oOn dividend will be declared.
CThe Commissioners suggest many need
d amendments to the law of lat June,
nd ask: How are depositors to be identi-
ed? how are we to learn the location and
otify those who canneither read nor write?
nd other hard questions. To keep up the
ranches for this purpose would absorb the
ssets as fast as they are likely to come in j
GREATER, the best debts being already col |
ected. Therefore, they suggest that
The Treasury {
ssume the discussing of the dividends /
trough its fiscal agents. The report is
gned by John A. j. Creswell, Robert
urvis and Robert a. I. Leopold