Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1880-12-02

WIG, anu IhNlIlR u NhluG Ol uDOul DUU.
That is the start.
We will show YOU that man named Nc
Clure came to them and bargained for the
sale of l,240 acres of mountain land in
Dauphin county, Pennsylvania; We shall show
you that none of this company had any
money to give for this land, but Mcclure
said to them: ~ will take $50, 900 for this
land and you need not pay mo a cent give
me the stock of the Delaware State Fire and
Marine Insurance Company And they did it,
and then they turned around. AZ we shall
show you by az reputable a man as lives in
Wilmington that these men offered their
stock for five cents on the dollar TO hun. MIR.
James Bradford.
We shall show You what the value of that
land is. We shall show You, by as respectable
people as live III this country, that
this land, will not say is utterly valueless,
but that it III like any other hucllleberry.
scrub-oak mountain land, worth 81 or - per
acre. Instead of 100000. as returned and
sworn TO in their assets, we shall show you
that it is not worth at the bost more than
80, 400.
Now, gentlemen. we shall show this to you
by men who have lived in that country all
their lives. Some Of them will be here before
you face to face and you can see them: others
will be here by commission.
And we will prove to you further than that,
by George b. Money himself, the first presi-
dent of this company, that he went up there
and looked at this land. and it made him
sick-made him sick. 1t has not had the
same effect on this president yet
We know that men will dream about coal
and iron being there. We will have some
thing to say about that and we will prove to
you, by men who have gone upon that land
from your own county, men who are judges
of land, real estate men who have been in the
business in the city of Wilmington for years.
they will tell you their Judgment about this
land.
Now,we aren'thalf way through with it vet.
We will show you that when they came to
Delaware then went down to Kent county and
bought farm for $4,000, and paid for it not
dollar i'll money but paid for it in the stock
of the concern. and then turned around, as in
DuPage county, and executed mortgages on
1t and turned the mortgages i'll as assets of
this company.
We shall show to you proof incontestible
that i'll this very county, in Red Lion and st.
Georges hundreds, that the president of this
company made his oath, we will produce that
oath, that mortgage for $1,000 which he
turned over as assets to this company and
swore was a first lien. We will prove that there
was mortgage before it which ate the whole
value of the land up. We shall show you
that by aman who has been president of this
corporation, Mr.. James b. Henry. We shall
show you that the officers of this very corpo-
ration have sworn TO land being worth 5l5, 900
when at the outside it would not bring more
than $4,000.
We shall show to you, by the
records in the Recorders office ;
that there is not one mortgage which
they had returned as assets belonging to this
corporation that was ever assigned to the
corporation until Mr. John r. McFee was
appointed commissioner of insurance in this
State. In other words, we shall prove to YOU
that this company, i'll their statements and
advertisements, returned for instance assets
belonging to the company mortgage of
$4,000, when, in truth. the mortgage belonged
to William Bright, or somebody else, and
never had been assigned to this company;
never assigned on record; and, what made it
worse still, when the insurance commissioner
went to him about the assignment, the reason
he gave for not having made it was that he
might want to change it, and that was an
asset of this company.
We will go far beyond that. We will show
you, without question, that it was because
of this very company that the other insurance
companies in the State petitioned to have an
insurance commissioner appointed that
because of this the Legislature passed the
law, and Governor Hall appointed John II.
Mckee, of Georgetown, insurance commits
sioner of this State. We shall produce Mr..
McFee, the only Insurance commissioner we
have ever had in this State, and we would never
have had him but for this company, and he
will tell you that when he examined the assets
of this company, as we shall show to you by
his own sworn testimony, he threw out nearly
s20O,000, and left them with only about
Sll, 600 of assets.
And, if we stopped there. God knows VT
would think we had proven this concern tC
be fraud. But we will go further. We will
show to you that the other Insurance com.
panies in the city of Wilmington, | mean the
home companies, companies AS old as any
man in that box and older than the most OF
you, companies like the Farmers Mutual that
every man knows is good when he hears it,
name mentioned the New Ca, tie Count,
Mutual the Delaware Fire Insurance Com
pany that these companies absolutely refused
to co-insure with this. Delaware State Fire and
Marine Insurance Company not ON account
of the EVERY EVENING, not that the EVERY
EVENING had ever written any articles but
we shall show that they believed it to be Q
fraud and that eaca of these cOmpane,
selected one man, and these three men faii
and Impartial men, made an examination
| and, by their own report, absolutely refused
| to co-insure or to take anv thing from thi,
company as collateral. Not only they bu
| one of the oldest savings banks in the city o
| Wilmington to-day refuses to take any of th
companys assets as collateral for anything
not on account of anything the EVERY Even
| ING ever printed, but because they knew it Il
be rotten and valueless.
| / am only allowed to state to you what
| am going to prove; | am bound down by that
| We shall offer i'll this case to prove that Mr.
| Croasdale rendered his paper ready to hea
| anything this company could say in its owl
defense we shall offer to prove 50 YOU tina
| this company sent to him statement of it
fNnft. hn, Ii ~
| and III the very same Issue he wrote an edi
torial saying that from the exhibit this com
pany SGT forth this company had shown itsel
| to be fraud.
| Then, gentlemen, we will show YOU tina
insurance journals which are in the hands o
every man who lnsures property throughou
the Peninsula, Jointly attacked this company
not upon the ground of the EVERY EvESIN
but upon the ground that the assets of thi
company were exaggerated. We shall ole
to show to You that the very first time Nj
Croasdale's attention WAS called to this CON
| pany 1t was by their own statement sent I
him. We think We will show to you that tn
| rlmor, the common iHmur in the city of Wi
mington in New Castle county, everywher
i'll the State, the rumor was that this cOmpall
was bad company, n worthless company
and not to insure in it that Its reputation o
being worthless company was known fa
and wide; that il was known to such an el
tent that insurance companies of high stant
ing everywhere refused to have anything
do with it. Why, we will show to you MOI
than that.
We shall show You that when a party. VII
was an insurer in this company met with
loss and went to get his money. an officer
the company told him right ont ''We hay
got no money; we have got nothing to PIT
You; You can pocket your loss = and tn
upon another occasion. when visited bv q
attorney in the interest of his client. Il
President of the company himself asked ii
attorney which books he wanted to look Mt
the bogus books or the genuine books. An
il it all be true as | have stated. il Mr.. Croa
dale didn't do Gods service then don't kno
how he could have done it.
Now, have given very briefly an outlii
of onr defense. of course there will be mu,
introduced that have not had time to me
! ton, but the fact is for great portion of o.
} case, as | say, we shall rely upon the que
ton of justitication--it is true. the peoI
ought to know it, it was good for public /
formation, it was not malicious, il welded
, influence which the press, if good for an
thing, is going to WELD in a communit
What we did we did as you would have dot
So we will make our proof and, if We pro
! our case, as | have stated it, more il We ca
we shall confidently ask this jury for a VI
dict in favor of tine defendant = ~.
! George II, Money, swurn-Reside in De
ware City was President of the Delawt
: State Fire and Marine Insurance Compa
r from the early part of June, 1878, until I
Q following December.
a Mr.. Lore objected to anything PERTAIN
4 to the affairs OF the original company ON
: ground that the suit applied exclusively
the acts of the company since its removal
y Wilmington and reorganization in 1876; Il
e the present company, in fact, was new co
r pany and an entirely separate organization
= Mr.. Bird concluded that, as the compi
d to-day are acting under the same act OF
e cnrnOratinn that II acted nnder in 1879 1