Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-02-16

sold; one in st. Louis for Missouri; one
in Wisconsin,; one in Tennessee; one
IN Alabama; of which General
Upshur, now chief clerk OF the Indian
bureau, WAS the promoter; one In Texas.
and one in Louisiana. The two first
named companies were not required to
give any bonus, but in all their contracts
the Pan company agreed to defend its
patents at its own expense.
When the first local company paid its
bonus of 900 the directors proceeded
to pay back the sums expended by them.
selves in paying for patents, expert
ments, etc. This amounted to $275 for
each of the five, showing that of the
80 100000 capital stock there never was
paid in but Sl,3S5, peing little more
than one-fourth of per cent.
After this money was paid back the
| directors next proceeded to divide the
remainder OF the $4,000 as dividend
to the stockholders, the amount received
by each holder of one-tenth of the stock
being little less than $500.
The $500,000 of company stock had in
the meantime been partially distributed,
| 100 shares going to Ex-Governor John
l ~. oIOWA3 VI 1CDucbSScs uOW EGSiucub Al
st. Louis. and principal attorney for
| what is know as 'sthe Gould syRtem of
southwestern railways" Other sums
were gwen or sold to other parties hav-
ing or supposed to have either local or
| national influence, Senators Vest, of Mis-.
souri,, and Vance, of North Carolina.
| each getting portion.
| AT the beginning Of the first session
| of the forty eighth congress, brother OF
Senator Vance, Mr.. R. b. Vance then q
| representative from North Carolina, in
| troduced bill in the house of represent
| tatives giving the attorney general power
| to bring suit upon application to yacate
patents. This bill was referred to o com
mittee, which reported in favor OF 1ts
passage, saying IN its report that since
1886 the attorney general has Eot been
entrusted with this power. The bill
passed the house of representatives
almcs. unnoted, but WAS never reported
| from the senate committee on patents.
Contracts continued to be made in the
spring of 1884 until eight local compa-
MES, as before stated, we're organized. As
these companies paid in the required
bonus, the money was paid out to the
stockholders as diyidends, two being de-
clared in July of $l50 per share, giving
each OF the original promoters-G lar
land, Johnston harris, Young, and
Atkins-$750 each division, or $l,500 in
that month. Another dividend of the
same size was declared later, aggregat-
ing about $4,000 profit to each OF these
gentlemen within eighteen months upon
an investment Of S275 each.
To fully understand the interest
which Attorney General Garland had in
H.. Nn,, L..
necessary TO recapitulate little.
First, there WIS his $500, COS stock in
the Pan telephone company-one tenth
of the whole company was his. Then
there is the $<0000000 capital stock of
the licensed companies, of which 40 Per
cent, or Sl6.000,000. belongs to the Pan
company--of this, one tenth, or $l,600,-
i 600 belongs to Attorney General Gar
land. But that is not all, nor even a
small part of what would result from
the breaking down OF the Bell patents.
In that event there would not be eight,
but at least fifty companies, with capital
stocks averaging $5,000,000 each, that
would seek licenses from the Pan Electric
company. Two hundred and fifty mil
lion dollars is an exceedingly small es-
innate of the amount Rt which the COM
panies using the Pan-Electric teIe-
phones would be capitalized if the Bell
Eatent was invalidated. Forty per cent,
or $l00,000,000, of this stock would be-
long to the Pan company--one-tenth of
that, or $l0,OO0,000, would be the prop
erty of Attorney General Garland. Pay
| ing only per cent--and this is small
allowance-he would have an income OF
over SIS 600 without being out one dol
ars.
There was another potent reason. The
laws of ths country are particularly Ee-
we're upon bogus corporations which OBJ
tain money without giving an e4uiva-
lent, and though corporations are with
loui souls or bodies, the men who COM
pose them are not, and hence unless the
Bell patents could be broken down and
declared invalid, the men who had in
vested their money in the sixty per cent,
of the local companies which had been
licensed by the Pan company, whIch
had paid bonuses, built plants. bought
telephones which we're without yalne,
would be apt to call upon the parties
who had induced and profted by these
expenditures, made upon false state
ments as to law and facts, to make good
3 the losses.
u There was ruin, both in fortune and
. fame, upon the one side, and almost un.
9 bounded wealth upon the other. 1t was
worth stretching the law and the power
! OF the government to secure the one and
prevent the other.
The list of the names of the leading
stockholders and officers in this company
. reads like page from the Blue Book:
IL A. FL. Garland, attorney general.
Joseph E. Johnston, railroad commits
. sioner.
j. d. @. Atkins, Indian commissioner
Isham G. Harris, q. S. s. Tennessee.
= George F.. Vest, q. S. 8. Missouri.
Zebulon B. Vance, q. 8. s. Nortf
= Carolina.
J, Robert Klotz, ex- M. O., Pennsylvanis
Eli j. Henkle, ex-M. c., Tennessee.
MIR. Upshur, chief clerk Indian bureau
=. Frank Armstrong, inspector.
;, John @. Brown ex-governor Tennessee
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