St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-26
THE POTTS DIFFICULTY.
A Heavy Salt and Lumber Com.
panV EmbarraSsed

pany Embarrassed.
oDETRoIT, Nov. 25.-fhe Potts Salt
and Lumber company filed mortgages
for s6OO.OO0 this morning at OSroGa,
Iosea county. Mich. The j. E. Potts
Salt and Lumber company, of this city,
this morning flied chattel mortgage
with the city clerk for S51, ,9OO in favor
of George Parker, of Colorado. The
mortgage covers all lumber and manu-
featuring interests in Iosca county, and
ali lumber in transit. 1t is looked upon
here as the foreruEner of an extensive.
failure. The notes which are secured
by the 100000 mortgage are as follows:
Union Bank of Canada, Montreal, S4I
43447: Dominion bank, Toronto, Sl4S.-
/ So 70: Bank of Montreal. Sls3. 994.19: I'm
perial Bank of Canada, Toronto. $40 399. "a;
Sons & Co.. Detroit. Sl2.379 Ga; Charles L.
Ortman. Detroit, S5.25D; Alex Innes Au
Sale. 7,S64.76; Bank of America. New
York. s.. 600: National Bank of Commerce
New York, S5l 200; Citizens State bank An
Sable, -Sl40o4.7'; Iosco County Savings
tank. S5,719.l3.
The smaller mortgage covers George
w. Yarker. of Toronto. for one note of
$4,000; Sara A. Tisdale, of Simcoa.
: MT, for two notes of Sd, 600 and Sl0,UO9
respectively. W. S. Waugh. secretary
of the company, was asked TO make a
statement regarding the mortgages, but
he declined to do so. He said that Mr..
Tisdale, the president, was out of the
city, but would return to-mOrrt W morn
ing. Alfred Lucking. who is attorney
for the embarrassed firm. says the mort
cages were given to secure nearly all
the Indebtedness. They are fIr Ohliga-.
tiOnS about to mature. and it is optional
with the creditors TO seize or permit the
business to be conducted by the cDn-
pany. Should the latter coulSe be pur-
sued. he SAYS, all will he well. for the
assets, at par value. are wo th twice the
amount necessary to pay off every c..nt
due. If, on the contrary. the creditors
should insist on seizure and the COM
pany's property should go at a sacriti e
sale. the result could not he hut bad.
Mr.. Potts has been sick for some time,
and has been unable TO personally con-
duct his business. The emlarras smant
of the firm is attributed to bad man
a2ement on the part of those left in
charge.
What the result of the embarrass-
ment will be cannot now be stated 1t
depends upon the larger creditors. The
company may be sold out. it may work
out. or all may be sacrificed. The prin-
cipal creditors state that they are amply
secured. which is true if the mortgages
filed hold good. There is large amount
of debts, however, large and small,
which are not secured at all. The COM
pany has been paying 100000 per year
to the Federal bank on old Indebted
ness. Two years ago they put $4,000
into the Au Sable q Northwestern
road. The liabilities of the company
are placed at S1,500.000, hundreds of
thousands of which is not secured. The
assets are placed at $4,000 900, but this
includes the railroad, mill property,
etc.. which would be very hard to real
ize on. The company owns about 3,OO0,-
00p feet of stumpage upon which the.
Federal Ban of Toronto has contract
lien, the original amount being SS0O,0oO.
The concern, nowfhe ]. E. Potts Salt
and Lumber company. failed in 1882 and
since then has been doing business on
borrowed capital.