The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-07-31
SHAMEFUL RECORD.
Continued from drst paoe.

CONTINUED from HfSt DuDe.f%
of Directors, the blame belonging to him
self alone. A committee of stockholders
was appointed at this meeting to investi-
gate the affairs of the company. The
committee reported on April IA, 1881.
After reciting in substance the story told
above, the report says
The exposure of these misdeeds is nc
pleasant task to your committee. In
making it we have refrained from ex
which the recital suggests, leaving 1t &c
your Judgment to take such action as
they seem to require.
WATCHING THE GRAND JURY.
These affairs were of course all the sub
jects of criminal prosecution, and while
the two years given by the statute OF linn
itatioh remained Mr.. Cleveland withdrew
to the deepest obscurity. keeping his eye
only on the Grand Jury. Two
or three times during these two
years he himself was foreman
of the Grand Jury. and the Grand
Jurymen of those days were worthy pre-
decessors of their successors, now named
having expired and the danger of Grim
inal prosecution being over, Mr.. Cleye-
land began to pull himself together in
Jersey City politics.
The Dixon Crucible Company has had
to take in ali that fraudulent paper issued
ny lt6 lOEulGl QIColOcnts f1A0 ~ II OAir
just getting free of hat tremendous bur-
den. Principal and interest, amounting
to 81, 200, 900, it has paid off on account of
Mr.. Cleveland's work, for which the COM
pany had never a dollar. 1t is fair to say
that the Dixon Crucible Company does
not owe a dollar outside of its indebted
ness to the present Board of Directors.
The behavior of the company, its
stockholders and its managers in those
trying years of struggle with this gigan-
tic d~efalcation in paying these debts, is
beyond praise.
Early in the history OF the Dixon
Orr Grnciole $50 Gompanyy,s %fdiiirs \ nd
account was opened on the books of the
company in the name of J.tB. Cleveland.
the brother of Orestes Cleveland and the
present Treasurer of Jersey City. The
moneys of the Dixon Company were free
" used and charged, now to the account
of "Jerryn Cleveland. At this time there
was great talk in Jersey City about
the Nicholson paving job'' and the Re-
servoir job in boil of which j. b.. Cleve-
land was made the scapegoat.
HIS WORK BEGAN EARLY.
In the committee report 60 the stock
holders on April IA the following para
graph occurs:-
Mr.. Cleveland's irregularities began
at an early date by overdrawing his per-
sonal account and allowing his brother,
j. B. Cleveland, to do the same thing,
until, at the beginning of 1879, their unit
ed defalcation reached the sum OF $780,
4S4. ~
AT a time when the financial burden
was heaviest on Mr.. Cleveland, on a GER
tain afternoon he limited to the secretary
of the company at the overisSue of 100000
of the company's stock to be passed to
the firm OF Fowler, Champion g. Co.,
saying that the necessity for it would be
over in thirty days, and it could come
back and be destroyed. This scheme,
however, was not accomplished. owing
to the refusal of the secretary, without
whose signature the certificates were
valueless, to join in the undertaking.
The books of the Dixon Crucible Com
pany show that the firm of Fowler,
Champion & Co., when the latter went to
pieces, owed the Crucible Company, all
told, $697, IA 10 on account of the paper
put forth by MI. Cleveland to complete
his Court House speculation. Fowler,
Champion g. Co.'s failure was about as
complete as it well could be, for they did
not pay one cent on the dollar.