The morning call., 1891-06-05
THE BANK FAILURES.
The Comptroller Of The Currency States
His Opinion.

WASHINGTON, June 4.-Referring to the
criticisms OF his bureau in connection with
the Keystone Bank failure of Philadelphia,
Comptroller Lacey said: "As a matter
OF fact. both the closing of the bank and
the appointment of the receiver were or
dered by the Comptroller against the wish
of all who had sufficient interest to express
an opinion. There were many reasons why
1t was desirable to avoid a recrivership,
notably, on account Of its assets being so
largely in re estate. The Comptroller has
deemed 1t his duty to aid in the several
hopeful attempts that have been made to re-
open the bank by contribution of new capital
under new and competent management, As
matter of fact it was officially reported to
the Comptroller that 100000 Of new capital
had been subscribed and that the Lucas
estate was expected to make good ali the
amounts due. Recent developments have
shown that these plans could not have been
carried out. bat they were sufficiently
promising at the time to warrant the delay
asked for. Similar measures, Lacey said,
have caused the reopening for business
within the past six months of at least four
national banks, whose capital had been
impaired. and two more will open soon.
BARDsLEY's STOCK OPERATIONS.
PHILADELPHIA, June 4.-Before the in
vestigating committee Peter A. 3. Widener
u,
unlnaded' S400, 600 worth of Chicago Trac-
tion stock on ex-City Treasurer Bardsley.
He never sold Bardsley stock Of any kind.
The Presidents of several national banks
denied ever having paid Bardsley any
monetary consideration for city money de-
posted in their institutions.
Mr.. HUM of the brokerage firm of Glen
DENIM & Co. resumed testimony. He said
in the course OF a single year the firms
stock operations with Bardsley aggregated
Sl,250,C0O, and in the same time they bOr-
rowed 100000 from BardSley and loaned
him S250,000.
Confidential Clerk Bean of Glendennin &
Go. was piled with questions as to how lie
came to go to Bardsley's to borrow money,
etc., but TO all questions he returned the
Ster eotyped answer II don't remember"
The report of the expert accountants Who
have been investigating the accounts of ex-
City treasurer Bardsley was transmitted to
the City Council Committee this afternoon
by Mayor Stuart The report is volumin0us
one and gives in detail Bardsley's accounts
with various banks. The report shows that
ON the 2lst OF May, according 10 the books
of the City TreaSurer's office, there was on
hand $50, 3l7,6G8 belonging to the city. OF
this amount the books of the City Treasurer
show there was on deposit in the Keystone
Bank 81, 49,, 900. This sum is claimed by
Receiver Hardy and Bank Examiner Drew
to be wrong, and that the banks books
oloH NhC dNtUal uckDSlG W nave DSoU EOOJs-
369 Bardsley had been carrying as cash in
the City Treasury $196,045 of worthless
checks drawn on the Keystone Bank. In
some way, not yet definitely known, he
raised the amount in cash and substituted
II for the checks. He then vent to Bank
Examiner Drew and asked that this amount
be charged to his account as City Treasurer
in the Keystone Bank and credited to his
personal account This Drew refused to do.
The only specific evidence of.any criminal
act Of Bardsley with the city'S money is the
appropriation OF $50, sc, for which he was
indicted. The examination is still going on.
A DELIBERATE swINDLE.
ST. LOUIS. June "A Guthri oklahoma
dispatch says: The receiver of the Conn
meTcial Bank, which failed some months
ago, has handed in his report to the court.
1t shows that the bank, from its inception,
was run with the view to take in all it could
in deposits and then fail. / he defunct
bank started in without dollar, and there
is no record that the organizers oil the iusti-
tuition or anybody else ever put IN dollar
except the depositOrs.