Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-30
ECONOMY AT PEACE.
A Cessation Of Talk About Imme-
diate Legal Proceedings.
JUMPING ALL THE LIABILITIES.
Recent Sale of Valuable Stock Belonging
to the Society.
GOSSIP ABOUT THE BIG MORTGAGE

VI
given to its affairs in week than 1t had
had in all its previous existence, is at peace
once more. President Duss visited Pitts
burg as usual Yesterday. He comes to town
almost-every day. His companion yester-
day was Judge Hice. the society's chief
legal adviser. The new plan OF financial
readjustment is proceeding. Mortgages
chiefly given IN connection with previous
purchases of real estate for the society, are
being lifted, and other claims held by Pitts
burg banks have been liquidated this week.
The Pittsburg Bank and other institutions
of this city who have been creditors OF the
society are now so no longer. 1t is evident
that part of the S4OO, 900 raised by mort
gage is being used to wipe out the society s
Indebtedness. The plan apparently IS to
lump all the liabilities.
The scheme has excited interest in fnan-
cial circles in Pittsburg. and some criticism
of the expediency of Transforming lndl-
vidual claims into one large obligation is
heard. The individual creditors, it is
pointed out, would have had considerable
trouble to enforce their claims, would have
had to bring suit in each case, and then
levy upon the personal property of the So
ciety before they could touch the real
estate.
May Lose All They Have.
Now, in the case of the mortgage for
S40O, 900, if the society make single de-
fault in payment of interest the mortgage
can seize the homestead of the society at
Economy. But it is almost unnecessary to
remark that the society may be quite able
to look after the payment of interest, and
the probability is that it can, or, argue Mr..
Duss' friends, such able men as Judge Hice
and Nj. Brooks would not have advised the
mortgage.
On Fourth avenue the statement of Mr..
Duss that the society has not recently sold
many interest-bearing bonds or stocks
created wonder, for it is common report
that many considerable blocks of valuable
securities have been sold for the society's
account during the past year. One sale,
and a very recent one, that is said to have
taken place, is that of the holdings of the
society in the Monongahela Navigation
Company, amounting to 800 shares of par
value of $4,000. The society owns con-
siderable amount of stock in the Pittsburg
and Birmingham bridge, one of its
most valuable properties, and the
application for certificate, which
occurred for the first time the other day. is
thought to point to its sale. The question
in the society and out of it among those
who are interested in the welfare OF the
little band of aged members who survive
OF the original stock, is if the regular and
certain income of the society from its bonds
and stocks is brought to an end, what will
take its place? and how does Mr.. Duss pro-
pose to pay the interest on the big mort
gage, an annual fixed charge of S24, 900?
There may be lots of satisfactory answers to
these questions, but they are not likely to
be forthcoming till the financial statement
promised by Mr. Duss is made.
No Legal Proceedings just Now.
The courts are not to be appealed to to
hasten this revelation of the society's fnan-
eial condition at present. The talk about
suits is not so well founded to-day as it was
on the day of Mr.. Henrici's funeral, and
whatever may be done to protect the minor
ity who are not in harmony with Mr. Duss,
no legal proceedings are to be expected just
now. There are good many people still
living In Pittsburg and the Ohio Valley
towns who take deep interest in the REM
nant of old Economics who are simply
waiting most of them, for death to call
them. These sympathetic spectators, who
include some most substantial citizens, re-
member their dealings with the Econo-
mites in the days when Rapp and Baker
and Henrici and Lentz were names
typical of honesty and uprightness, un-
touched and unstained with worldly am
bition, and they feel an affection for the
few survivors of the society which will
certainly lead them to scrutinize and if
necessary interfere with the new govern
ment at Economy That public opinion in
the Ohio Valley as well as in this city sup
ports this critical attitude, nobody who
goes much among the people who know the
Economics and knew them yesterday can
doubt for a moment
1t is remembered that when the Harmony
Society first settled at Economy in 1925,
nearly a thousand strong, they we're prac-
tically pioneers in agriculture in Western
Pennsylvania They introduced improved
methods and the high state of cultivation
to which they brought their lands was an
object lesson of the highest value to the
farmers not only of the Ohio Valley, but
what was then the Great West.
introduced Many New Industries.
They planted vineyards, and made such
wine as this country had never produced
before. With all sorts of fruits they were
equally successful. For instance, they in
troduced the sickle pear tree, which had
never been grown here before, but without
which to-day no orchard is deemed COM
plete. Then they turned their hands to
manufacturing, and the results were such
as to stimulate similar industries
even in Pittsburg. In their deal
ings with outsiders the Economics
were again exemplary in the best way.
Their word was always as good as their
bond They were public spirited and pro-
gressi7e, too. Their money went to start
railways and improve them, and that, too,
at a day when railroad investments were
not considered as legitimate as they are
now.
1t is the memory of these good deeds that
has lmpelled many of the elder folk here
abouts to regard with disfavor any effort of
newcomers in the society to push the weak
and aged survivors of the original COM
nnunitv tn the wall