Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1893-10-27
LANG ANDHIS ENGINE
portland Wholesale Houses Try Most
Dastardly Scheme.
They Attempt to Crush the Life Out of
+be Pullman Mercantile Company.

II has long been the plant OF Portland
rbolesale houses that the Palouse coun-
trv was their legitimate territory, and
+bat they expected its trade and would
:, raturn protect its interests. They
hove in wears past received a goodly por-
.:o, Of the trade, but how well the kept
tba latter portion OF the covenant is ex-
bibited by the affair with the Pullman
Mercantile Company during the past
waek. which establishment would have
hoon thrown into financial ruin had the
wholesalers of the aforementioned city
carried the day with their diabolical
scheme, or had not the merchants OF the
palouse country, and especially OF Col
fax been in sympathy with the Pullman
house.
The latter part OF last week represen-
tatiyes of the wholesale firms OF Lang
& Co. and Rosenfeldt, Smith & c., both
of Portland, were here, and attempted,
by threats and coercion to force the Mer-
camille company TO give them blanket
mortgage on all OF its property, to secure
q falty claim. The members OF the Pull
man Mercantile Company are men OF
too much honor to make any house
nreferred creditor when they could, by
another course, pay one and all dollar
for dollar. When the company refused
to tu n everything over, as !. Lang de-
mand d, then the latter, as the repre-
sentative OF Portland creditors, threat
,n,d to attach. The Portland represen
t.tives gave the Pullman firm to under
stanl that no hasty action would be tax
en-, and then, under cover OF this state
ment proceeded with the attachment.
At midnight Sunday Lang telegraphed
TO Moscow for special engine to take
him to Ccliax where he expected to get
londsmen to 90 on his attachment bond,
but the Mercantile company had 10y this
time b en- notified by friends Of how
matters were going, and decided to place
the usiness in the hands OF receiver
in order to protect all alike. 1t was now
race between Lang with his engine
and tile Mercantile company, the former
to attach, and the latter to have u re-
ceiyer appointed, and thus block the
cine game OF Portland. Lang would
have won had the ColfaX merchants not
refused point blank to become his bonds
men and thereby partners to his scheme.
Before Lang had found bondsmen II. q.
DePledge had been appointed receiver
by Judge Sullivan at a midnight session
OF the superior court, and the Mercan-
tile Company and its creditors were safe
from the Vaccinations of the Portland
firms.
The affidavit of f. ID. Richardson, sec
retary of the company, which was read
to the court, declared that, by reason o,
whereby all values are shrunken and
diminished, the Pullman Mercantile
Company was unable co collect its assets
or turn them into money, SO as to meet
Its obligations as they become due.
Several of the creditors of the corpora
ton, and particularly Lang & Co., and
Rosenfeldt, Smith & Co., had demanded
Of the affiant and the other directors that
they execute on behalf of the corporation
mortgage, covering all the property
ot the corporation, to secure their own
claims and th9 claims of other Portland
creditors, and who belong to an alleged
merchants Protective Association-to
The exclusion of all other creditors; and
mat they give immediate possession un-
uer such mortgage, to said creditors, so
mat they can hold said property for
tnelr own use and benefit, and sell it in
any manner they see fit, 80 as to pay
out their own claims, to the exclusion
and delay of all others. Upon the re-
iusal OF the directors to enter into the
scheme to make them preferred cred
itors, the Portland firms threatened to
prlt suits against the corporation, is
sue attachments and garnishment, take
JUDGMENTS, levy executions and sell and
sacrifice the p. operty of the corporation
ana harass it and it's officers with
multiplicity of suits, with the avowed
purpose of coercing it into preferring
The Portland creditors. The nominal
assets of the company are 100000, and
Gae liabilities are placed at $l35,OOO.
II The property were protected by the
court, there would be large surplus to
pay all indebtedness.
Mr.. Richardson further recites that q
large part tf the claims we're against
starners' whose crops had been almost
destroyed, and such assets cannot now
oe realized npon. About $50,OOO ls
now due, and there is not ready money
70 meet it, and in the emergency the
a'nant asked that the court appoint a
receiver.
Harry G. DePledge, of Pullman, was
SsPppodInted receiver, and his bond foI
SS'oOOO, contains, as sureties, Alfred
,Soohdge, j. J. Humphreys, Lake VOL
lard, and II MoGIa;na