The morning call., 1893-09-26
A DAIRY'S WOES.
A Stormy Meeting of the
Directors.
THE EWELL MILK COMPANY
Mixed-Up Accounts Cause One of the
Board to Prefer Charges Against
the President.

Milk Company appear to be in a very un-
satisfactory condition as viewed from til @
standpoint of at least one of the directors
of the company, and at the stockholders
meeting yesterday +. Jansen severely ar
ragned the president l.. j. Ewell, cbarg-
ing him with the sole responsibility for
the present state of affairs.
Mr.. Jansen stated in his remarks that an
expert accountant who lad been employed
to run over the books Of the company had
discovered a number of alleged crooked
acts on the part of Mr. Ewell.
The entire capital stock of the company
is $150,OOO, represented by COCO shares, and
the balance sheet issued on July 81 Of the
present year showed net profit for this
preceding twelve months of S6594 81, but
the company still has debts to the amount
of $50 073 81 standing against it.
Among other charges made by Mr.. JAN
sen against Mr.. Ewell he mentioned the
following:
IAN the bills for merchandise were not
credited to the merchants who sold us the
goods, but to EwelPs private account He
assumed such liabilities and settled with
the merchants by giving his individual
notes. He also manipulated the stock in
an equally queer manner. The report of
of the capital stock 5514 shares were issued
to l.. J. Ewell, and he did what he pleased
with it,"
Then Mr.. Jansen went on TO enumerate
other instances which lie thought went to
show that Mr.. EwelPs business capabili-
ties were not of a high order, to say the
least. When the latter was retired from
the position of manager of the company,
Mr.. Jansen said. an examination of the
accounts showed 1000 silver ladies listed
among the assets. These ladies, it ap-
pears, had been given out to customers as
an advertisement. Another item in the
asset colum was $1,000 expended among
people to drum up trade. These and other
similar instances were commented upon in
Mr.. Jansen's appeal to the stockholders
not to again allow Mr.. Ewell TO obtain
control of the company'S affairs.
Mr.. Ewell gives different version of
the story. He said last night that the
trouble was directly attributed to his
efforts TO instill little more life into the
boaId of directors.
in the past" said he. "we have had
three dummies, and only two men who
were willing TO work. To-day's election
has remedied that matter, and | now be-
lieve we will get along harmoniOusly. So
lar as The election of officers is concerned,
l was elected president, which does look
as If l had entirely lost the confidence of
my associates, does it?
Il am willing Ia confess that the books
OF the company we're in a bad condition
while | had charge Of them, but that fact
is due solely to my unfamiliarity with the
work. As TO the charges made by Mr..
Jansen, l shall not treat them in a serious
manner. Three years ago / let him have
ten shares OF STOCK in order that he might
heeome eligible TO a dictatorship. To-day
l made demand upon him that he should
recOmpense me for them, as l have never
received cent from him,
The trouble TO-DAY was caused by the
representatives OF 104 shares out of a total
OF 5000. You thus see its exact proportions.
As regards the overhauling of the books
and the alleged discrepancies shown /
will give you just one illustration of how
that ccurred When the property of the
company was appraised by the nsw man
agement COWS that had cost 500 were put
down in the list at $50 and so on with the
other property. So when the sum total
was footed up it, CT course. did not agree
with the value L had placed on it. II had
thrown my property into the hands of a
receiver three years ago would have been
far better off. l have simply held on and
have sacrificed my property in my efforts
TO keep above the tide. / have simply
overreached myself, like many another
man, but have never been guilty of sim
pie act of a criminal nature"
An empioye who has been with the COM
pany for several years and who seemed TO
be pretty familiar with the different
phases OF the matter, summed the situa-
ton up as follows:
1T is simply fight among two factions
in the board TO get control of the COM
pany's officers. AIR. Ewell is visionary
man. in business sense, and he has at
tempted things which he was unable to
carry to successful conclusion. He has
made many costly mistakes, but | don't
believe he has been guilty of any overt
acts. Some time ago the superin tendent
Of the company left and organized an op-
position dairy. and that has cut into our
business very heavily. The capital stock
is about twice as large as it ought to be,
and efforts to pay dividends on this surplus
has caused good deal OF the trouble"