St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-23
IN 4 SORRY PLIGHT
ARE THE sToCKEoLDERs OF
THE PEOPLES BUILDING
ASSOCIATION.
LITTLE SHOW FOR MONEY.
EFFORT WILL BE MADE TO GET
A RECEIVER APP
POINTED.
THE GUARANTY LOAN is SUED.
Directors Accused of Negligence
and Unfaithfulness-M
Fall.

For an assignment precipitated by
a judgment of $40, that of the Peo-
pies Building and Loan association,
filed Wednesday, created astonish-
ing disturbance.
Building and loan men in Mime
apolis and st. Paul are unanimous,
so far as interviewed, in the opinion
that if any stakeholder or creditor
of the Peoples sees fit to apply for
a receiver, the assignment will be
set aside and the petition granted
without delay. Emphatic exception
is taken to the statement in Attor-
ney Van Wert's interview that the
association was not founded on the
right principles, and that by reason
Of said defect it was only calculated
to run with success while the money
was coming in. Officers of other as
soclatIonS-and there are several of
them in Minneapolis-state that the
plan of the Peoples association did
not differ from the usual plan of the
Minnesota associations, and that the
dlmlnution of income, or even it's
total suspension, need not of necessity
force an assignment or any ether
losing plan of settlement. On the
contrary, it is generally asserted
that the complications of the Peo-
pies arise from
EXTRAVAGANZA
and other faults of MANAGEMENT
which have been the subject of cur
rent gossip for two or three years
back.
Aside from this the chief criticism
current among the building and loan
men combats the expediency of an
assignment in any case. In the
building and loan system, stockhold-
ers and creditors are identical. There
are, or should be, no creditors who
are not also stockholders, excepting
only those who draw salaries or re-
celVe rents or other moderate items
In the fixed expense account. 1t is
not admitted by building and loan
men that this class of creditors
would be likely to precipitate trouble
IN the case of a concern handling
continuously large sums of ready
money, IA per cent of which the law
allows to be applied for the pur-
pose. The $40 judgment upon which
the assignment was made is pro-
nounced most shallow pretext. and
building and loan men are indig-
nant that such extraordinary causes
Of failure should be alleged, to the
prejudice of the public mind against
institutions that are honorably and
safely conducted.
Byron Sutherland, secretary of the
Peoples, takes exception to some of
the statements regarding the assign
ment, and in an interview which fol-
lows, explicitly lays the blame of the
catastrophe upon the Farmers and
Merchants State bank, which failed
in 1893. The Peoples association lost
It's deposit, amounting approximate
ly to $4,000 in that affair, but it is not
clear how the loss of $4,000 can arise
two years after the event to smite
to determination a concern whose
assets are scheduled in the neighbor-
hood of $166,000 Mr. Sutherland is
in error in charging the Times with
saying that 1.-The association was not
founded on right principles" These
were the words of Attorney Van
Vert. The question in which the
stockholders are most interested is
as TO whether or not an assignee, in
whose selection neither the stock
holders nor creditors have had a
voice, can accomplish more in realiz-
ing the full value of the assets than
a receiver appointed by a court at
the instance of the parties in inter-
est, would be able to.