The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-04-06
BOOK CONCERN FRAUDS.
DR.. Lanahan's Terrible Charges
in the Baltimore Methodist
Preachers Meeting.

BALTIMORE, April 6, 1S96.-Rev. DR..
John Lanahan sprang a sensation in the
Methodist Preachers meeting this morn
ing when he announced that in a few
days he will publish, in a permanent
form, the Era of Frauds in the Methodist
Book Concern at New York, where he
was at one time an agent. He stated
that the publication is made necessary
by the repeated denials of the frauds
by persons in official positions.
AIT the last general conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, DR.. c. s.
McCabe, in a speech on the floor of that
body, declared that 1.-THE church never
lost a dollar by one of its agents. DR..
Lanahan, who has for many years been
the presiding elder of the Baltimore con-
ference, took the statement as a denial
of the charges he had heretofore made
against the New York Methodist Book
Concern and he determined ito secure a
thorough investigation of the matter, for,
as he puts it, mo funds are SO sacred
as those contributed in the name of
Christian charity contributed in some in
stances by poor people who can i'll afford
to give of their substance
After the astonishment created by DR..
Lanallans reiterated charges against the
New York Concern had somewhat SUBJ
sided there was an almost unanimous
sentiment expressed among the members
of the Preachers Meeting that the Cen
eral Conference to meet in Cleveland, o.,
next month will be compelled to give
serious attention to the chse. DR.. Lana
han will be member of that body, and
his standing in the church is such that
his statements can no longer be ignored.
DIR. flanagan will, he says, furnish in
dilbitable proof that for more than
twelve years every financial report made
to the church by the New York man
agement was false from twenty thousand
to hundred thousand dollars; that said
reports were false as to the amount of
cash in the Shoe and Leather Bank,
where the official account was kept, be-
cause the senior agent kept large amounts
of the concerns monies in his personal
account and used it to speculate in
stocks in Wall street; that large sums of
MONIES sent to the concern for church
benevolence were used in the same way.
The speaker further said that frauds
were perpetrated In the manufacturing de-
partment. In the printing branch the
purchase of 100000 worth of paper was
fraudulently availed of he sad, by The
superintendent, who used a man having
no connection with the concern as a go
between, and that no matter from whom
the paper was purchased, that man was
allowed to levy tax and realize hand
some benefit; that more than $4,000 worth
of leather was paid for in less than two
years of which no account was. or could
be given; that the Book Committee whose
business was to examine. assumed that the
exposure of the frauds would injure the
church and endeavored to conceal all and
whiteWash the defrauders; that the com
mittee iinduced one of the defrauders g..
]. Goodenougf) to sue him CDR. Lanahan)
for slander, but that the plaintiff evaded
a trial of the case and it was finally
dropped.
In addition to these serious charges,
Dr. Lanahan stated that three large
oil companies were secretly organized
and carried on by the senior agents at
New York with the cooperation OF
other employees of the concern, without
the knowledge of the Methodist Church.
The capital stock of the three companies
aggregated more than a million dollars.
DIR. Lanahan in conclusion stated that
he had recently been able to secure
copies of a large part Of the records OF
the Book Committee, and is, therefore
in a position to prove his case before any
ecclesiastical or civil tribunal He appeals
to the church for an honest examination
Of his charges and adds IF the APP
preaching General Conference shall or
der an examination / care not by
whom nor by how many I shall claim
but one thing, namely, to be represented
in person and by one accountant OF
my own choosing. If this is granted
and / do not demonstrate the truth o.
my charges, the church will be justified
in doing what the majority of the Book
Comm ittee and a part of the official press
planned and labored to do: make my
name the synonym of innamy and hang
my character on the gibbst Of Methodist
history.