The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-07
was the very best portion Of the reported


cussed this matter very thoroughly, and 1t
seemed to be the opinion of a number of the
members that inasmuch as the note was In
the handwriting OF Mr. Bickel that there was
something rather suspicious about the trans
action. Mr.. Thompson wished to have Mr..
Bickel before the committee in order to ques-
ton him, that some foundation might be laid
for criminal proceedings In case the suspicion
was correct that Tanner was a fictitious per-
sonage. The committee argued this matter
at length, but finally came to the conclusion
that 1t was not their duty to lay the founda-
ton for criminal prosecution. 1t de-
cided that the scope Of the. committee was
merely to ascertain the character OF the
conduct of these banks, honest or dishonest
At It's next meeting evidence was submitted
to the committee that such a person Mar
garet G. Tanner resided In the city of st.
Paul, and that her name was upon paper de-
posted in the bank in 1884. No connection
between Margaret Tanner and M. G. Tanner
however, was shown. though 1t taken for
granted that they were one and the same
At this meeting Senator Wyman Endorsed
the stand taken by Senator Thompson at the
previous session, and Ii was resolved to bring
this Mrs. Tanner before the committee. At
the next meeting Chairman Feig stated that
q subpoena had been issued the sergeant-at-
arms sent after Mrs. Tanner, and that he
had found her address, but that he had been
told that she was out. The Sergeant-at
arms made the attempt to find her second
time, but with no better results. She was
still out. This was in the afternoon. After
supper he was told that she would probably
not return until the next day. The chief Of
police was then asked to detail inspector
on the case and did He sent a man
there, who found out while in conversation
with boy at the place that Mrs. Tanner
was at home. The boy was in the yard
working, and woman, whom the inspector
guessed to be the desired witness, came out
to speak to him. to tell him to go with
his work. Thereupon the officer served his
papers. She protested that her name was not
Tanner, but refused to give her name. The
officer told Mr.. Feig that he was satisfied
that she was the proper party, and then asked
for a description, which Mr. Feig could not
give Later the officer obtained description
of Mrs. Tanner which tailed with that of
the person on whom the summons had been
served. He also discovered that this woman
was a sister to Mrs. William Bckel.
Mr.. Feig highly indignant at the con-
| tempt shown the committee by the woman,
but declined to take any further action, as
! the committee was unwilling to carry on pro-
| ceedings for contempt.
| Relative to the Allemannia bank Mr.. Tenn
| pie said in his testimony:
Before the receiver took possession of
| this bank, the bank examiner ascertained at
! the time of its suspension that they had out
standing in rediscounted paper, $244 1oS.SS,
! which did not appear in their books as
| discounted paper, which fact was misleading,
as the paper had not matured yet, and they
are holding the Allemannia as indorsers."
While | was in the receivers office some
! of that paper came in and l examined the
| Endorsement on it and found that the paper
was without without recourse" Endorsement;
| 1t was blank Endorsement and it signed
! not only by the cashier. but also by Albert
! Schetfer president. This re-d:scount ac-
! count was opened on ledger folio 578 and or
| dered open by the bank examiner after the
| bank had closed. No ledger statement of
! this bank since Jan. 81 1894 disclosed any re-
discount account. The Anchor Investment
! company account was credited and rediscount
| account charged for the amount that then,
! Jan. &C. 1894, appeared in rediscount account.
| They credited the Anchor Investment company
| account $64, 60367 in two entries and closed
! their redisceunt account by debiting 1t with
! the same amount.
II asked Mr.. Bunker if there had in his ex-
| perlence as agent for the receiver come to
/ the surface any straw paper. He said: No,
! | believe 1t is all honest paper; nothing of
that kind can be brought against the Ale
! MAMMA 3"
Later in the investigation Mr. Temple called
| attention to the fact that the Allemannia
! bank had appointed no discount committee
for the years 1895 and 1896. Mr.. Scheffer had
assured him that they had such a committee,
! but no official record of meetings; that as a
matter Of fact they had made no new loans
! at all. Taking up this statement he pointed
| out that on jan 1, 1896, the balance of their
bills discounted accounts stood 1892, 622. 90,
/ while year later the same item read $425-
olO.66, disclosing an increase in loans in this
account of over $50, 0G0 He next examined the
bills receivable account, and ascertained that
! the balance on that account Jan. 1, 1896, was
$193, SO. The balance a year later, or
| rather Jan. 4, 1897, the date of suspension
adding to the balance shown by the ledger
| the amount shown by the bank examiners
! statement to have been rediscounted, dis
| closes the balance to have been $453 913.04,
an increase during the year of over S25O0OO,
| with no regular discount committee.
/ Mr.. Temple declared. that the AlIemannia
/ failed, in his opinion. first, because of the
lack OF attention to details the part of
the directors especially shown by the fact
that they had held no meeting for over a
year, and from some of the loans made he
would say second that it suffered from weak
and inexperienced management Said he:
There have certainly been a number of
statements made to the bank examiner which
have been very misleading to him. and to the
WASHINGTON BANK.
The failure of the Washington bank as the
testimony Of Judge Uelend. the receiver
shows, was one of the worst that can be
imagined. The of the failure are set
out under several heads. The first of these
is that the bank had actual capital at the
time 1t was pretended to be organized The
testimony of Mr.. Temple, the special exam
iner who made the examination of the Wash
ington bank, showed that this bank had
started in with the affairs, business and as
sets of the bank of Haugen, Johnson & Co.
on Wednesday, April o. 1893 Mr.. Temple
said:
1T appears that this Haugen. Johnson e.
Co. were conducting a bank which, from
evidence found in other parts of their record
book, discloses to have been under the name
OF the Washington Bank Of Minneapolis and
at the first meeting of the directors April
q, 1898, Messrs. Brecke, Finseth and Reese
were elected a committee to look into the
condition of the bank of Haugen, Johnson q
Co., examine its assets and report TO the
board. This committee was supposed to have
gone to work Immediately, and at a meeting
of the board of directors May f. Mr.. Brecke
reported that the committee had passed on
the quality of the paper and had no remarks
to make. How the bank came to be organized
is thus shown by report of the directors
To the Board Of Directors of the Washington
Bank:
We submit the following as a correct state
ment of the condition of the Washington bank
at the close of business May 3. (Then follows
a condensed statement of the condition of the
banking house of Haugen, Johnson & Co.. The
bank statement Is to the best Of our knowl-
| edge correct.
We can further state to the board that we
looked over all bills receivable and did not
find any notes, in our judgment, objection
able. (Signed)
%. E. Brecke,
C M. Reese,
A. K Finseth
| The report was accepted and ordered spread
on the minutes of the board and the commit
| tee discharged.
This, gentlemen" said Mr. Temple els the
organization Of the Washington Bank of Min
neapolis. 1t would appear that from their gen.
eral balance book that they did continue in
business on May 3, 1893 with the exact state
ment found condensed in this report Hau-
gen, Johnson & Co.'S bank was capitalized for
/ SIS, 000 and 1t will be observed that the Wash
ington County bank merely absorbed the as
absorb them without any action of the board
of directors until July 8, 1893 They did bust
ness from May Until July IA as the Wash
ington bank with Haugen, Johnson & Co.'s
| liabilities"
This gives fair idea of the way the Wash
ington was brought into existence, and ii is
the opinion Of most of the committee that the
assets at that time were really not worth a
quarter Of their face value. The books further
show that as money paid into the bank
it was used by the officers to square their old
debts so that at time the bank in q
solvent condition.