The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-26

BE in Atlanta TO-mOrrow-The Re
cetver's Statement shows the COM
pany to be a Mere skeleton of Its
Former Self.
Atlanta, Ga, Feb. 25.-The failure OF
| President w. C. Hale of the Southern
| Mutual Building and Loan Association,
to put in an appearance at the meeting of
the stockholders of that concern to-day,
which had been called by him to see what
could be done toward getting 1t out of the
hands of the courts and protect the share
holders from having their savings eaten
up by lawyers fees and court costs, was
a genuine sensation. 1t not only caused
the stockholders to give sway to all sorts
of suspicious against the president, but
in the public mind also his absence was
widely discussed. The current report was
that his failure to come to the meeting,
meant that he was afraid TO face the mus
ic, after having wrecked the association
in fact, that he was a defaulter and never
intended to come back to Atlanta to at
tend the meeting when he took his grip
in hand and boarded the train for New
York ten days ago.
| dozen kilograms have been received
here in the past week from Mr.. Hale,
| In all of which he said that he would
certainly be back to attend the meeting
of the stockholders, that there Is nothing
wrong with his accounts and he had moth
| Ing to fear, but despite these reassurng
| messages he did not come. He was ex-
| pected on every train yesterday and last
| night, and even the trains arriving this
| morning were expected to bring him. The
| nearest approach to his coming was a
| telegram to his former partenr, e. A.
Richards, saying he would not be able
TO get here before next Monday on ac-
| count of an engagement with a business
connection in Baltimore.
AS the business in the stockholders
meeting progressed, the reason of the abb
sence of President Hale became more man
ifest. The stockholders found that unless
President Hale can by some magic put
the flesh and blood back again, when he
is heard from, all that there is left of the
Southern Mutual Building and Loan Asso-
citation is its skeleton. They expected to
find an insolvent institution when they
came on here to arrange a liquidation
plan, but they were hardly prepared for
the scene of wreckage that was presented
upon tn surface of the statement made by
Judge James A. Anderson, the temporary
receiver
According to this showing, If President
Haze had been on hand, he would have
had to tell what had become of $4,000
worth of securities which were supposed
to have been on deposit with the state
treasurer as the law requires when he bid
Receiver Anderson goodbye and left for
New York last week.
He would have also had to answer for
$4,000 of securities shipped to him clan
destinely at New York. and now said to be
in the hands of the Iowa Life Insurance
Company as the basis of some kind of a
deal which is as yet unexplained.
He would also have been called upon to
explain how il came that he had sold
$50, 600 in securities to the American Build
ing and Loan Association after having
hypothecated them with the Bates-Far-
ley Savings Bank and failing to pay off
the debt there, these securities being how
ever, counted in the regular assets of the
company in its statements to the stock
holders
Another item he would have been asked
TO explain is how it comes that Judge
John ID. Berry of the city court of At
lanta has $1,000 of the securities of the
association, upon which he loaned about
half of that amount in money.
Besides answering for these securities,
President Hale would If he had been
present at tho meeting to-day, have been
called upon to tell what had become of
100000 in cash, which ought to be on de-
posit in bank, as the reserve of the as
sociation, also to account for $4,000 in
other cash items that ought TO show up
on the bank pass books
But he was not present and these ques-
tions all remain unanswered, though the
stockholders learned some of the details
of the transactions in the course Of their
deliberations to-day. They found, for in
CON ggn
supposed to have gone into the hands of
s. M. Farrar, treasurer of the associati ton,
and Mr.. Farrar is not in the city to tell
whether II was ever taken out OF his hands
by Mr.. Hale or whether he still has It.
One report is that Mr.. Farrar neither has
the money nor has II been taken out Of his
hands by order Of Mr.. Hale, but that he
will be called to an accounting for 1t In
sensational fashion.
IL was also found through the statement
of V. +. Atwater that the $4,000 supposed
to be In the hands of the Iowa Life Insur-
ance Company was sent to Mr.. Hale while
he was in New York and that the asso-
citation has not yet received any cash re-
turn from them, or even any receipt from
Mr. Hale, or any one else on the same
line, two of the directors Capt. w. A.
Wright and L. j. Laird got up In the meet
ing and declared that no one had ever
been authorized to let Mr.. Hale have
tut5e bttufltltHs lutst uiItClOI5 QetldItu
that they had not been asked TO attend any
meeting when any such proposition as
that was to be passed upon. When Vice
President Atwater was called upon to ex-
plain, he said that he did not know who
sent the papers to Mr.. Hale, but supposed
he had telegraphed for them from New
York and some of the office force did IT,
as anybody could go into the safe and get
them out.
Altogether the affairs Of the association
were shown 10 be in terrible mess The
carcass seemed TO be so well picked that
the stockholders at first felt as IL II would
be time wasted in trying to save anything
at all for themselves. Mr.. Hale was
shown to have managed TO get things In
such tangle that the bookkeeper himself
stated that there were many things on his
own books which he could not undertake |
to explain because he did not know what |
he had put them there for. In the end,
however, the resignations OF all the Old |
directors were accepted without releasing |
them from liability to be called on for an |
accounting, and new board elected. This |
new board was clothed with power TO lq- |
uldate the affairs OF the association, and. |
II possible, to have II taken out OF the |
hands OF the courts. IL II can be gotten |