The San Francisco call., 1898-11-14

D. S. Dorn, A F. Johns and M. H. Sherman were not only in the busi- ness of silencing some dishonest news papers, but of corruptly influencing Bank Commissioners in the great plot to ruin the Pacific Bank and the Peo- ple's Home Savings Bank. The let ters of Sherman that are published this morning prove the charge. Over his own signature M. H. Sherman has confessed that he schemed to inf1u- ence the official action of Bank Com missioners w. H. Knight and Charles Dunsmore.
 This plot was one of the most shameless in the whole history of the bank wreckers' conspiracy. Two months before the crash came Sher- man and his confederates thoroughly understood that any honest investiga- tion of the condition of the banks would result in the closing of the ln- stitutions. They therefore plotted to procure a favorable report. Nothing could be done by the dishonest manip- ulators to influence the official action of A. Gerberdi- 2. who was president at that time of the Bank Commission. The wreckers could not fight MT. Ger berding and they could not corrupt him. They contrived therefore to deceive him if possible.
 This dishonest task was assigned to D. S. Dorn, and he was so successful in getting MT. Gerberding out of the way that Sherman congratulated him for his efforts. Sherman also shows in his remarkable letters that the judg- ment of Bank Commissioner Duns- more would be influenced by the fact that MT. Dunsmore's brother-in-law had been given employment by Sher- man. Bank Commissioner Knight was a close personal friend of Sherman, who craftily remarks in one of his letters that at a very critical time in the history of the tottering institutions he had dined at the home of MT. Knight in Oakland. The schemer also took oc- casion to thank J. E. Farnum, the manager of the Peoples Bank, for warning the bank wreckers of the coming of the Commissioners. Far mum, who is now the manager of the defunct Pacific Bank, was a son-in-law of Bank Commissioner Knight, and through that relationship secured the information that was so valuable to the conspirators.
 The warning was given in time to permit the dishonest bankers to fix up their affairs with some semblance of honesty. The letters of Sherman that give these revelations to the pub lie are of great importance, and prove the accusation of The Call that Moses H. Sherman was not only the chief agent in running the Pacific Bank and the Peoples Home Savings Bank, but knew it, and was as dishonest in his transactions at that time as were the McDonalds. Not only was Sherman in terested in the Phoenix wildcat schemes and his gigantic Los Angeles deal, but he was very deeply involved in assisting other manipulators to keep up their drain on the banks. In one of his telegrams he hysterically begs Dick for Gods sake not to dis honor the checks of O. T. Dyer. In an other he assures Dick that they must all stand together, for any disaster at that time would ruin them all and their banks.
 In this assertion Moses H. Sherman very clearly indicates that he consid- cred the dishonest institutions as much his property as they were that of the McDonalds. There is possibly no more interesting letter than one which is published this morning to show the re- nnarkable audacity of Sherman and his confederates. In this epistle Sherman declares that the other bankers of this city. such as l. w. Hellman, Lowell White, Thomas Brown and others, did