The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-03
HE SECRETLY LOANED MONEY
ON SECURITY THAT WILL PROBABLY
PROVE TO BE VALUELESs.
Francis Cradle and John $. Silver the
Beneficiaries-The Bank Able to
Stand Millions of Losses.

|
the Gibraltar of banks in this city
| had resigned his position under a cloud
Of $393,OOO worth of wrongdoing The bank
is the strongest financially in the United
| States and it could probably stand ten
times the loss it may suffer without af-
/ fecting its position. 1t developed this morn
| ing that Mr.. Qunlan had acknowledged in
| a letter 10 mis- NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. he was
director as well as cashier-that he had
| loaned GOO cf the banks money without
| consulting the president and with full
| knowledge that the directors would not APP
/ prove of the action. He denied that he
protited by the loans. Francis Cradle, a
| promoter of Western schemes, got probably
| S243,00O of the money and John S. Silver
$l5O000. Mr.. Quinlans letter of resignation
| to the directors follows
Gentlemen-Within the last few months
l have made loans, without consulting the
president. to the amount of about 1898 600
on colaterals which l know you would
not approve, and hence l have concealed
these loans from you by methods which
We're not right. have not been interested
| personally in them and have not received
a dollar of the proceeds of them, nor in
but one instance received any benefit from
| them and then but for moderate amount
! nor have ! speculated to the extent of a
| single share in Wall street. My error has
| arisen from the overconfidence in the rep
| resentations of those to whom these loans
were made and while L hope eventually
| no loss will arise from them / acknowl-
| edge the justice of the request for my res
! ignation, which is hereby presented, both
| as director and cashier of the Chemical
| National Bank. This terminates a faithful
| service (until the above of thirty-six years
| to the institution, which has justly been
| the pride of my life
! PRESIDENT WILLIAMS TALKS.
! The first known of the AFFAIR by Presi-
/ dent Williams was when AIR. Quinlan
| called on him at his home on Sunday last
and made full statement of the transac-
/ ton 1t is conceded that Quinlan, as cash
| ier, had the power to make the loan. but it
| is believed that in a tsansaction involving
SO large an amount of money he should
! have consulted the president. Mr. Will
| liams, president of the bank, said to-day:
| we think that absolutely the worst is
| known, and we are strongly in the hopes
| that Mr.. Quinlan's expectations are true
| and that large part of the money will be
| recovered. We would rather face the mat
| ter and let the public know the whole
| truth. We have charged off nearly the
/ whole of the loans to our profit and loss
account, although we are satisfied that we
shall recover a large part of the money
| eventually
I'm my opinion" continued Presl lent
| Williams, Mr.. Quinlan has been made the
victim of clever schemers. / believe that
| he has been mentally irresponsible for
months, though there was nothing appar-
| ent in his actions to betray this to us. Mr.
| Quinlan had known Mr.. Cradle for some
-
asked for loan of 5000 to help along
! some scheme of his Mr.. Quinlan gave it To
him. Then came another loan of b5 OO0
| which was also granted. Next Silver was
brought into the DEAL
What is Silvers business?" President
Williams was asked.
Chiefly to get money out of banks" was
the terse reply.
Then Mr.. Williams continued: "QuinIan
was induced to make the first Ioan believ-
ing the security to be all right. The amount
/ vas small, but when a start had been made
the men wanted more money. Then, to save
the first 5000 Mr.. Quinlan made them an
o.her loan of an equal amount, and to save
the $4,000 gave them another $4,000. In this
way in d little more than six weeks the
amount of the loans was run up to almost
half a million dollars. 1t las not until ii
reached this figure that we knew anything
about it, Then for the first time Mr.. Quin-
Ian seemed to realize that something might
be wrong with his accounts. SO last Sun
day he called on me at my horne.
MAY LOSE EVERY CENT.
"I was simply dumfounded. 1 had never
before had the slightest suspicion but what
Mr.. Quinlan was all right mentally. Then
/ realized that something must be wrong or
he would never have loaned money to Gra-
BILE & Silver or have advanced even the
most trivial sums on the security they have
given him. / examined it and decided that
it, was almost worthless, and made up my
mind that the bank would lose every cent
it had advanced. Mr.. Quinlan combatted
this idea. He still insisted that the security
was good and would fully cover the amount
he had loaned. I was not able to persuade
him otherwise, and at last told him he must
resign and do this at once in letter to the
directors. He was fearfully broken up by
my decision but did as told him. The let
ter was written Monday, and briefly states
the case. Then when it had been given to
the directors Mr.. Quinlan left the bank for
his home in Brooklyn. L suppose he is
there now
II want to say this for Mr. Quinlan. Not
the slightest suspicion of dishonesty rests
upon him. I do not believe that he pro1ted
by these loans to the extent of cent Every
dollar of this banks money which he gave
out went to these two men, and he would
never have given them anything. to say
nothing of the large amounts they obtained
unless they had made him believe their
, curlties were good l am firmly of the
opinion that Mr. Quinlan is out of his head
and that his trouble is due TO overwork.
He has been with us thirty-six years and
has made his way up from office boy. Dur
ing all that time he has been indefatgable
in his labor. OF the men who got the money
from Quinlan Silver is the only one known
TO me-" President Williams estimated that
Silver received $15o000 and Cradle $4,000
The directors held meeting tonight and
a number of clerks We're put at work on
the books. 1t is not known at present what
course the directors intend TO adopt in re-
| gard TO getting their money back. Cradle
was once president Of the Edmonton Stone