The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-06

was carted away. turned into the
vaults of the Pacific Bank and squan-
| dered. The Bank Commissioners had
| time and again demanded of the Pa
cific Bank to reduce its enormous debt
| of nearly one million dollars to the
Peoples Bank. This. tremendous sum
| of money represented the savings of
13, 600 poor people who had trusted their
! money to the honor of the McDonalds.
| Not satisfied with having hlched a mil
| lion dollars belonging to the poor peo-
! pie of San Francisco, the McDonalds
| determined to get more by cheating the
Bank Commissioners, using Attorney
| General w. H. II. Hart as their ready
tool, and substituting more worthless
securities for the few remaining good
ones in the Peoples Bank. The letter
| is a most remarkable confession Of
Frank McDonalds rascality, his
brothers dishonesty his fathers con-
nivance and Hart's support. The epistle
| is as follows:
New York, May 8, 1893.
My Dear Brother: What I shall
have to say in this letter is largely
of a very confidential nature and I
think better be destroyed after read
ing.
First, from the communication
from the D. C. it is evident they in
tend to try and head US off from get
ting any more funds out of the Peo-
ple's, and some one with knowledge
Of the facts has induced them to come
now and examine us so soon again
in order that they might have pre-
text to order US to pay up in such a
way as to prevent our securing any
relief in that direction. Now the
question is to see how far we can
prevent their hurting us in this way.
What we want is coin, therefore if we
keep our debt to the Peoples station
ary we could by exchanging obliga-
tions f5r such as they can convert
into coin secure that coin they pull
in and give them other obligations.
But in this of course it would be
necessary to have the assistance of those
managing the Peoples. and, If necessary,
l better return to take up the cudgel
again. Now, / do not know what clause
II Is that McHardisty refers to- and 1
wish you would send me the wording of
it. But 1t is manifestly absurd for the
3. G. to say a savings bank can have no
deposit at all in a commercial bank, and
therefore to that extent | do not think we
need to worry over their order to cancel
the entire Indebtedness That we will do
or not in our own time and way just as
we think best Tor the business OF the Two
institutions best interests But of course
we will keep our own council and not dis
cuss this point until driven to it, and then
we will take our lawyers and discuss the
matter with the Attorney General, not
the B. c., who are the ones to settle dis
puted legal questions. Therefore as far
as paying back so much a month, that
we will do as our best judgment and our
means and circumstances indicate the
wisest to do. OF course in time we in
tend to pay. the Savings Bank back
everything, because there is not suffi-
cient profit in it for US, and we do not
wish the responsibility of investing.
Another thing you can easily see that
our guaranteeing things is probably
going to hurt US. I have tried to be as dis
Greet as possible about the guarantee
business, but in time it will get out oe
course, and then borrowing will be much
more difficult and possibly practically
impossible. Now again, the B. c. crowd
later when they examine into the guar
antee question, may try to deny the le-
gality of our giving guarantees. 1 have
had to fight all around that question
while here, and think we can do it with
perfect legality, yet difficulties may arise,
and then / wish to have our Pacific Sc
curity Company all in running order, so
that If necessary we can offer its guar
antee and thus be able to go on with our
plans of raising money.