The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-01-21

the needles would be damaged by rust
from non-use.
Mr.. Pau asked why it was neces-
| sary to have a fire.
Mr.. Moffatt said that the automat-
ic sprinklers would freeze up and be-
come useless for fire protection.
Mr.. Pfau: Cannot you draw the
water out of the pipes?"
| Mr.. Moffatt: Eyes, but if that is
done, the insurance will be no good.
The building might be reinsured as a
warehouse, but it would cost much
more"
Mr.. Pfau: SHOW much insurance
is carried?"
Mr.. Moffett: ''SSO,OOO on building
and machinery"
Mr. Pfau:' Isn't that pretty high?"
Mr.. Moffatt: "There has always
been an insurance of 100000 carried
until last spring"
Mr.. Pau: "What is the building
and machinery valued at in the
schedule of assets?"
Mr.. MOffatt: ."At $32, $780,"
Mr.. Pau: "With the value placed
at that figure in the assets, you could
hardly collect $50, 900 from the insur-
ance companies in case of destruction
by fire, could your"
Mr.. Motfatt: 81 think, myself, that
the insurance is pretty high. The
policies were all in force when l took
| charge as assignee"
Mr.. Pau: wouldn't it be we'll to
reduce the insurance, in view of the
schedule valuation?"
Mr.. Moffatt replied that the first
set of policies expires April lst.
Judge Severance said that if the
mill runs, he did not want any orders
taken that could not be filled during
the two months. He thought that IL
| would be best to run the mill at full
blast. as Mr.. Moffatt had suggested.
Mr.. Pau: "We object to the mill
running full blast, orders or no orders.
| 1t would be making US take the assets
that belong to the creditors now and
putting them into other assets, and
we would have to take chances. We
claim that the mill should be run only
to keep the business alive and not at
full blast"
The Court: "You don't want to
| have the mill run at a loss simply to
keep the business alive, do you?"
Mr.. Pfau: "Your honor will see
that running the business is risky at
best. Even if there is loss with
running in small way, we object
running ahead of the oIders."
Mr.. Moffatt: 1.-THE reason that the
mill has not paid is because it has not
been run nearly to it's full capacity
Many of the expenses are the same,
whether 100 or sou dozen day are
produced"
Mr.. Pfau: IF there is stock on
hand left over in the spring, you can
not sell it except at discount"
Mr.. Moffett: "There are orders
enough on hand now to run the mill
one month, and certainly enough will
come in during the next two months
to run it one month more"
The court announced that he would
not issue an order to run the mill only
to fill orders. The mill might not be
running half the time, in that event.
He asked what had been the practice.
Mr.. Moffatt said that the mill had
always been run as close to the orders
| as possible.
Mr.. Pau said that it would be no
more than right to see the orders and
pass upon them.
The court said that he would take
Mr. Moffatts statement for that.
Mr.. Moffatt said that it would be no
| trouble to produce the orders.
Mr.. Pau said that he would like to
know more definitely about the stock
on hand when the mill closed, now,
and at the middle of last summer.
An adjournment was taken until
afternoon to allow Mr.. Moffatt time
to secure these figures from his books.
The contest was continued nearly
all the afternoon.