The San Francisco call., 1898-11-22
JAMES ALVA WATT ACCUSED OF ACCEPTING A BRIBE
 FROM MOSES H. SHERMAN Sensational Developments in the Scandalous History of the Peoples Home
 Savings Bank.
Alleged Crime Committed to Secure the Appointment of J. F. Sheehan as Receiver Of
 the Institution.

I man was fighting to keep his clutch
 upon the defunct institution ana ne | still had tremendous influence with the | Bank Commissioners. It was natural
 to suppose that he would take one or | two courses that were open to him.
 He could first attempt if he chose to
 reopen the bank and thus conceal his enormous indebtedness to the 1nst1tu-
 tion. If the bank were reopened | through the efforts of the Bank Com
 missioners and the Attorney General | Shermans victory would be won with out any unnecessary expense or puolc l scandal. A second course was still open to Sherman if it became inevitable
 that the Peoples Home Savings Bank must go into liquidation. If this con-
 tingency arose, and it seemed highly proba ble, Sherman intended to control | the liquidation and thus protect him.
 self from the repayment of the enor>
 nous sum of money that he had bor-
 rowed or of the. sacrifice of the valuable
 securities that he had pledged.
 It was thus palpable that Sherman ] had tremendous interests to protect and | an imperative reason to demand the
 control and manipulation of the bank. l In the letter that The Call has in its
 possession the statement is made that
 Sherman explained his predicament
 and announced his intention to control
 the receiver and his attorney if a re- ceiver had to be appointed. When At | torney General Hart and the Bank | Commissioners decided to make more
 thorough investigation of the affairs of | the Peoples Home Savings Bank to | determine whether or not the institu- i tion could be reopened upon a sound and solvent basis they looked around
 for a disinterested and capable person
 to make the necessary investigation of
 the affairs of the bank.
 This person was General Warf1eld,
 who had had considerable experience | in banking affairs and was then lessee l of the Baldwin Hotel. When the Bank | Commissioners came to their conclusion | great excitement prevailed in the public mind over the affairs of the bank. | Squabble after squabble had taken l place and many a transaction that
 would not bear scrutiny had intensified | the public's feeling against every one | connected with the bank. When War
 field agreed to accept the duty of mak | ing an investigation of the affairs of
 the bank he deemed 1t necessary to pro- | vide himself with a bodyguard. The | incident occasioned considerable inter- | est at the time. After Warfield had i concluded his investigation of the as l sets of the Peoples Home Savings
 Bank the Bank Commissioners and At
 torney General Hart determined to
 force the institution into liquidation.
 This meant, as already indicated. the
 appointment of a permanent receiver.
 The days of the existence of the bank
 were over. The only duty that re-
 mained was to wind up its affairs and 1 pay it's depositors and creditors what
 ever amount of money the assets could
 bring. As already described, Moses H.
 Sherman was determined to control the l liquidation of this bank. He did not
 care who was appointed receiver as 1 long as the receiver would accept the
 dictatfon of Sherman, and protect Sher-
 man in his dishonest scheme to evade
 the payment of his just obligations to 1 the bank. Sherman wished particularly
 to control the actions of the attorney
 who would act for the receiver.
 l The willy schemer of Los Angeles he-
 lieved that he could not control War field, who was then temporarily acting,
 and was the candidate of w. H. H. l Hart for the permanent recetvership.
 Sherman did not care who the receiver
 was with the exception that it was not l Warfield. This in outline was the con-
 dition of affairs up to the time of the l incidents that are described in every
 detail in the letter which is now in the 1 possession of The Call.
 The writer of this letter declares that
 in the latter part of April. 1894. J. Alva Watt came to him, understanding that he had at that time considerable in l huence in the affairs of the Peoples Home Savings Bank, and asked him to
 use his influence so that Watt could se-
 cure the appointment as attorney to 1 the receiver After some discussion of
 the matter the writer declares that he
 gave Watt distinctly to understand l that If he were appointed attorney he
 must guarantee to-protect the varied | interests of Moses H. Sherman in the Peoples Home Savings Bank. The let ter continues, asserting that Watt gave the necessary promise, and the writer of the letter then conferred with Sher- man. The result of this conference, so the letter reads. was that Watt and the writer again met and Watt was as- sured that If he could name service | able man as receiver that man would