Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-11-30
BREIDENTHAL SCORES GILLETT
Declares Failure Does Not MiIitatc
Against the Safety of Cattle Pa
Der ms nm Inyestmenf

John ". Breidenthal. state bang examiner
of Kansas, arrived in the city last night
from Topeka. Speaking of the Gillett fail
ure and its effect on cattle paper as an in
vestment, he said: 'Gilett set about de-
liberately to carry out his stupendous
scheme of imposing on commission firms.
His success as a confidence man will make
no difference in the estimation In which
cattle paper is regarded as a security. The
work of one confidence man in the finan-
cial world cannot create panic that will
affect the marketability of paper estab-
lished. as cattle paper is. on real values.
There is only one Gillett; only one. 1t
can never be done again, IN all probability.
There are no others in the business doing
business he did: no others travelling from
Colorado to Mexico. from Mexico to Ore
per on the strength of bluff and brass
bands and juggled diamonds. There are any
number of commission firms here in Kan
sas City who turned him down repeatedly
and refused to take stock in his stupendous
schemes. The only wonder is he found so
many who could be caught in that way
Il know him and have expected him to
fail for 100000 or sl5O,Oo0 for months. He
told me recently that he never indorsed
had just made a deal of several hundred
thousand dollars, about 10000 of which he
had indorsed. But then he was such a liar
and such a buffer that he couldn't be be-
lieved on anything. i presume he has gone
to Spain as we have no eXtradition treaty
now with that country.
Cattle Paper All Right.
Cattle paper, from its nature, is of the
greatest importance to the commercial
world. 1t is the quickest to realize on, the
most stable and the best paper to handle.
Kansas has great part of her wealth rep
resented by 1t in the commercial world.
Cattle feeding is the greatest industry of
N q i'm m c Cnri i1E
The plunging of Gillett does not shake
the faith of financiers in this kind of Sc
vestments in all other cases are based on
entirely different conditions. There is no in
ducement TO fraud where farmer with 200
or 800 acres of land takes cattle to feed.
The farmer las his money and time in his
crops; fodder, roughness. corn and wheat
pasture. He prefers to get a larger price
he would get by putting them on the mar
ket or letting them go to waste. He takes
a few score, sometimes few hundred.
curity on them. Under such circumstances
"A loss either to investors or the farmer is
practically impossible; He cannot forfeit
reputation by becoming an embezzler and
a criminal for 5000 or 5000. This is the
condition on which money is loaned. AS 1
said, there is only one Gillett.
Plenty of Money in Kansas.
Speaking of the condition of Kansas
Ddnks, ne SalO- mere Is plenty Oh money
in Kansas. The farmers and merchants
have deposited their money in the banks
and everything is run on a conservative
basis. Business is healthy and brisk all
over the state. 1t seems to me one-fourth
of the wheat crop in the state is not
threshed. Any amount Of wheat will be
threshed next year from this years crop.
large proportion of farmers have put
their wheat in bins and are holding. it.
Money can be borrowed by farmers when
they need it at a fair rate of interest. They
far tn ryft- -talns tr1 fhn -fa h
as security to asking a neighbor for in
dorsement''