The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-04

In Justice to myself a few things
might be stated as to the blame of the
failure of the Union Savings Bank A
great deal has been thrown on me, and
am willing to bear the blunt of it, but
there are good many things for which
L am not responsible. The directors
must Jointly and separately shoulder
part of the blame.
In reference to the conduct of the
business, you might say that the Board
Oh directors was not a very efficient
one. My brother, w. H. Wright. was
generally away, as the San Jose Fruit
Packing Company had it's meetings at
the same time that we had ours Their
meetings are held in San Francisco. 1
always submitted matters to the direc-
tors, and they always said: You do as
I you think best in regard to it, They
were not able to give any particular
direction or advice in matters. This
howard account was referred to them
at nearly every meeting and discussed,
put they were not able to give me any
nelp In the matter. / acted on my own
best judgment at the time. 1 found
mat statements made by Howard and
MS eastern agents were not correct
and could not be relied upon
For the first three years Towards
account was the best account we had
IN the bank. His advance asked for was
not an unusual one for the amount of
business done. 1t was taken care of
promptly and his paper was always
good. he commenced getting off in
1881. his business was larger and was
carried on in very. reckless and i'm
prudent manner as we afterWard be-
came aware. He overdrew his account.
Inc usual advance we gave was not
MADE good at the end of the season. 1t
was IN the neighborhood of $50, 00O He
CANNED he had enough money coming
from the East to wipe it out. His East
ern agents also verified this.
In 1893, before the season opened, we
were after him for a settlement He
Kept putting it off, and finally we found
ne had nothing coming. He started in
business for the season of 1898 by CIV
ing us lot of paper on the Chicago
house of Higgins, Beach & Co. Higgins
became insane and died shortly after
ana the house became insolvent, Much
OF this paper we had Endorsed and it all
came back on us. This sWelled his ac-
count still greater. We've got an as
slgnment now of great deal of fruit,
which will enable us to get back a good
deal of the money advanced. BY proper
conduct of business a good amount can
be realized and steps have been taken
in this direction. Towards indebted
ness is about 1851, 900 and the 1920, 900
story is all bosh.
THE directors knew about Towards
l
freely. They did not object and offered
no suggestions as to a way out of the
difficulty. They took Towards state
ment and believed he could repay it.
He told us he had margins due in New
York and London to meet all advanced
The first three years the statement he
made was correct. After he got into
difficulty everything he told us was I'M
true. The statement made of being
able to liquidate his Indebtedness was.
never fulfilled.
Director E. A. Wheeler, chairman of
the finance committee, felt perfectly
satisfied with Howard's account, and
was sure it would be taken care of.
He said If all the banks loans were
made to such persons as Howard we
should consider ourselves lucky. None
of the stockholders has transferred any
stock lately. A great many persons
owing the bank are anxious to liquid
ate, and a large amount of money that
can also be used in paying off deposit
ors will soon be coming in. A good deal
of business tact should be used by the
manager of the bank properly to avoid
as little loss as possible on loans, which
can all be worked out on their face
value. great many loans were put
in at so per cent of the value in the
Commissioners report, and these can
be worked out for full face value.
For some time the bank was rather
short of working capital. The directors
knew this. On Monday afternoon /
stated there were several things L did
not like. Money was going out and
none coming in. / announced L was go
ing to San Francisco Tuesday morning
to see if 1 could not make arrangements
for more funds, as it was unsafe to
continue in business under existing
conditions.
II wired the bank at 10 o'clock Tues
day morning that no. satisfactory ar
rangements had been made, and they
knew this meant a suspension of bust
ness. ! went to the different banks.
but could get no money.
In regard to the deed given to Myra
z. Wright of the bank premises. She
loaned the bank $4,000, then $4,000 and
finally it reached 100000. She wanted
some security and we gave her the
deed. There is an offset against this
$50, 600 of about $50, 900 loaned her hus-
band. Mrs. Wright has property of her
own and she obtained the money she
loaned the bank by hypothecating some
securities she had to San Francisco
parties.
MY brother, w H. Wright. had no
intimation of the bank failure when he
started East Saturday night. He in
quired about it's condition u day or so
before, and 1 told him 1 thought it
would pull through all right.
Il stand ready to turn over all my
property to. the bank, some $4,000
worth, if the other directors will do
the same.
'Of course I made some mistakes.
but I had no help and support in my
work. The directors were disloyal and
took no real interest in the work. When
we faced financial embarrassment they
showed everything upon me-"
w. H. Wright is the husband of Myra
Wright and the man referred to as hav-
ing received loans aggregating $4,000
from the bank which his brother claims
was given him on account of his wife's
advances. He is president of the San
Jose Fruit Packing Company and was
elected president of the bank upon the
resignation of H. Ward Wright yester-
day afternoon. The $4,000 advanced
to him explains the alleged payment of
that sum to Mrs. Wright in partial Ii
quotation of the 100000 loaned to the
bank by her, and which she denied ever
having received
E. b. Howard is as dumb as an oys-
ter and all efforts to obtain a state
ment from him have thus far been flu
tile. He will only say he is in the
hands of his attorneys and that if they
see fit to talk all right, but that he will
not But Howard has friends and many
AI-s.k H. l.