The age-herald., 1900-11-09
MAYOR VAN WICK ANSWERS CHARGES Addresses Reply to Roosevelt in
 Ice Trust Matter HE IS NOT A STOCKHOLDER Says He Sold His Holding-Declares That City Contracts Were Made
 Without His Knowledge
 Finds Precedents
HE IS NOT A STOCKHOLDER

New York. November S.-The World to- morrow will print Mayor YanWyck's an- swer to the charges in the matter of the American Ice Company. The answer is ad- dressed to Governor Roosevelt. In his re- ply the Mayor says that he does not own any stock in any ice company, and that he has no direct or indirect interest in any such company He continues:
 Upon April Il, 1889, bought from c. w. Morse 5000 shares of the stock in the Amer ican Ice Company for $250,000, which was the fair market value thereof, of which sum l paid $50, ,OO0 in cash and by three checks, and I gave three promissory notes for the bal ance, one of $50, Oe0 and two for $5,000 each. had been a stockholder in the Knicker- booker Ice Company of Maine long pre- vious to April Il, 1S99, and had paid for my stock therein $45,00O l received printed circular about May, 1899, from the Amer ican Ice Company, offering to exchange their stock share for Knickerbocker stock, and 1 made such exchanges. My entire hold ing of the ice stock has been sold in the open market on the New York Stock Ex- change in various lots for $2Sl,2l9 l paid for the stock $295, 000."
 The Mayor says that when he was served with Justice Gaynor's order he did own $500 shares of stock of the American Ice Company, and that his attention was for the first time in the latter part of May called to the American Ice Companys con- tracts with the city to supply Ice and that he owned stock in the Consolidated Ice Company, which had leased docks from the city. He then sold his stock
 He had received none of 1t as gift or unon a nominal consideration.
 The mayor then takes up the charge that he had became unlawfully interested in contracts with the city and says these contracts were made by the heads of the administrative departments without hls knowledge pursuant to the provisions or the charter which authorized them to do this. He adds tht he first became stock holder in the American Ice Company Tn April Il, 1899, at which time the company had no contracts with the city of any kind whatever.
 Mayor Van Wyck understands the eondi- tion of the charter to be that stockholder in corporation having contracts with the city does not have direct or indirect in- terest in such contracts by reason ol ms ownership of a minority of the stock lie says that he has been informed that dur ing the administration of William l.: Strong he was stockholder in the Central National Bank and that such bank made contracts with the city for the deposit or city funds and the payment O1 interest thereon pursuant to the designation Of a board, of which the mayor was member In addition, Mayor Van Wyck says that Mayor Strong was a director ana stocK- holder in the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, and that this railroad company held thirty franchises and dock privileges in the city of New York, d. rector and chairman of the building com mittee of the New York Life Insurance Company, from which the city took lease of nine rooms in their building for three years from November 1, 1897.
 Mayor Van Wyck says that in lSS5, While William R. Grace was Mayor, he was a stockholder in the Commercial National Bank and that this bank had a contract with the city for the deposit of city funds. He says that he has also been informed that Mayor Mcclure of Syracuse is stock holder in a corporation called the Courier Publishing Company, which has dealings with that city, and that in a proceeding before the attorney general seeking his re moval because of such ownership, the at torney general dismissed the proceedings. The Mayors answer to the second charge that he became unlaWfully interested in dock and wharf leases or privileges deals at length with the three grants of land under water made to the Knckerbocker Ice Company. He says that they were made long prior to January l, 1898, when he took office, and that they were simply allowed to continue He claims that the so-called lice trust' has not been favored and says that he did not know and never had any information that any leases of the Consoi- dated Ice Company would become the property of the American Ice Company