The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-10-21
MIDDLESEX BANKING co.
RESULTS OF COMlfISsIONER
 WHISPERS INVESTIGATION.
Official Endorsement of the Company
 and Value of It's Property.


 Building & Loan Commissioner M. C. Webster, who returned not long9 ago from long trip through the west ex- amining the assets and business of the Middlesex Banking company, made his report to the governor Wednesday, Oc- tober 15. As a result of his investiga- ton he gives the company a cordial in dorsement and expresses his abundant faith in it's investments. Following is the full text of his report:
 To His Excellency, Governor George P. Mclean:
 The MiddleseX Banking company of Middletown, specially chartered in 1872, lends money on first mortgages of lands in the west and south, and uses these mort tgages, in the hands of a trustee, to secure it's own bonds. These bonds, all ways paid promptly, both principal and interest, proved popular for investment and the obligations of the company have reached about twenty-five million dollars, of which about seven million dollars are outstanding.
 began the usual examination of the
 
 1901. and continued 1t, as my other du- ties permitted, until May, 1902. The of- fieers of the company urged that the in- terests of the state, the company and it's bondholders required the investiga- tion to be extended to its western and southern offices and assets. Upon full consideration, and with the approval of your excellency, I did so extend it. And, as so exhaustive an examination of the company by the state is without precedent, and as the results are of present interest, have thought 1t pro- per to submit to your excellency this special report in advance and as part of the annual report of this department. The company has offices in St. Paul, Minn.; Denver, Col; Salt Lake City, Utah; Memphis, Tenn, and Dallas, Texas.
 Several years ago, in 8 period of great business depression, which proved de- 'structive to many enterprises like that of this corporation, the company was reluctantly compelled to take by fore closure large tracts of the lands on which it's loans were secured Under legal advice. that laws of jurisdiction in which these lands lay, limited the right of the company, as foreign corpora tion, to hold titles to the foreclosed lands, five subordinate companies were formed to hold these titles.
 The officers of these companies are substantially the same persons. Their stock is almost all held by the Middle ~ sex Banking company. And their of- fees are the offices of that company in St Paul; whence by organization through the west and south their busi- ness of caring for, selling, letting and generally making the lands profitable, and by crops and otherwise. produc- tive, is carried on. Meantime the lands are mortgaged to the parent company to be used as securities for it's bonds. And on April 12, 1902. these mortgages amounted to $2,31O540. The company claimed that this asset would maintain itself and profit the company largely in the end, and justly insisted that care ful examination of it be made in order to determine it's present value, the standing of the company and the secur- ity of it's bondholders.
 E On May 16 last, having prepared at the east a mass of memoranda, indls- pensable for my purpose. I started for St. Paul, and during the next fifty-siX days, by dint of near ten thousand miles of travel by rail and wagon. 1 completed such an examination of the affairs of the company and it's lands in the region of their location. to Wlt,- the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota. Cobra do, Idaho, Utah, Texas and the cotton belt of the south, as seemed to me req sonably sufficient for the interests of the state, the company and it's bond holders.
 From the first the policy of the com- pany has been to place it's loans on ag- ricu1tural rather than city properties; and excepting some comparatively mi nor holdings in St. Paul, Dallas and Salt Lake City it's investments are en- tirely in agricultural lands, including eight plantations of the best cotton lands in the Union; the company having already sold large part of the proper ties originally taken by foreclosure.
 Throughout my western and sout hern visit the officers of the company ren- dered me every facility in their power and showed the utmost desire to give me immediate and entire access to all the facts bearing upon the condition of the companies and their holdings. And the books and methods of the compa- nies convinced me that their business was conducted with honesty, ability and untiring attention to it's very mul- titudinous details-methods well illus trated in the typographical records of the company, inventoried at the nomi- nal amount of fourteen thousand dol lars, though they must have cost the company. during it's career, several times that sum; being an exhaustive collection of facts bearing on the values of lands lying within the zones of the company's operations: of constant use for reference and of inestimable service to the company in it's business and fre- quently consulted by others.
 In reaching an estimate of the value of the lands as assets, while depended on the company for some preliminary details, such as locations, uses, etc, yet I availed myself to the utmost of the knowledge. experience and opinions of ,dsinterested men in the regions I visi- ted. and studied carefully the past and present development oS these regions;