Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-19
FRAUD IN P[D|GR[ES.
Importers Said to Have Duped
Government and Purchas-
ers for Ten Years
PEDlGREEs ARE MANUFACTURED
Common Stock Said to Have Been
Imported as BIooded Animals Enter
ed Free of Duty and Sold as Such
Upon Wholly Manufactured Record
of Ancestry.
of Ancestry

or Ancestry.
Chicago, Dec. 19.-William PEN
Nixon, collector of customs, in a repor
! to the treasury and agricultural de
partments charges S. d. Thompson
! with defrauding the United States an'
| the horse breeders of the country o
many thousands of dollars in the pas
ten years. He is said to have done
this by an elaborate system OF pogu!
pedigrees furnished thru the American
Percheron Horse Breeders association
at sos Tacoma block. While the re-
port concerns itself directly only witt
frauds on the customs department, thS
method by which Thompson Is ac-
cused of bleeding his customers is al
SO fully explained.
Thompson's opportunity arose, &C
cordfng to the report, from his connee-
ton with an unincorporated but legiti-
mate organization of horse preeders
the American Percheron Horse Breed-
ers' association, which tlourished prior
10 1890, with former Senator Palmer
of Michigan, as president, other equally
prominent men as vice president and
treasurer. and Thompson as secretary
In 1890 the association decided to dis
band, and all the officers retired with
the exception of Thompson, who is Al
legged to have continued the business
alone ever since under its CID name
with himself as secretary, but without
any other organization.
Under Thompson's management or
binary short bred stock is alleged III
the report to have been imported, fur
nished with MANUFACTURED pedfgrees,
and sold for fancy prices and without
payment of the 80 per cent duty, which
is waived or imported stock for breed
ing purposes where three generations
Of ancestors can be shown. Inasmuen
as 10000 head of horses are said to
have been imported last year alone.
customs officials conjecture that the
fraud, if one can be shown to have
been perpetrated, was of wholesale
character. The report states that the
names of Senator Palmer and the other
former officers of the company We're
used without warrant.
The report, when submitted to the
treasury department, was referred to
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, upon
whose decision the action of the treas
ury officials will largely depend. A
special agent of the agricultural de
partment visited Chicago nearly three
weeks ago and investigated the charg
es. A decision is expected in short
time. Should the report be confirmed
the first step taken by the customs
will pe to enforce collec-
ton of the duty on all stock alleged
regulation concerning the character CT
stock on which such payments are
waived.
In view of the long period during
which the government has virtually.
tho innocently, connived at the al
legged frauds on the purchasers of the
supposedly pedigreed animals, there
has been considerable modification felt
among the officials at Washington and
4 disposition to keep the affair as quiet
as possible. Strong efforts have also
been made to prevent any action what
ever on Collector NiXon's report, AMI
8. w. Stubblefleld of Bloomington, Ill.,,
4 former officer in the old association,
even induced United States Senate
Mason to call on Secretary of TIE
Treasury Shaw to plead with him to
overlook the matter. The latter mani
tests no disposition, however to shu
ais eyes to the situation, and has even
threatened TO withdraw the privileged
sales, a matter made optional by sta
ute with the treasury department.
In the meantime the middlemen,
hru whom the association has been
lisposing of its stock, have decided
hat a new association would be desi.
lble under somewhat different name, |
Thompson himself about month ago
lied articles of Incorporation at Spring |
ield under the original name of the
American Percheron |
Horse Breeders association. Three |
weeks later. articles We're filed by the |
Percheron Horse Breeders
md Importers association. In the lat
er the names of Harrison Musgraye.
ohm Fl. S. Lee, and Augustus Kelly |
.ppeared as incorporators, while |
'hompson's name was altogether miss
ng. G. Q. Keiser of Keota, Iowa, fig
red as president, and T. j. Delaney, of
'orthfield, Mimi, as treasurer of the
ssoclat1on. G. w. Stubbletield was re-
orted to have been chosen as score
airy. The superstition that the new as
ociation was designed to succeed the
Id one was strengthened Yesterday by
he announcement from Springfield Of
be dissolution of the Litter