The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-09-01
ME BOOKCONCERN SCANDAL
DENIAL OF s6a4, 900 SHORTAGE
 IN NEH FORK HOUSE.

ciares Attack st Los Angeles Due to
 Politics In the churoh-AIso says
 There Is Not Cent of shostage.
 New York. Aug. 31. = Inquiry was made to-day at the offices of the Meth
 odist book concern, regarding a dispatch published this morning alleging short
 age Of s6s4,O in the New York office.
 The Book Concern is the official pub
 fishing house of the Methodist Episco-
 pal church. The business is under the
 general supervision of the book com
 mittee of the Methodist church. and
 the firm of Eaton & Mains is the East
 ern publishing agents, The present re- port comes from Los Angeles. Cal. but
 no one is named as backing up the
 charges.
 The Rev. Dr. Homer Eaton. the senior
 partner os Eaton & Mains. made the following statement to-day:
 'grhe dispatch from Los Angeles, Cal.
 alleging shortage of $6S4.O00 in the New York Book Concern, is utterly and
 maliciously false The statement that
 Eaton & Mains, the New York publish ing agents of the New York Book Con- cern. have made to the general book committee a report that does not reach the public, is also utterly and malicious ly false. There is not a shortage of one cent in the Book Concern. At the end of the fiscal year of 1900, the agents of the New York Book Concern, by direc- tion of the general book committee, cut
 down values of real estate, merchandise,
 accounts. etc, charging the same against capital stock A large amount was thus taken off from our inventory values, since which time the real estate, merchandise, electrotype plates, ma
 chinery etc., have been carried in our inventory at less than their actual cash values. So far as keeping this matter from the public, the statement of such reduction was printed in our
 annual exhibit. and sent out to all the papers of our church, and presented to each annual conference for the informa- tions Of all interested parties."
 { 3 s3 .sf s4 g Morristown. N. J. Aug. 31.-'More politics" said the Rev. Dr. Homer
 Eaton. when asked about the report from Lost Angeles that the Methodist
 Book Concern shows loss of s5S4.000 in the New York branch. Then, taking q piece os naper, he write:
 By order of Book committee we cut down values of real estate. merchan- disc accounts. etc. and charged the same against capital stock. There is the whole explanation of the loss. These tpeopIe who are sending out such reports will kill themselves if they keep on. I
 know where the reports come from, and I know the animus of the whole thing. Some people out on the Pacific caast
 are after pr. Hammond. at present in
 charge Of the Chinese missions on the coast They also may be after some one else. This report would seem to indicate that it was so.
 Dr. Eaton then took down two vol
 umes of .sProceedings of the Book Com
 mittee'' for 1901 and 1903 and proceeded to show the condition of the concern of
 which he is the head. The report of the
 New York branch of the Book commit tee for 1900 showed assets of s2,025, ,738.22, with liabilities at S1,656, ,201.0S, and a to- tai indebtedness of 1869, ,5S714. In the
 same report appeared this item: De-
 ducted from net capital as per instruc- tions of Book committee, $634, ,29S.25.
 Now said pr. Eaton, that was the condition cs the Book Concern three years ago, and the conditions to-day,
 as seen by the report of this year, show that our indebtedness is almost entire ly wiped out. Last year we made a net profit of nearly $150,OOo. The year before it was $120,O0O, and the year before that
 SS5, 900. Does that look as if the con- cern was running behind? You will ob- serve that no direct charges of any kind are made. If have done any,
 thing wrong the thing to do is to make
 specific charges and bring me to trial
 before my conference" l Los Angeles, Cal, Aug. 31.-Accordlng to reports here the small shortage in Ithe San Francisco end of the Methodist
 Book Concern falls into insignificance
 in view of further allegations of al York. 4 <" S sly$ AZ:
 Eaton & Mains. the New York pub-
 fishing agents of the Book Concern,
 have made to the General Book commit tee a report which does not reach the
 public. This, it is declared publicly
 here, shows a. loss in the business of the New York Book committee amounting to $634, ,29S.25. in addition to a net loss
 at San Francisco of $3,514.9S. An investigation goes to show that the talk of letting the facts concerning the San Francisco management become
 known, began with the visit to this city early in July last, of a subcommittee sent here to close up affairs in con- nection with the meeting of the general conference next spring. This committee was composed of o. P. Miller of Rock Rapids. la: J. E. Andrews of New
 York; W. F. Whitlock of Delaware, O.,
 and the Rev. Harry spellmeyer of New ark. N. J. s:a5,. .+-. -.,&
 Short Beach. Conn.,, Aug. S1.--Bishop D. A. Goodsell of the Methodist church,
 who has his summer home here. left
 for New York this morning. It is be-
 lieved his visit has something to do
 with the reported shortage in the New
 York end of the Methodist Book Con- aarp Aoaapdipor tn ,.a,,nrtc fro,,, Coz,