The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-06-28
mill village or upon land belonging II
the mill, that he pays no rent.


dBO.
That it was constructed from waste
material left over from certain i'm
provements then being carried on.
That this pool has been seen by every
director; has been inspected by the de-
fendant, S. M. Milliken, and so far
from any objection being made thereto,
it has been approved by all who have
| seen it,
And this deponent denies that the
| said pool was erected for his sole and
| exclusive use, or that it is reserved
| for his benefit, but o: the contrary, he
alleges that no objection is made to
the use of the pool by the persons con-
nected with the mill, and that as a
matter of fact the pool is used by said
| persons.
| And this deponent further alleges
that it has been for some time his fixed
purpose if he ever needed residence
other than that belonging to the Lau-
rens Cotton Mills, which he now occu-
pies, that he would erect it for himself
on his own land, and at his own ex-
pense.
And this deponent further alleges
that the whole cause of the hostile ac-
tion by the said Seth M. Milliken and
his sons and partners against this de-
ponent is due entirely to the fact that
Il
| for the benefit of the stockholders of
the mills committed to his charge, was
able to make a better arrangement
with other commission merchants than
those which the said firm of Deering,
Milliken q Co., were willing to enter
tain, and that the sole cause of action
on the part of the said Deering, Milli-
ken & Co. was caused by the removal
Of the accounts of these mills from
their house to that of Stevens e. Co.
And this deponent would call to the
attention of the court the fact that in
an answer filed in the State court in
this cause, the said S. M. Milliken has
not denied his intention, if he obtained
control of the said Laurens Cotton Mills,
to again take the account for the bene-
fit of his firm of Deering, Milliken e.
| Co. on the same eXorbitant terms at
which he formerly had it.
Several letters written by Mr.. Mlli-
ken to Mr.. Lucas are attached to the
affidavit. Writing Mr.. Lucas under
date of March II, 1905, Mr.. Milliken
said, among other things: 81 hope you
will not desert the company until the
preferred stock is placed, as you are
sti active and have aye large influence, it is
other places in the South"
| Again writing under date Of June 49,,
1908, Mr.. Milliken said: "It was far
from my intention to give an idea that
you were not paying as mnch attention
to the Darlington mill as you should.
In fact | would rather have one hour
of your time at that mill than the whole
time of any man know at the present
time that could accept such a position,
and your success was the only thing
thought Of"
COTTON MILL MEN TESTIFY.
A number of affidavits were submit
ted by the presidents of cotton mills
declaring that the year in which Mr..
Milliken claims that the Laurens Cot
ton Mills had failed to show profit
and read. In this connection, il might
be proper to state that Alex Long,
secretary of the Laurens Cotton Mills,
showed in an affidavit that the back
been properly entered, thereby denying
the Milliken allegation.
| Affidavits were submitted by Ellison
A. Smyth, A. F. McKissick, j. l. West
ervelt, Thomas F.. Parker, F. Parker,
f. W. Poe and Lewis w. Parker, all of
which cited the fact that the year end
ing April |, 1905, was most disastrous
to the mill interett, especially those
turning out the product similar to that
manufactured by the Laurens Cotton
Mills. The affidavit of Lewis W. Park
er stated that one of the mills with
which he is connected for several pre-
ceding years made profit of approx
imately four dollars per spindle during
| April l, 1905, owing to these bad cond-
tions, the mill in question made profit
only slightly over fifty cents per spin
die, and this notwithstanding the fact
that the said mill had cotton purchased
during the whole period at a price of
! approximately 8 1-2 cents which was
| regarded as very low price for the
raw material at that time. During
that period the market price of cotton
was as high as sixteen to seventeen
| cents.
When the contract for selling the
product of the Laurens Cotton Mills
was taken from Mr.. Milliken's firm it
was turned over to the firm of j. P.
| mitted the following affidavit yesterdays
John p. Stevens, being duly sworn,
says that he is member of the firm of
j. p. Stevens & Company, doing busi-
ness in the county of New York, and
that he is personally familiar with the
business of said firm; that this firm has
handled the product of the Laurens Cot
ton Mills since the 18th day Of April,
1905, and has handled large quantity
| of goods made by said mills as early as
November, 1904, which goods were
transferred to them, the said j. p.
Stevens e Company, by the said mills;
that said firm has sold all of the goods
so transferred to them, and has not
been obliged to record single claim or
complaint, and has not heard of any
claim or complaint by reason of the i'm
perfection of the said goods or other
wise; that said firm has sold the said
goods at tho full market prices, and
that, in the opinion of deponent, the
general representation of the goods
manufactured by the Laurens Cotton
Mills is on a parity with the best goods
of similar character that are offered
on the market. Dcponent further says
that he has not heard, either through
his own salesman, or the brokers selling
this class of goods, of any criticism of
the goods or of any claim that pur-
| chasers or others have been prejudiced
by the character of the goods.
John p. Stevens.
Walter Pringle of Charleston, Louis
Lowinson and Charles II. Herf Of
New York and James M. Pendergast
of Boston testified in affidavits TO the
superior quality of the goods. There
was also strong affidavit FROM j. E.
Shrine of Greenville, in .,ich he
lrtn toI hot h. e l..