The Topeka state journal., 1905-07-04

! Gid lIInan.
Judge Elijah Robinson, attorney for
the National Bank of Commerce of
Kansas City.
A. A. McClanahan, representing the
Continental Trust company of Chi
cago.
H. A. Forman, representing the
Fourth National bank of St. Louis.
Charles S. Gleed, president of the
pany, who is to be president of the
corporation formed to operate the
Devlin properties.
This committee was agreed upon by
Devlin's chief creditors. Three of
them were chosen by the Baltimore
hotel conference Sunday. The other
| two were named yesterday.
The formation of this committee, it
is said, removes all obstacles in the
way of the successful carrying out
of the Devlin corporation. Its mem
| bers were chosen by Devlin's biggest
creditors; and, in addition to pledging
| itself to raise all the money needed,
| it pledges itself to safeguard the in
terests of all the creditors, including
| those who were not represented at
the Baltimore hotel conferences as
well as those who were. Concerning
the purposes for which the commit
tee was formed J. H. Harkless said
| last night:
''It is the purpose of this commit
| tee to act for and on behalf of and
for the best interests of all the cred
|
terests be conserved and the expenses
reduced to the minimum. 1t is pro-
posed that preference shall be given
| to nobody under any circumstances,
and thus all the creditors will be pro-
tected whether they were represented
or not"
: The committee will act in conjunc-
ton with directors of the corporation
| Until the corporation gets under way
the expense of handling the property,
including a payroll containing thou
sands of names, will be heavy. The
money to defray this expense is guar
anteed, according to the arrangement,
by this committee, the money to be
refunded later out of the profits of
| the corporation.
How much money will be needed is
| indefinite. Interested men said last
night they did not think it would ex-
/ ceed Il million dollars AT the Sunday
| conference the amount needed was
estimated by some as high as 1 million
| dollars, but that was when the saving
of the First National bank of Topeka
| was included in the eStimationS. When
| this bank went to the wall yesterday it
removed the necessity for raising so
large a sum.
The transfer of Devlin's private
holdings to the corporation has not
| been made, but it will probably be
done tomorrow morning, it is said.
| The signatures of Mr.. Devlin and his
| wife to all the necessary papers have
been secured and actual transfer will
be the work of but a few minutes.
| Much of the time yesterday of those
| who were here was given to trying to
trace Mr.. Devlin's various assets. Mr..
Harkless and Mr.. Histed devoted most
of their time to this effort. His liza
| bilit1es are also being traced. Dew
task OF finding all of them is long
one. His properties include coal
mines, banks. railroads, mercantile
establishments and real estate, and
are scattered through several states.
A lawyer said last night that the Dew
! lin complication was the most widely
diversified trouble-both as to terri
tory covered and variety of interests
invoIved-of any that has arisen in
years
Mr.. Devlin's holdings were oper-
ated by him under twenty-six com
panies His principal holdings were:
Mount Carmel coal mines.
Toluca coal mines.
The Marquette third vein mines.
The DeVlin Coal company.
| The Devlin-Miller Coal company.
The Crawford County Mining COM
pany.
The Pittsburg and Midway Coal
company.
The Kansas City Coal and Coke
company.
The Southwestern Fuel company.
| The Wiley Coal company.
The Marceline Coal company.
Blitz Not Embarrassed.
1t was reported in a morning paper
that I. M. Blitz, the jeweler, had given
a bill of sale to the First National
| bank and that the bank receiver had
| taken possession of his stock. This is
entirely incorrect.
The facts are that Mr.. Blitz gave
the bank a bill of sale for $1,000 to
cover any advances of money he might
need from the bank as he expected to
start a new store. The understanding
was that the bill of sale should not be
recorded, and it is supposed that the
receiver simply found the unrecorded
bill of sale and not knowing of the
agreement, sent the document to be
recorded.
Mr.. Blitz does not owe the bank a
cent, as none of his notes there are
due. The amount of notes which he
has at the bank is small in the aggre-
gate, and he states that he is prepared
to take everything up as it comes due.
No Run at Kansas City.
Kansas City, July &C. ]. Devlin,
who was one of the most extensive
coal mine operators in the west, held
several interests in Kansas City and
local banks have some of his paper
but there was no apparent excitement
here today over the failure of his bank
at Topeka. The belief generally was
expressed that with good management
of his 26 properties all liabilities
would be paid in full
Charles S. Gleed, an attorney for the
Central National bank at Topeka and
a director in the Atchison, Topeka &
!, Santa Fe road. whose knowledge of
4 DeVlin's affairs is intimate, gave it as
his belief that DevIin's liabilities would
run anywhere from 2 " millions to
four millions of dollars and his estate
was worth between six and seven mil
lions of dollars. Cfas. ]. Devlfn was
known as worker of tremendous ca
. pacity who rarely If ever trusted his
affairs to an assistant He relied to a
great extent on his remarkable
. memory, which at last appears to have
been overtaxed.
How Kelly Secured Bond.
jacques Morgan, of Kansas City
\ in the Kansas City Journal, tells how
he happens to be in the Devlin open
switch. After leaving his job with
the city Morgan proceeded to an en-