The evening world., 1905-07-18
DID EQUITABLE
PAY "SH|P" CLAIMS?
Mystery Of $685., 900 Fund and Payments
BY Mercantile Trust Company May
Hide Reasons Why Odell and
Other Suits Were Ended.

All of the activities of the Distnct-Attorney office. Of the State
Insurance Department and other Equitable investigators are centred to-
dsyh trying to find out why the Equitable Life Assurance Society owed
the Mercantile Trust Company one Of the main lnksin its chain OF banks
and trust companies, s6S5,ooo.
Every effort to find OH SO far has been met with evasion Or pretended
/ ignorance, yet the payments made by the Mercantile Trust Company on
behalf of the Equitable Society, or James W Alexander and T. E. Jordan, in
whose names the loan originally Stood which aggregate this large amount
are obviously matters Off record.
a The Equitable Society,". its fnanciers and its constituent companies were
deep in the Shipbunding scandal.
s Who paid former Gov. odel the $4,000 he invested in shipbunding
. bonds Ito induce him to withdraw his suit?
WHO PAID THESE SHIP TRUST CLAIMSa
sa Who paid Mrs Ida L. Wood the 100000 she lost in the shipburdtng
- cue .snl nv St t%O n %t. n,arnd IN - hr nron nu y" rO ~Wousn aposure
Why "a former Supreme Court Justice D. cady Herrick the counsc,
FOR the Commonwealth Trust Company, o whose behalf he has been press
ing a number of suits against the Mercantile Trust Company for the re-
covery of money lost in the shpbuding affair. suddenly chosen a director
of the Equitable.
Is there any connection between the setuemnt of oders claim and the
sudden flop If odel from Frank Black as his choice for United States Sem
ator to chauncey M Depew, director of the Equitable and director of the
Mercantile Trust Company?
building settlements, the Mercantile Trust Company loan suddenly IN
creased from between $500 900 and 100000 % ses5O0O?
SECRET FUND FOR ECR
@ That large UNI of money which the Equitable the Mercan-
tile Trust Company was a secret fund for the payment of secret debts (D
to persons intended to remain anonymous. is clear And that every pre-
caution h as been taken to guard the distributors of this secret fund and
also the benehciares. is shown by the imposhbilty up to date of any in
vestigator obtaining any information whatever about the matter.
If the odeI suit or the Wood sutth had ever come to trial. If any n of
the suits which D. oady Herick has been industrtousy pressing had ever
come Il trial, there is no doubt that a very uncomfortable situation would
recalled that when oden began his suit he eve made any bones,of his be.
lief that he had been swtndled and he INDUCED freely in covert threats of
what he wa going to do unless he got his money back.
He got it back all right. and so did Mrs. Wood, who n n less
. determined in her threats of what would happen unless she ws reimbursed.
LOANS HIFTE BACK TO EQUITABLE.
: James W. Alexander and T. E. Jordan carried the loan in their own
names s@ a long time, it is said, because it represented transactions in
~ which the Equitable Society had n o right to be engaged. Alexander and
Jordan were merely dummies Now they have shifted the debt back to the
Equitable. MI. Hendricks has n 70 jurisdiction over banks, but the State
Banking Department has, and M Kilburn may be able to find out what
Mr. Hendricks failed to learn.
When Mr.. Jerome inserts the probe, as he is expected 10 dc. It is
believed he will find the real facts of the ss5Ooo loans buried in such a
maze of dummies and fictitious transactions that 1t will take weeks. to get
at the truth. Mr. jerome is patient however.
TRUSTEES CEI RYAN STOCK.
In answ o the insinuatons that have beer made that the new d.
rectors of the Society recently named by the Board of Trustees have Quail
fed under the Ryan stock held by the trustees, the Board, through its Sec
Rotary, George F. Parker, gave tut the following statement to-day:
'NIessrs. Grover Cleveland, George Westinghouse and Morgan j. oBrien,
62 shares of stock of the Equitable Life Assurance Society delivered to
them by Mr.. Thomas F. Ryan have been transferred to their nan az
trustees, and that it is now represented by a single certificate held bv
them subject to the trust agreement"
Under the constitution Oft the Equitable Society directors have h uual-
lily by stock holdings of atle least five shares.
Auorney-General Mayer said to-day that suits for the recovery Of the
profits Of the Hyde and Associates" syndicahs would be ar
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