Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-08-08
BANK president
GUILTY Of CRIME
Evidence Against Stensland of
Failed Milwaukee Avenue
Bank Is Accumulating
is A FAR REACHING DISASTER
Now Seems Likely That the 0epositors
Will Lose Good Share of Their Saw
ines-cashier Herring May Not Have
Had Hand in the Lootins of the
Bank-Today's Developments.

Chicago, Aug S.-Today woe-be-
gone crowd of depositors continued to
surround the wrecked Milwaukee Ave-
nue. State bank. AS on previous days.
the unfortunates, mostly working peo-
pie, came early and seemed determined
to remain indefinitely Police were on
hand to repress any tendency toward
disorder.
Conclusive evidence has been un-
earthed by State Bank Examiner Jones
that Paul o. Stensland, fugitive pres
ident, has been guilty of highly GRIM
inal acts in conducting the business
institution of which he is the head.
This was officially announced by Jones
today. At the same time culpa'bility
for the crimes which have brought far
reaching disaster ON the northwest side
is narrowing more and more to STEMS
land Henry w. Herring, the missing
cashier. who was declared to be an
embezzler of large sums of money. is
being in measure exonerated because
Of the lack of proof against him. Mr.
Jones intimated that the suspicion that
paper was forged and money drawn
out Of the bank to enrich some one
was well grounded.
when one has to go thru lot OF
miscellaneous paper signed by people
YOU never heard Of before, thru forged
paper and other stuff, it can be realized
how difficult it is to reach a definite
result in few days of work" he said.
In this connection it was learned
that the police had been looking for a
handwriting expert, and had endeavor-
ed to engage Expert Drake. who is out
of town. 1t was said that this move
was made on the suggestion of Mr..
Jones. who, however, declined to dis
cuss it.
"Our investigation thus far has been
devoted wholly to sorting out the pa
per" continued the bank examiner
"There are many notes signed by in
dividuals whose responsibility we are
ignorant Of; neither are we confident
about the value Of the notes. We know
we have large amount of paper, but
cannot tell now whether it is good Or
bad. This will take a long time. The
receiver will have to call upon the per-
sons whose names appear on the pa
per and get their version of the matter.
Dependent on what they say Is the ac-
tual condition of the banks finances Ii
q, man says his name was forged to
note. then that must be proved IN
court"
Began Long Time Ago.
Mr.. Jones declared that another OBJ
s,tacle to an early clearing of the mys-
tery connected with the failure was
the fact that one misdeed seemed to
have led to another.
"Probably the first misstep was COM
mitted several years ago." he COM
nented. "First 1t was one thing, ana
then there came another transaction
which needed it's offset, and SO it went
from time to time until now We have
a mass of complicated matter on
hand"
The bank examiner was careful not
to mention any names. He was asked
how it happened that with so many
evidences of fraud in the banks rec
ords he had not discovered that 1t was
insolwent long ago.
"It is unjust to make 1t appear that a
bank examiner is responsible for
banks failing under such circumstan-
ces as surround case Of this nature"
he responded Here is an example of
how a bank official who has the relns
of an institution in his hands all the
time can hide evidence of wrong doing.
Neither 1 nor any other examiner can
go into a bank, look over paper and
notes, and proclaim the concerns con-
dition shaky when the president tells
us that such note is good and that
another note is indorsed by a response
BILE person, and so on.
"When we enter a bank to examine
its books we do not do SO on the the
ory that the officers are rascals. We
suppose that the bank is being con-
Quoted on conservative lines. There
fore, we must take the word of re-
sponsible officer in many instances.
We cannot chase up every signer and
indorser Of every piece of paper in a
bank-it would be impossible"
In the pitiful little gathering close
to the door were some of the persons
who were noticed Monday, more brok-
en- in spirit than ever, apparently, and
voicing their sorrow and their TRACE
dies in the same agony of mind.
"I thought there was kind OF
chance they'd give me my money to-
day, but they amt giving us anything.
My moneys gone-yes, it's gone, and
l am penniless. There's no hope OF
getting a cent'-that was the general
form of ideas expressed by dozens of
the dispirited depositors.
Policemen stated that some of the
women in the group of depositors had
been lowering around the bank doors
for two whole days. There were not
many tears from the women. They
semed to have cried themselves to ex-
haustion and merely stood in knots of
three and four, offering each other
such sympathy as came to mind.