The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-31
RECEIVERS FOR
MORSE COMBINE
Action Against Eastern Steam
ship and Consolidated
Steamship Lines.
SUITS SAID TO BE FRIENDLY
PANIC PUT FINISHING TOUCHES
ON PROMOTER.


A" Portland. Me, Jan. 30.-Peti- -
= tons for receivers for the Metro :.
= politan Steamship company. the {:
4: Eastern Steamship and the Con- =
- solidated Steamship lines of =
= Maine were filed in the federal =
= court today. The court has issued :.
:" restraining orders to protect the -
= properties, to prevent interference -
: or intermeddling in any way with -
= the affairs or properties of the :.
= corporations. ::
Boston, Jan. Proceedings in this
city for receivership for the Consol-
iGated Steamship company was insti-
tuted simultaneously with those in the
courts at Portland. Me, and New York
today. The action was brought by
William a. Muller of Arlington, Mass,
whose counsel filed three bills of COM
PLANT against the Consolidated and
also against two subsidiary companies,
the Eastern and Metropolitan Steam
ship companies. In his bill OF COM
plant Mr.. Muller declares that the
Eastern Steamship company has to-
tai floating Indebtedness of. 81, 1856, 600
and that the Metropolitan company
has a floating indebtedness of 81, $780,
600, with unpaid bills of $3.50 200. and
interest ON outstanding bonds of ST.
I 100000. The immediate cause of The
petition was the failure of the Eastern
Steamship company to pay a demand
note to Mr.. Muller of $4,000.
Ambition of Morse.
The difficulties of the Consolidated
Steamship company are regarded by
bankers in this city as the result of
excessive steamship building and fail
ure on the part of the company to
provide a sinking fund for the under
lying bonds of the six companies that
were consolidated by Charles Morse.
1t was Mr.. MOrse's ambition 20 control
large steamship company engaged in
the coastwise trade Two years ago
he consolidated al the steamship lines
running between Boston and Maine
ports under the head of the Eastern
Steamship COMPANY He then went
further and obtained control of the
Metropolitan Steamship company, with
line of boats between this city and
New York, and later secured four lines
running south from New FORK. the
New York and Cuba mail route, known
as the Ward line; the Clyde Steamship
company, the Mallory Steamship COM
pany and the New York-Rice Steam
ship company. The Consolidated
Steamship company. a Maine corpora
ton, was then formed as a holding
company for these six lines. with an
authorized bond issue of $50, 900, 600 at
4 per cent, and So. DOC, 600 in stock.
Enormous Bond Issue.
The total amount of bonds for the
six companies was S21, 1863. 900 at ) per
cent, and stock S62. 900. 900. Later ad-
ditional bonds were issued by the va
rious companies. which brought the
amount to s24.624.OO0. A greater pro-
portion of these bonds are held by pri-
vate individuals. but the stock of all is
owned by the Consolidated Steamship
company.
As soon as the consolidation was eff
fected contract was made for the
construction of a number of additional
steamships. and the first production in
this line was the Harvard and Yale
which ran between this city and New
York for two months last fall. The fin
ancial conditions of the Consolidated
Steamship company during the latter
part Of the summer began to attract
attention, especially when it was
learned that over So 900, 900 had been
taken from the earnings of the, six
companies in order to pay for the Har-
ward and Yale. A month later came
the crash in Wall street and the res
ignation of Mr.. Morse from a number
of financial institutions in New York.
The market price of the Consolidated
4 per cent bonds declined rapidly and in
November a protection committee was
ordered, with the following members:
E. J. Berwynd, president of the Ber-
wynd White Coal company: e. j. Nal
lory, H. p. Booth, W. H. CRANBERRY. A.
w. Krech. all of New York; GaIen
Continued on Page 2.