The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-12-29
PERCY OUTLINES
His OBJECTIONS
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that I publicly state the reasons which
have led me to believe that Judge Humid
sey's appointment should be withdrawn.
and If not withdrawn, that it should not
DE confirmed.
Controversy About Southern Steel.
When. because of financial distress.
at became necessary for the creditors of
the Southern Steel company to apply
for the appointment of receivers, my
partner, Mr.. Benners presented a petit
ton asking to have the Southern Steel
company thrown into bankruptcy and
at the same time requested the appoint
ment of Messrs. Morris and Edgar Ad-
Ter as receivers of the embarrassed cor
poration. The Southern Steel company
was engaged in mining coal and iron
ore and manufacturing pig iron, open
hearth steel and wire products. My
firm represented a large number of
creditors whose claims aggregated
large amount of money. It was the
belief of many of the creditors and
stockholders that the distress Of the
temporary troubles which could be
quickly adjusted. and it was their
earnest desire that the plants should
be kept. In operation. This desire
prompted the request for the appoint
ment of the Adlers. They We're men of
large business experience, including
experience in the mining of ore and
the manufacture of pig iron. They were
the only men in the Birmingham dis
trict. so far as l know, who were in
that period of acute financial embar
rassment. both able and eyoWedly will
ing to furnish funds for such pur-
pose Judge Hundley declined to ap-
point the two Adlers as requested but
instead, appointed Edgar Adler, J. o.
Thompson and E. G. Chandler as CO.
receivers.
There can be no controversy among
fair-minded men as TO what Judge
Hundley's attitude should have been
in the appointment of these receivers
! The power which he exercised was a
discretionary power. He was dealing
with a tremendous estate, in which
many people We're interested as cred
itors and stockholders. The insol-
vency of this estate was bound TO be
attended with loss and financial dis
tress. In appointing receivers to man
age this estate, unquestionably Judge
Hundley should have acted with an eye
single to the welfare of the estate and
to what he believed to be to the best
stockh olders. I have not one word of
criticism to utter for his refusal to
appoint Morris Adler. Had he decided
that 1t was to the best interests of the
estate to have appointed neither of the
,Adlers, that fact. of itself, would have
constituted no good ground for criti-
cism.
Many interests Involved.
Many interests We're involved in the
estate and only portion of the inter-
ests involved, however large, requested
the appointment of the Adlers, and if,
regarding the matter as a trustee of
this great estate and considering alone
the best interests of the benefciaries
of that trust, the judge had rejected
both the Adlers and appointed other
persons solely because of his belief
that their ability. character and tech
meal experience better qualified them
for the difficult task of conserving and
trehabiitating this property, his con-
duct would have been deserving of the
highest commentator. Receiyerships
of embarrassed corporations are not
loot to be distributed among the judges
personal or political friends or follow
ers, but fduciary positions whose oc-
cupants should be selected with the sole
idea of minimizing the losses bound to
result from such failure. Was Judge