Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1908-03-13
WARE FOUND GUILTY..
Seymour Banker Consesses and Gets
F., Five Years.


/ Corydon.-Leroy Ware. who has
been held In Jail for some months for
fraudulent banking as cashier OF the
defunct Farmers and Drovers' State
bank of Seymour, pleaded guilty. In
district court here rather than stand
trial and was sentenced to serve five
years in the penitentiary. Ware
pleaded guilty to one of the indict-
ments for making fraudulent entries
in the books Of the bank. There were
twenty-one other indictments found
against him, all Of which will be per-
mitted to stand for the present.
While Wares plea of guilty was but
short cut to certain conviction,
there were many depositOrs who hop
ed for a thorough airing Of the whole
bank muddle In the courts. There Is
a strong feeling here that Ware Is as
much sinned against as a sinner and
that he was in many respects mere
cats paw.
1.-The policy of the bank, for which
the directors were responsible, was
one that meant destruction under any
OCCldl GU W. A/' A<A'
ingston, attorney for Ware, in COM
menting upon the action of his client.
THE books show that time. and time
again the officers of the bank drew
dividends from the bank at from 6 to
121s per cent and even higher, and
that at the same time they were paid
as high at 12h per cent interest ON
their time deposits, all while the bank
was In precarious condition.
"As late as January, 1907, only a
short time before the failure, the
stockholders at regular meeting In
creased the capital of the institution
from 100000 to $4,000 on pretend.
ed undivided surplus and profits and
at the same time paid the stock
holders dividend of II per cent on
a capitalization OF $4,000. The at
torneys for the bank claim that the
books will disclose that for the year
preceding this action there was an
actual deficit of $4,000 instead of a
surplus or profit.
Among the old papers of the bank
are found undisputed evidences of a
system of rediscounting through the
bank, whereby the favored directors
or officers would take from the bank
paper bearing per cent interest and
other paper guaranteed by the bank
and then rediscount the paper at 6
per cent and pocket the 2 per cent at
the expense of the bank.
without trying to create any maud
lin sympathy for Mr.. Ware 1t can be
truly said of him that he was sud.
denly left in 1895 in full command of
the bank without sufficient clerical
help and no one to advise him and
without previous experience to bear
the brunt of the burden of passing on
credits and extending credits except
men of the disposition above indi-
Gated. He was physically weak from
youth, and from hard labor had be.
come deformed in body. He lacked
the essential foundation for the strain
Of SO difficult task as to withstand
alone and unaided the strain and
pressure OF certain officers and custo-
mers of the bank, whose will power
overreached and dominated his will
power without Mr.. Ware suspect
ing the wrong of his acts. Disinter-
ested people. here are charitable
enough to believe that his mistakes
were Of judgment and not of the
heart. The blame may never be plac-
ed where it belongs, but to my mind
the blame rests primarily upon the d.
rectors who gave him insufficient help
and likely insufficient pay, and surely
insufficient advice, prompted by a
greedy and parsimonious policy"