The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-08-06
ANDERSON MILL MAN
ALLEGED DEFAULTER
CALHOUN HARRIS PLACED UN-
DER ARREST.
Assistant Cashier Of Orr Cotton Mills
Alleged to Be Short Fifty
Thousand Dollars.

riS, Of the Orr Cotton Mills, was ar
rested this morning on warrant Sc
cured by President J. D. Hammett,
charging breach of trust, it being al
legged that he misappropriated $780,
600 or more Of the company funds.
Tonight he is quartered under guard
in a room at the Chiquola Hotel and
refuses to give out any statement
otherwise than that he has not mis-
appropriated one dollar Of the money
and that everything will be found all
right when the expert accountants
get through with auditing the books.
He admits thar his books are tangled
up, and that they have been so for
some time. He also admits that he
has made false entries to force bal
ances at different times.
The first intimation Of a shortage
came on Tuesday Of last week. About
two weeks ago two accountants Of
the American Audit Company came
to Anderson to audit the books Of the
mills. as is customary about once a
wear. After working for a few days,
the experts found one or two items
which did not apepar correct. On
further examination, it appeared that
Mr.. Harris was short in his accounts
$4,000. When his attention was
called to it. lie said the showing was
correct. but claimed that it Was due
to clerical errors. He also said that
the errors had existed for several
wears, that he had made repeated ef-
forts to find the mistake, but had
been unable to do so. President Ham,
NETT and the directors questioned Mr..
Harris closely and we're disposed to
believe him when he insisted that the
shortage was due to clerical errors.
As the investigation proceeded, how
ever. many false entries were found,
It is said, and many things appeared
which did not tend to keep Mr.. Har-
ris from suspicion. It was found, it
is alleged, that he not only made false
entries to make correct balances, but
that he also had been kiting checks
from one bank to another, and that
in many instances he had given the
mill his own personal checks to ac-
count for cash which the mill should
have on hand. entered these checks on
the books Of the mill and then had
never presented these checks to the
banks for payment. The exact amount
of these checks is not known, but IS
several thousand dollars.
In another instance a batch Of per-
sonal checks from merchant IN All
derson were found in the vault Of the
mill office, which had never been pre-
sented to the bank for payment.
These chicks bore different dates,
several years old. They had been en-
tered on the books Of the mills, show
ING that tie merchant had paid his
account. The books show that the
mill on one occasion loaned $4,000 to
Mr.. Harris. A few weeks later, 1t
appeared, this loan was repaid. A
personal check signed by Mr.. Harris
was found in the vault for the amount
of the loan, the dates corresponding
with the books entries. In addition
to these checks, there were found IN
the vault many parcels and packages
of money in old envelopes, some IN
old pasteboard boxes, and some IN
coin sacks. Some Of the money was in
bills. and had been laid in the vault
until some of it had been eaten and
partly demolished by rats. All Of
these items Will aggregate between
six and eight thousand dollars.
Church Money Found in Vault.
Mr.. Harris was for years treasur-
er Of the First Presbyterian Church.
In the vault were found a great many
envelopes, which the members Of the
CONGREGATION use cn Sundays IN max
ing their payments to the church.
These envelopes bear the name OF
the contributor and the amount con-
tributed. There were dozens Of these
envelopes that were never opened,
some Of them dating as far back as
five years; and there is said to have
been found in one instance evidence
of where checks of the mill had been
uSed by Mr.. Harris in settling the
church account at the bank. The ex-
perts Of tEG auditing company say
that the accounts were in worse shape
than any they have ever seen. They
sav it will take them several months