The San Francisco call., 1909-09-05


the waiver and wouldn't attempt to
get his father to stand for it. as re-
Quested, but, on the contrary would do
everything he could TO keep his father
from consenting to it. He also told me
to tell John d. Spreckels that from now
on 1t is war to the knife between him
and me- On the occasion of the second
default in payment John D. Spreckels
himself saw his father and asked him
to sign the waiver. which he did"
Statement of Attorney
Without having had an opportunity
as yet to inspect the complaint, and
knowing only generally its allegations,
am only certain of one thing, and
that is that the suit certainly has no
merit. OF that there can be no doubt"
Such was the declaration yesterday
afternoon of A F. Morrison of the
attorneys for John u. and Adolph
Spreckels
Il am not prepared to charge that
certain motives lie behind the begin
ming of this action" continued Morri-
son, but it certainly looks like mat
ter of spite due to the resentment of
Rudolph and Claus Augustus Spreckels
because John d. and Adolph Spreckels
have seen fit to question the trust
clause of their fathers will. I don't
care to say that the suit has been
started as means of clouding the Is
sue in the matters now pending, but
on the other hand it can not be any
thing more than filibustering fight
HARD TO PROVE CHARGES
There is not bit of merit to the
charges generally in this suit as l
understand them. II is easy to make
charges, but it is harder to prove
them. There is nothing new. etfer,
about such charges as these. Those
boys, Rudolph and Gus, have always
been free in making charges both
against their father and their brothers,
and so there is nothing surprising
about this
ITO begin with, such a suit as this
appears to be more for the purpose
of exploitation than for anything else
The application is for the removal Of
the trustee of the Oceanic steamship
company, and for the appointment by
the court of a new trustee. The trust
deed expressly provides, however, that
in the case of the resignation or re-
moval of the trustee for any reason,
the successor of this trustee shall be
selected by the Oceanic steamship COM
pany. The latter is controlled, of
course, by John d. and Adolph Spreck-
els, so even If Rudolph and Gus
Spreckels should win this suit the
new trustee would be appointed by the
very men they are attacking, unless
the court should override this provi-
sion of the trust deed and make the
selection itself. So, unless this should
be done, the plaintiffs have nothing
to gain even If they should win the
suit.
TRUST DEED is QUOTED
''The trust deed provides that if the
trusteeship becomes vacant the Oceanic
steamship company may appoint new
trustee with the consent of one-third
of the bond holders or it may remove
trustee and make reappointment
with the consent of ma jority of the
bond holders.
AS / said,'I do not know all the
details of the charges which have been
made, but there is no doubt that the
Union trust company has acted strict
ly in accordance with the provisions
of the trust deed and has acted at all
times for the best good and protection
of the bond holders and all concerned
1t could not afford to have done other
wise.
One of the allegations is that the
trust company has failed in its duty
in not foreclosing on the failure of
the Oceanic steamship company to pay
the regular semiannual interest on its
bonds. The trust deed requires ,thel
the written petition of a majority of
the bond holders. That is a distinct,
requirement which the trustee had stoi
obey
CONSPIRACY is DENIED
"As to the charge that there has
existed conspiracy to depreciate the
value of the bonds there is, of course
no foundation for. such claim. If
anything would depreciate the value
of h0 Inx ~ Il
do 1t. So if John d. Spreckels was a
party to such Conspiracy this would
do more than anything else to aid him
in gaining his end and he would have
Rudolph and Gus to thank for bring
ing about the result. On the contrary,
the John D. Spreckels e. Bros. COM
pany has spent at least two and half
million dollars to keep the ships of
the Oceanic company going and for
the purpose of sustaining the value of
the bonds and for the benefit of the
bond holders.
QUESTION of VALUATION
"The complaint that the trustee has
not kept up the insurance on the
Oceanic steamship company's property
to two-thirds its value is also unwor-
thy of consideration. The trustee prob
ably has the right to waive all de-
faults, but even if not the trust deed
ships and the determination of this
value is practically matter of opin-
ion. No way is provided by which the
valuation is to be determined, so if
these complaints allege that the insur-
ance carried does not amount to two
thirds the value of the ships they are
merely stating their own opinion of
the matter. 1t would have to be
very glaring undervaluation, believe.
to convince any court that the trustee
was reniss in his duty in this re-
spect.
THE charge that money has been
expended in lobbying does not seem
to be at all explicit. In any event, it's
only wind"
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