The Penn's Grove record., 1909-06-25

Philadelphia. Tn common with
every other good citizen. I am at the
service of my country" said George
H. Earle, Jr., receiver of the Penn
sylvania Sugar Refining Company,
when asked whether he would aid the
Government in a criminal prosecution
directed against the heads of the 81
gar trust.
Those who knew Mr.. Earle keenly
appreciated the irony of his remark
when they recalled that he had plead
ed with and petitioned President
Roosevelt and Attorney-General Bon
aparte in vain to institute or to per-
NIT him to institute just such crim-
inal proceedings as are now threat
ened by the present Department of
Justice. AS long ago as November,
1906, Mr.. Earle now admits, he
warned President Roosevelt and his
Acknowledgement of the weighing
frauds in New York and rebating
practiced by the sugar trust, but no
action was taken.
Earle's Personality.
MI. Earle is the son of the late
George H. Earle, ST., one of the fore
most lawyers of the Philadelphia bar.
The son, himself a lawyer, is the ex-
~ecutive head of five of the largest
banks in the city. He has rescued
many concerns from the graveyard
of high finance, was too busy to be
Mayor of Philadelphia, is not
against" trusts, is worth SIS, 000, 900,
but lives on one of his many salaries,
and his hobbies are coins, first prints
and a model farm. He was offered
100000 for reviving the Real Estate
Trust Company, and went into court
and told the judge that his services
were worth only $4,000, and he has
not yet collected the $4,000 because
''the company needs the money more
than I do"
While a financial genius Mr.. Earle
has absolutely no ambition for great
wealth or political preferment and no
desire for social glories. Upon his
unsupported word the $500 depos-
itors of the defunct Real Estate Trust
Company turned over to him all that
was left of $7,500,000 deposits at the
time of the crash, August %, 1906,
and every stakeholder in the company
assigned his property to Mr.. Earle
without recourse OF recovery" with
out a scratch of a pen to safeguard
the equity.
sit would be manifestly improper
for me to discuss any phase of the
sugar trust case at this time" said
Mr.. Earle, because / am still an off
Ger of the court in my capacity as re-
ceIver Of the Pennsylvania Sugar Re-
filming Company
Does the same apply to the Gov
s%- nraofccc h. -
asked.
ooh, yes, I suppose so. They did
not care to discuss the case two or
three years ago, and l prefer not to
talk about it now, for the more par
ticular reason that we have agreed
upon a settlement and I consider it
hardly fair to agree to a settlement
and then participate in an expose of
the other party to the bargain. Then,
too, 1 must keep in mind the fact that
the court has yet to review the terms
and conditions of our settlement, and
might be subjected to some criti-
cism for commenting upon the case
at this time"
Gave Warning in 1906.
SIS it true that you directed the
attention of the Government to the
scale frauds and rebating more than
two years ago."
"Mr. Frank L. Neall, of Peter
Wright's Sons, told me about these
frauds so long ago that I cannot now
fix the date, but l certainly wrote to
the Acknowledgement about them on
November 8, 1906, as the papers in
the Pennsylvania Refinery Ease will
show.
.T am not fixing responsibilities.
7 am not naming men who performed
their duties, nor am ! pointing out
any one who failed to measure up to
their responsibilities.
81 must not be placed in the posi-