Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-06-14
ATTORNEY STEAD
BLAMES POTTER
Fixing Responsibility for Al
lowing Merger Of Tribunes
and Home Circle.
DENIES RECEIVING NOTICE
Insurance Commissioner Is Clothed
With Abundant Authority to
Prevent Combinations

Attorney General w. II. Stead OF
Springfield is inclined to lay the blame
for allowing Illegal mergers OF fra
ternal insurance societies to take place
upon the head of Insurance Commits
sioner Fred w. Potter, and he agrees
with former Commissioner James r. B.
VanCleave that had Potter so desired
he had plenty Of law behind him to
warrant his stopping such combinar
tons as that which took place between
the Fraternal Tribunes and the Amer
lean Home Circle and which resulted
in the wrecking of the former society.
Mr.. Stead was In the city today to
testify before the grand jury. Outside
of the jury room he stated that he re-
garded it as the duty Of the insurance
commissioner to prevent mergers, or
at least to dissolve them after they
were found to have been made. He
denied the statement made by Potter
that he had been warned of the ex-
listing merger In March of last year.
No Information Filed.
On the contrary, he says, Potter
said nothing about the illegal deal I'M
til July 81, 1909, and that then it was
told to T. E. Dempsey, Stead's chief
clerk, and that the law required writ
ten information to be filed. Potter had
defended himself for taking no action
in regard to the apparently unstable
condition of the American Home Cir
Gle by saying that he had no power to
stop the society from doing business
Stead disagreed with him on this, and
said that had Potter seen fit he might
have stopped the unsound society from
continuing to collect dues at any time
he desired after finding something
wrong with it. He said that charter
ance organization in this state is moth
ing more nor less than a license, and
that the law says that a license is
revocable at any time when the con-
ditions under which it is given are
not lived up to. He claimed that the
insurance commissioner might have
proceeded against the insurance fra
ternities without any cooperation from
the office of the attorney general what
soever.
This afternoon Dempsey, Steads
chief clerk, was placed on the witness
stand and questioned regarding the
information Potter claimed to have
given him. 1t seems that the idea is
to show laxtty on Potter's part
Bankers Come I'm Private Car.
Eight cashiers, representing the
banking institutions in Springfield,
came to the city today in a private
car to testify before the grand jury.
They were the guests of H. NJ Mer-
riam, who. besides representing one
Of the Springfield banks, is officially
connected with the c., P & St L.
railway. Those in the party were:
Fred Whip. First National; Henry
Bum. Marine; ALI o. Peterson, Farm
ers' National; Joseph F. Bum, State
Albert H. Rankin, Lincoln;
Latham Southern, Sangamon Loan &
Trust company; Franklin Ridgely, the
Ridgely; H. NJ Merriam. Illinois Ma
tional. The bankers are here to tes-
tify as to any transactions their banks
might have had in handling the funds
Of the Fraternal Tribunes and the
American Home Circle during and fol
lowing the merger negotiations.