Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1910-01-21
WALSH IS DEALT
CRUSHING BLOW
CONVICTED BANKER REFUSED
APPEAL FOR NEW TRIAL BY
THE HIGHEST COURT.
ONLY SLIGHT HOPE is LEFT
All that Stands Between Once Power
ful Man and Penitentiary Is Pure
Iy Technical Action of U. s.
Court Of Appeals.

Chicago, Ill.-The final crushing
blow to the hopes of John r.
Walsh, convicted banker and railroad
builder, has been administered by the
United States supreme court. Unless
some unforeseen obstacle arises the
man who hoped to turn the world of
finance upside down will Immediately
become a numbered convict In the
federal penitentiary at Fort Leaven-
worth. All that stands between the
former banker and penitentiary cell
is the purely technical action Of the
United States court of appeals and
possibility" from Judge Peter S.
Grosscup. The manner in which Judge
Grosscup mentioned this possibility"
after the court refused to intervene in
his behalf leaves little hope for
Walsh.
1t was Walsh's determined quest for
power that placed the former news
boy in possession of fortune esti-
mated at more than S40,000000. But
1t was this same unsatisfied desire for
power that placed the millionaire on
the brink of a five years term in the
penitentiary.
The immediate cause of Walsh's
downfall, according to the government
records upon which he was convicted,
was his dream of owning a powerful
railroad system connecting his mines,
quarries and financial institutions.
He was to have become possessor of
fortune such as never before had
been controlled by one man. And this
fortune, the testimony disclosed, was
to have been built upon the nucleus
provided by his depositors' money.
When Walsh leaves Chicago for the
Fort Leavenworth penitentiary he will
leave behind him as a remnant of the
wrecked fortune something less than
$500,000. The remainder has been
dissipated in his fight in the courts
| and in the falling away in values that
followed his arrest and conviction.
In December, 1905, when he first
encountered the hand of the govern
ment department of justice. Walsh
controlled absolutely the following
properties: Chicago National bank,
Equitable Trust Co., Home Savings
bank, owned the Akron Gas Co., Bed
ford Belt Railway Co.. Bedford quar-
ries, Chicago Chronicle, Chicago
Southern railway, Chicago Wharfing
| & Storage Co., Indiana Southern Coal
Co., Illinois Southern railway, Lake
Michigan Carferry Transportation Co.,
| Mount Olivet and Stanton coal mines,
Ohio Quarries Co. of Illinois, Southern
Indiana Coal Co., Southern Indiana
Wisconsin & Michigan railway.
Walsh's dream was to weld all of
these corporations into one great sys-
tenn which was to have made him the
richest man in the world. His rail-
roads were to have been unified sys-
tenn which was to have stretched
more than half way across the CONT.
nent. The roads were to have been
financed, put on paying basis and
connected by short lines that would
have made one great road of them
And all of these dreams were to have
been realized with money deposited
in his banks by small salaried men
and women in Chicago.
The combined deposits of these
three banks was slightly more than
S25,000,000 at the time the govern
ment closed the doors of the financial
institutions handled by Walsh ant
gave him a rude awakening from his
dream of power.
That was December IS, 1905. Every
day since the closing of the banks has
seen a falling away in the paper
values and inflated assets with which
the banks were flooded.