Semi-weekly herald., 1911-12-14
Coop. Mil Affairs
Are Badly Mudd|ed

A>oSe Dotuiutiy .ItTG WAS
a meeting of the stockholders in the
farmers coop, mill and from all ac-
counts 1T was warm one. The farm
ers bought the mill from Mrs. Bessie
+. Armstrong of Bayfield, for $500
and up to date they have raised about
$4,000 to pay for it. 1t seems, how
ever, that the money has been used
for other purposes, for the directors
say it is all gone and there is still
a mortgage of something over $4,000
on the mill. Stockholders say they
have never been given any clear ac-
count of what became of the money
and naturally they don't feel like
paying any more. The present di-
rectors say that the money disappear
ed before they were elected, and as
there is no money left to pay for hav-
ing an investigation made they are
inclined to think that the best thing
that can be done is to let Mrs. Arm
strong take the mill back without
waiting for an investigation to be
made and without putting her to the
expense of bringing suit to foreclose
her mortgage. A good many of the
stockholders also think that it is the
proper thing to do, but they realize
that the directors have no legal au-
thority to deed the property back, un-
til authorized to do SO by the stock
holders, and for the last two or three
weeks they have been trying to gath
er enough proxies to hold legal
meeting. P. G. Ellis, the attorney for
Mrs. Armstrong has been especially
active in collecting proxies and Sat
urday afternoon he notified few
stockholders that he thought major
ity of the stock would be represented,
and they went to the mill to hold the
meeting. 1t takes 5S3 shares to rep
resent majority of the stock that has
been issued, and at two O'Clock only IL
stockholders and SOB shares had put
in an appearance, some of those who
did come then suggested that vssile
they were waiting for more stock to
appear the purpose of the meeting
should be announced, and Mr.. Ellis
produced a resolution he had drawn
up which he said would settle The
whole business as soon as it was
passed. Upon examination this prov
ed to be true, at least it would set
tie the business as far as the farmers
were concerned, for the resolution au-
thorized and ordered the directors to
turn over to Mrs. Armstrong not only
the mill plant, but also all the notes
and judgments and everything else
the company owned Some of the
stockholders who were present said
they never would vote for such . res
olution, especially as no one bat Mr..
Ellis and a fsw insiders knew the
number and amount of thu notes and
judgments and ether property which
it was designed to convey,
Robert McNicholas, who is one of
the largest stockholders in the mill,
strenuously objected to any action be-
ing taken on the resolution. He said
tuhI WI. SOuiu iOt
vote on the resolution as it was
clearly in favor of his client and
against the interests of the farmers
who he was pretending to represent.
Mr.. Ellis ignored Bob's protest, how
ever, and it was evident that he felt
he had a majority of the votes on his
side, for he suddenly announced as
chairman of the committee on creden-
tials that majority of the stock was
represented and demanded that vote
be taken on his resolution; Barney
Haughey opposed the adoption of the
report of the committee on creden-
tials, and like Bob McNicholas he ar
gued that Mr.. Ellis should not be on
that committee, or have any vote in
the meeting as it was clear that he
could not represent both sides. Mr..
Ellis insisted however, that being a
stockholder he had right to vote, and
he did vote. The first vote taken was
on the adoption of Mr.. Ellis report as
chairman of the committee on creden-