The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1913-12-18
LAND CONCERN SAFE
SAYS ]. H. DEVLIN


mission TO continue business is the
statement Of officers Of the company,
who are in the possession Of eorrespon-
dence from the Corporation Commits
sioner showing that although they had
not asked permission 10 sell stocks or
bonds. they had been refused permis-
sion 10 DO that by the commissioner.
Referring to the published reports
which were made as the result Of an
examination Of the holdings Of the
company. located at Ortley. Or, about
seven miles west of The Dalles. by $.
B. Vincent. examiner for the Corpora
ton Commissioner. J. II. Devlin, sec
rotary of the company, saws that he is
at loss TO understand why such an
investigation and report was made un-
less il was at the instigation of I. II.
Fields. a purchaser of one Of the COM
pany's tracts.
The latter instituted proceedings
some time ago for having his contract
Cancelled on the ground of false repre-.
sentation. Mr.. Devlin draws this in
ference from the fact that Mr.. Vincent
called upon Mr.. Field soon after his
arrival ct Ortley and spent the follow
ing day with him and his relatives and
friends going over some of the COM
pany's property, including the Field
tract.
"lt will be noted" said air. Devlin,
that the greater part of his report is
not based upon Mr.. Vincent's personal
investigation. but upon the allegations
made to him by third parties, who weret
evidently instrumental in getting him
up there and who took him over the
tract and made Statements that were
naturally prejudieial to the company.
Most of Misrepresentation made
to MIR Field at the time he bought the
tract were made by his father, who
was then acting as agent of the COM
pany and who had been over the COM
pany's holdings and was at that time
and ever since has been a resident at
compsny's orchard tract. MIR. Field
and his father had cultivated the tract
in question for nearly two years, rails
ins potatoes between the rows of trees,
and not until the expiration of this
time and just before a substantial pay-
ment was due on his contract did Field
make complaint, other than that there
were few grubs in the ground. |
consider. however, this suit of minor
and do not fear the out
come, but | want to set the reading
public right with reference to the ex-
amner's report.
Some of the news articles stated
that the company had been refused a
permit to do business, which is entirely
erroneous. The Commissioner did,
however, write the company letter
stating that in view of the showing
and the recommendation of the exam
iners's report he could not grant per-
nit TO US for the sale of stock, bonds
or other securities of the company and
this may also lead to the inference
that the company had made applica-
tion for such permit. which sour rec
ords,e as well as those of the depart
ment, will show is not the case.
Shortly after what is known as the
blue sky law went into effect, the
Commissioner, Mr.. Watson, wrote US a
letter asking us to make preliminary
statement and upon the advice of our
attorney we notified him that the com
pany had not sold any stock since 1911
and did not have any stocks, bonds or
other securities for sale and therefore
did not come within the provisions of
this law. To this letter we received
reply from Mr.. Watson to the effect
that because our annual statement
showed that we had unsold capital
stock we came technically within the
law aW that while the application of
the law to our company might be tech
nical, he asked US to make a partial
report, specifying the paragraphs in
the printed form he would like TO have
answered for the purpose of giving
him a record which bs stated would
meet the requirements of the depart
ment. Not desiring to appear antago-
nistic, we furnished this partial report,
and later, upon special request, gave
additional information aud informed
the department that 0e would be glad
to give any further data it might de-
sire.
$50 far as the property of the COM
pany is concerned, will state that we
have had a number of the leading hor-
ticuturists of the state investigate
it and many prominent peolpe have in.
vested in this property after making
and searching investigation,
both of soil and of the company's
methods in caring for the orchards, and
we have received complimentary re-
ports from all of them, and, while We
DO not feel at liberty to give list of
these names, we will be glad to refer
any one interested in the affairs of the
to them.
"As is stated in the examiners re-
port, there is some land on this large
tract of over 1000 acres that is waste.
That condition exists in practically all
large tracts in any fruit district of the
state. These sportions of the tract.
however, are not being sold os orchard
land.
"We feel that published report to
the effect that we had been refused
permit to sell stock is an injustice to
the company, as il has never requested
such permit. However, the department
has not undertaken to interfere with
the company's conducting its business
affairs as it has been doing in the past.
81 wish to emphasize the fact that
we do oot want to make any statement
that would indicate that the company
was in any way criticising the state
corporation department. as we feel il
has acted in good faith and for what il
to be in the interests of the
public, but il is evident that the Com
miss3ner's department has been mbin-
formed.
eve invite the public to make
careful investigation Of our property.
Ett His rava EvaotI,