Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-30
JURY FAIL s. TO FIND CRIME. TO
WHICH MAN PLEADS NON VUL T
For Second Time Here Verdict Twelve Men Bellies
Confessed Crime.

/ and baked on the proposition be-
fore it was consumated did not
aid him in the least but his ad-
mission of the deal and the fact
that he had at first been willing to
go into 1t went far, very far, toward
proving that a conspiracy existed
between himself and Smith whereby
the funds of the Roseville Trust
Company were to be used for al
most any purpose the pair saw fit.
The Arlington Construction Com
pany by the way, was some healthy
young concern for one that, again
quoting Armstrong; testimony, twas
creation of Smiths mind and died
almost as soon as it was born"
For during the life of the company
which according to Armstrong was
born in the morning and died in the
afternoon, when he backed out of
the deal. it had amassed available
assets Of at least $4,000. consisting
of notes signed by clerk, a mason
and a Waterman in the employe of
Armstrong. as well as a check or
note of the corporation (Which did
not exist) that Armstrong had signed
by his superintendent as the pros
pective president of the company
when it should be formed.
And the part of all this that seems
stranger than fiction is the fact that
some of the notes and checks that
Armstrong had his employees signed
for the use of the company that
was never formed, actually got into
the assets of the Roseville Trust
Company and were there at the time
OF the crash.
Armstrong says Smith stole them
and used them for his own purposes.
Smith says Armstrong knew the
notes and checks were to be used.
The bank examiners know the
notes or checks, or some of them at
least, were listed as assets of the
Roseyille Trust Company before the
failure And in passing it might be
remarked that notes of $4,000, signed
by a mason, a clerk and watchman
OF building contractor, do not usual
~ make the sort of securities that
are found in a well-conducted finan-
cial institution.
The County Construction Company
was referred to several times during
the course of the trial of Arm
strong, it being the company in
which he first became interested after
his removal to this county in 1910,
but at no time was it brought out
who, beside Armstrong, was inter-
ested in this company.
II was by means of this company,
apparently, that Armstrong, starting
with deposit of 800 in the Roseville
Trust Company on December %,
1910, was able to show on March ID,
1911, less than three months later, a
financial statement showing that he
was worth $4,000, free of all debt. 1t
was by means of that financial state
ment that he got his first loan from
the Roseville Trust Company. one of
5000 That 5000 loan by the time the
Rosevile Trust Company went to the
wall in August, 1913, had expanded
into an overdraft of S35, 1876. 06-some
frenzied financiering, it might be re-
marked.
While it was not brought out at the
trial who Armstrong; partner was in
this apparently rapid money making
County Construction Company, the
name did leak out outside of the
case. The partner was none other
than George Brown, jr., the missing
real estate dealer and building and
loan association man, who is now
under a dozen or more indictments In
connection with some crooked trans
action he engaged in while secretary
oe the Hawthorne Building and Loan
Association.