New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-15
BILLIARD ABOUT TO
QUIT NEW HAVEN
Continued from page l

as to how little ground there is for
asking any New Haven director to pay
the company anything. They were
building for the best, and If let alone
and allowed to work and develop the
properties they acquired for their
stockholders results in a few years
would have justified them. Take the
trolleys alone. II it hadn't been for
the earnings of the trolleys, the road
would have been in the hands OF re-
ceiver this year.
at is absolutely unfair to talk about
the increase of the capitalization OF
the road from S93 100000 to more than
s40O 100000 in ten years without say.
ing something about the expansion OF
the road in that time. In 1903 the New
Haven owned 400 miles of road and
leased as much more. To-day it owns
1000 miles of road. Even public Off
Gals should be fair in such matters,
though the inquiry, as in this case, be
essentially political"
Nothing was forthcoming from the
Offices of J. P. Morgan g. Co., where
until Saturday last examiners OF the
Interstate Commerce Commission were
supposed to have been at work. The
dence of wrongdoing there was appar-
emit from the start, when Joseph W..
Folk, counsel for the commission, was
told that he could have everything in
the Office relating to New Haven af-
fairs and its subsidiaries, but that he
could not indulge in what lawyers, for
want of a better term, describe as a
FISHING excursion"
Il -, H. olacad thn h0nk q
of private customers of the firm that
the commission in its report objects
to. though il was held by the Supreme
Court of the United States in the cot
ton pool cases that a broker has no
right to allow the indiscriminate over
hauling of private accounts, even by
a grand jury.
Those familiar with the affairs of
the Morgan Offices and the conduct of
the examiners while there assert that
at no time did the men seem to know
what they were after. Apparently they
were proceeding on the theory that
an indefinite something might be
found. At no time, 1T is said, was any
reasonable request of the examiners
refused.
District Attorney Whitman said
yesterday that thus far the Interstate
Commerce Commission had not fur
nished his Office with any transcripts
of evidence or anything upon which an
investigation could be based.
"If anybody has any evidence that
anybody else, or any group OF any
body elses, has been stealing all the
millions talked about from the New
Haven or any other corporation or
individual" said the District Attorney,
"this is the place for him to come.
This Office does not care who he is or
whom the information may hit. But
under the law we must have evidence
on which to base a prosecution even
of a railroad director. The moment
that evidence, or leads that will show
where that evidence may be had, comes
to this Office that minute the work
begins"
Howard Elliott, chairman Of the
New Haven, did not arrive in New
York yesterday. He is in close touch
with the situation, however, and is as
anxious as any one to clear up the
situation.
II is not considered likely that any
definite action will be taken at to-
morrow's meeting. The question is too
big for hasty action, but it will be
thoroughly canvassed; and il is quite
among the possibilities that the COM
mission will be asked to favor the COM
pany with any and all evidence of
wrongdoing it may possess that is not
part Of the records of the inquiry. 1t
is also probable that the answer of the
present management of the road to
the commission will be made public.
Francis Lynde Stetson, who Mellen
in a magazine article said acted for
the New Haven and the Trust Company
Of America interests in the West
chester deal, issued a formal state
ment yesterday to the effect that Mel
len is in error. Mr.. Stetson did repre-
sent the New Haven in the matter,
but Oakleigh Thorne and his asso-
ciates were represented by William F.
Sheehan. of the then law firm of Par
kerr Hatch &, Sheehan