The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-07-22
Must Return Ovor $2s, 600.

Must Return Ovor $26, 900.
| In April Vice Chancellor Backe
heard the testimony in the suit {
Robert n. Kelly, of Browns Mills
against Henry NJ Black, to recover
bonus that the latter received for turn
ing to the New York Telephone Com
pany, shares of the Farmers Telephon
Company in order that the forme
might gain control of the lines of tn
latter.
The Farmers Telephone was organ
lied in 1902-the original incorporation,
being Henry NJ. Black, NJ. Warne
Hargrove and William H. Reeves
The purpose was to give telephone ser
vice between Mr.. Blacks home anc
his cranberry bog at New Lisbon, tax
ing in such subscribers as might bt
along the line. II was thought the
business might be profitable if the line.
were extended, so stock was sold anc
the service was given to four countie.
Burlington, Ocean, Monmouth and
\
Mercer.
In 1917, about the time Camp Dix
was started, the New York Telephone
Company, one of the adiuncts of the
Bell Company, wanted to get connec
ton in the territory that was covered
by the Farmers Company. The bill
in chancery claimed that Mr.. Black, as
president of the company, made con-
tract with the New York Company
and then purchased the stock of the
Farmers Company wherever he could
pick it up, paying $50, the par value,
and selling it for price that netted
him a good profit. The suit was
brought to compel Mr.. Black to
account to the stockholders for the ex-
ira sum he had received over the par
value.
On Thursday the Vice Chancellor
filed an opinion in which he orders
Henry Nj. Black to return to the Farm
ers' Company bonus of $2S, S35 that
he got from the Bell Company when
he delivered 1909 shares of stock of the
Farmers Company to the Bell Com
pany.
To accomplish his purpose Black,
the Vice Chancellor says, employed
crude and by no means original meth
DDS. "He browbeat the directors of
the Farmers Company into handing
over their shares by the threat that he
would SO manipulate the company that
would never again pay dividend, and
they believed him, and then he salved
them with promise of IS share
above par if they would accede, of
which they have not seen the color;
and sent his emissaries with the same
bugaboo to the remaining stockholders,
with the result that he gathered in all
the stock except so shares held by Rob-
ert N. Kelley, Of Browns Mills" After
Black had secured 400 or 500 shares OF
the Farmers Company he signed an
agreement, as president of the Farm
ers' Company, releasing the company's
exclusive rights to Camp Dix to the
Bell Company. The Bell Company
entered the deal on representation by
Black that he was the holder of at least
55 per cent of the Farmers Company
stock.
Because of DR.. Keely's refusal to sell
his holdings, Black was unable to get
the S45, 900 bonus offered him by the
Bell Company, but he did get $2S, 1886
when he delivered 1909 shares of the
Farmers company stock to the Bell
After Black delivered the 1909 shares
of the Farmers Company to the Bell,
the Bell reissued single share to
some of the Farmers Company stock
holders, who thus became dummy"
directors in the company, and although
they suspected Black of pro6ting
heavily by the deal they perfunctorily
confirmed it.
Counsel for the Farmers company
charged Black with submitting to
bribery to sell out his company. The
Vice Chancellor says they may be
right, "but it is not necessary to resort
to such harsh denunciation in order to
call him to account. 1t is enough to
say that Black as president of the COM
pany clandestinely dealt with the cor
porate assets for his private gain"