The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-01-21

SHORT MORNING SESSION
Formal Calling to Order at Plant and
instantaneous Recessina Down
Town to Better Place
for Meeting.

company IS DelnS uelu ucIe toudy
and will not adjourn finally until late
this afternoon.
It convened at the offices Of the
company at the plant at 10 o'clock
this morning, according to its ar
ticles of incorporation, and at once
recessed to meet at 2 o'clock this
afternoon at Woodman hall, at Sixth
and Main streets, much more &C
cessibIe and convenient place for the
session.
A large number OF stockholders
from out Of town are in Keokuk, and
the hotels were filled with them last
night. Hundreds Of proxies are In
the hands OF those present, given by'
stockholders who could not come to
keokuk. and there was a very full
representation Of the actual owners
of the big tire company at the meet
ing this afternoon.
Bio Fight on Proxies.
The first thing that developed, just
before 2 o'clock, was big night
against the validity Of any proxies
whatever.
A. Hollingsworth, attorney for the
company, ruled that there could be
no proxy votes cast, and hence no
proxy holder could be admitted to
the hall.
A stalwart doorkeeper turned away
all persons attending by virtue OF
holding proxies for stockholders.
On the other hand, J.. r. Penrose,
who had in his leather bag thou
sand or so proxies from upstate
stockholders, said that they would be
voted, or his side would know the
reason why.
Recessed Down Town Quickly.
This morning, comparatively few
of them met at the plant. President
Kirch called the meeting to order
and instantly motion was made to
recess down town and to recpnvene
at 2 o'clock.
That is all that occurred in the
session, which occupied only couple
of minutes.
BY the time the afternoon session
settled down to real business after
organizing itself, it was the middle
of the winter afternoon. and the d.
1ectors elected for the ensuing year.
the report of President Kirch, and
all the other proceedings of the an
nual meeting become the story for
Wooina the White Dove.
When the meeting was called to
order promptly at o'clock this after
noon by President Charles j. Kirch.
the floor was at once taken by G. c.
Clark, a lawyer of Burlington and OF
attorneys for the out of town party.
He moved another adjournment until
1880 o'clock, saying:
CAS- you are well aware, there has
been some controversy and we have
been trying to get together. We all
want an amicable adjustment, and If
a little more time is given US, we
can get together amicably. and |
therefore move a recess until 3:3O
o'clock. at which time we can report
an amicable adjustment or something
else"
Judge Felix #. Hughes led fight
against this postponement of the pro-
ceedings for the sake of amity be-
tween the two factions which it is
we'll known existed on the floor of
the meeting. He proposed a commit
tee on credentials to determine how
many votes each man had, as the
first business.
Both Sides Wanted Peace.
"If we adjourn, there is no ques-
ton but that we will obtain a fair
and equitable adjustment satisfactory
to everybody" said President Kirch
of the party opposite to that of Law
yer Clark.
Judge Hughes spoke several times
against any adjournment for any COM
mittees or parties to get together.
and he received the only applause
from the floor and at times it was
hearty applause.
Were here to determine whether
the trustees of the stockholders have
been honest and faithful during the
last year." he said.
c. c.. Clark again explained the
reasons for the motion to recess, told
of the work of a self appointed com
mittee of investigation which caused
the transfer of certain stock and the
cancellation Of certain contracts, and
added:
Find Proxies are vaIueless.
at is the opinion of that commit
tee that if we can get together and
agree with the others on new board
of directors and elect them by our
control of-Stock, IL Will De better than
to quarrel about the election and per-
haps not elect anybody and leave in
Office the old directors and officers
for another year. We have not agreed
on all the names for the new board
yet, and If we are not allowed to
agree, we'll throw the whole thing
before you gentlemen and you can
fight as long as you please"
10 far ri ~ ir q rYo
Gabeline, of the committee for which
Mr.. Clark is attorney, said that it
had just been discovered that proxies
can not be voted because the bylaws