New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-04
C.. w. Morse
Is Indicted
In Ship Sale
Bill of Nine Counts Re-
turned by Federal Jury
Charges Him With Con-
spiracy Against u. S.

Charles W. Morse, president Of the
United States Steamship Company, was
indicted late yesterday afternoon by
the Federal grand jury on charge
of engaging in conspiracy in 1917 to
violate the Shipping Board act of 1916.
Captain w. S. Mitchell, the United
States Steamship Company as a cor
poration, and the j. G. Mccullough
Steamship Company, also were indicted
the same charge being placed against
them. Both concerns are controlled
by Morse.
The indictment of Morse recalls his
arrest and conviction, in 1908, when
he was sentenced to serve fifteen years
in Atlanta Penitentiary for grand
larceny, for having wrecked the Ma
tional Bank of North America, of which
he was vice president. The Indictment
against him contained twenty-nine
counts, among them that he had con-
spired to- detraud the United States
government by false entries in his
books and had misappropriated the
banks funds. He was pardoned by
President Taft in 1912, after it had
been represented to the President that
Morse was near death and that the
prisoners only desire was to die free
man.
Morse has owned controlling interests
in many steamship companies, and in
1907 declared he was worth s22,00O,OO0
Shortly after his conviction he said he
did not possess dollar.
1t has been said of him that he has
owned and sold more different ocean
going vessels than any other man in
history. and he has for years owned
large interests in the Hudson River
pleasure and freight boat lines.
Nine Counts in Indictment
The indictment was returned to
Judge A. N. Hand in the United States
District Court, and contains nine
counts. 1t deals with the sale of the
2,o0O-ton steel freighter j. G. McCul-
Tough to the Tunisian government, AL
glers. The transaction, alleged to have
been made secretly and in violation of
the Shipping Board rules, was consum-
mated, it is alleged, through La
Societie Generate de Houilles and Ag-
glomcres, a French corporation, act
ing as agent, with offices at IS Boule-
ward Haussmann, Paris. The price paid
for the vessel, it is alleged, was
S500,000
Under the law no ship registered
under United States laws shall be sold
to a foreign citizen without the per-
mission Of the board. This permis-
sion, it is alleged, was not sought nor
obtained
The maximum penalty for violation
of the shipping laws is five years in
prison or $4,000 fine, or both
The complaint Says the vessel, tor
pedoed and sunk in May, 1918, was sold
without the proper knowledge and con-
sent of the Shipping Board, and
charges that concerning the sale Mr..
Morse advised with Captain Mitchell,
an employee of Morses concern. Cap
tain Mitchell, therefore, is made an in
diyidual defendant as we'll as an al
legged co-conspirator.
Bench Warrants Asked
Assistant United States District At
torney Jerome Simmons, who for four
months has been engaged in invest-
eating complaints of the secret sale
of American registered steamships to
foreigners, without giving the Shipping
Board the opportunity of buying them
at the same price offered, yesterday,
following the return of the indict-
ments, asked for the issuance of bench
warrants. The motion was granted and
the warrants turned over to United
States Marshal Thomas D. Mccarthy
for service.
According to information at the
Criminal Courts Building yesterday,
Captain Mitchell is at the present time
in the service of the United States
Steamship Company in London
Mr. Morse was arranged shortly
after o'clock before Judge Hand and
was held in $4,000 bail, which was
Continued paeo iourl