New-York tribune., 1921-08-16
Court Names Lawyer and
Publisher Who Had Not
Been ON List Offered by
Board and Corporation
Mayors Assail
Contract Terms
To Deny There Is AS Is'
Clause; Creditors File
Petition i'm Bankruptcy

Arthur J. Baldwin, of the law firm
of Griggs, Baldwin & Baldwin, q Pine
Street, and also vice-president of the
McGraw-Hill Company, Inc, publishers,
Thirty sixth Street and Tenth Avenue,
was appointed receiver for the United
States Mail Steamship Company by
Judge Martin T. Manton in the Federal
District Court yesterday His bond
was fixed at $4,000.
The g. pointment was surprise to
both parties to the litigation pending
between the company and the United
States Shipping Board Several men
prominent in shipping and railroad
circles had been suggested to the court
when the proceedings in the equity
receivership suit came up earlier in
the day. Mr.. Baldwin's name, however,
was not mentioned at the hearing.
At Mr.. Baldwin's Office it was said
that he had accepted the appointment
by telephone, as he was in the coun-
try, and that he would be at his office
to-day, when lie probably would make
statement as to his plans for adjust
ing the affairs of the company.
New Moves Made in Contest
Other developments in the case,
which is becoming more tangled daily,
so far as the recovery of the nine ships
seized by the government and returned
by injunction to the Mail is concerned,
were:
The filing of the answer Of the board
to the injunction suit in the Federal
District Court.
The announcement by Delaney
Nicoll jr. that he was preparing a de-
tailed statement in reply to Chairman
Albert D. Lasker's charges, made on
Sunday.
The prevalent contention among the
Mail interests that the ships would
be operated by the new receiver under
the same kind of agreement that
was to have been granted the Hartman
lines.
The filing of two petitions in bank
ruptcy against the company, the first
of which took precedence and was in
the nature of friendly suit to fore
stall adverse action against the new
antagonjstic to receivership.
Delaney Nicoll jr. said:
"The public wifi have our side of the
case tom orrow,s and it will be as COM
plete as that of Mr.. Lasker, as we in
tend to answer his charges paragraph
for paragraph. We will show the
financial standing of the Mail as of
July %, the day the ships were seized,
and will show where the money came
from that our clients received and
where it was spent.
III wish to state that while I was
Board for two and one-half years I
seldom found financial statement
issued by the board TO be substantially
correct either in a suit brought by the
government or in counter suit. l
think Mr.. Lasker has made mistake
in taking for granted the informa-
tion given him. | am very we'll pleased
with the selection Of Mr. Baldwin as
receiver, and he will certainly operate
the ships instead of turning them
over to the board to be- allocated in
turn to the Hartman interests"
Wording of Contract in Dispute
1t was said on excellent authority
that the Shipping Board will be asked
to give the receiver the same terms
for operation that it has given to the
United American Lines. Furthermore,
the Mail corporation will contest Mr..
Lasker's statement that there is any
thing in the contract between it and
the board whereby the company was 70
take the ships "as is
1t will be further shown, it was
said, that the Mail made two attempts
to turn the ships back 20 Admiral
Benson. in October, 1920, and March,
1921, when it could not get new con-
tract from the old board and that
that the government would recondi-
tion the George Washington it agreed
to go on with the hire.
A cursory examination of copy of
the contract did p not disclose the
words cas- is" in any of the para
graphs. The contract says that no
charter hire was to be paid until the
Ships had been completely recondi
toned. These are vital contentious
of the Mayors that they are not in
default.
The Mayors. it was further declared
will show that they are not insolven.
or rather the Mail Company is not in
solvent, and il the government should
pay 1t the moneys due Tor recondltlon-
ing ships and carrying mail there would
be only difference OF about S25, ,00C
one way or the other in the balance OF
its books. The financial statement tc
be issued by Mr.. Nicoll will bring out
this in detail.
1t will further assert that there is
no inGebtness for stock issued, OIL
notes negotiated, that the company
does not owe any moneys abroad tc
it's agencies and that the only monetary
controversy it has had has been ovel
the reconditioning of the Pocahontas
in Naples by the Lloyd Sabaudo
which, it will be claimed, jumped
CONTINUED on puqe four