Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 221, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1913 — AFTER MEN WHO WRECKED COLUMBIA [ARTICLE]

AFTER MEN WHO WRECKED COLUMBIA

Investors Willing to Spend Last of Cash Intrusted to Bring Guilty Men to Justice. Lafayette Journal. “The Columbia Casualty company was conceived in fraud and never had a legitimate aim,” said Attorney Charles M. McCabe, of Crawfordsville, recently, in discussing the case against the men who had wrecked that company last April, and. Nicholas Muller, Edward J. Tousey, Gerry Haynes and William H. Webb, the four men implicated, will be resting in the Marion county jail, before many weeks, facing charges of grand larceny and embezzlement if the lawyers are successful in 'their fight to bring the men to justice. Mr. M<M3abe will leave tomorrow, accompanied by Attorney W. A. Moon, of Crawfordsville, for Austin, Tex., to appeal to Governor O. B. Colquitt, of Texas, to issue a writ of extradition for the accused men that’they may be returned 'to this state for trial. The governor was induced to revoke the order he had previously issued for the arrest of the defendants on the plea made by the lawyers engaged by the men, in which' they claimed that the Indiana stockholders arC only trying to prosecute the defendants to collect a debt. Documentary evidence will be taken to Texas by Mr. McCabe to prove that the prosecution of the accused men is not for the purpose of collecting a debt.

“The Columbia Casualty company was formed solely for the purpose of giving the perpetrators of the frqud an opportunity to carry out their scheme,” said Mr. McCabe in speaking of the swindle. “The plan worked admirably and today, out of nearly a; quarter of a million dollars taken in, little more than $50,000 remains for the stockholders. But a majority of these stockholders, while many of them jean ill afford to stand the loss of their money/are willing to sacrifice the money if the swindlers can be made to suffer the penalty of their misdeeds. The stockholders are not trying to collect any dpbt, they onfy want to see these men put in prison.” According to the story of Mr. McCabe the Columbia Casualty company is the outgrowth of the Southwestern Casualty company, which was organized in Indianapolis in March, 1910, with a supposed capital stock of $500,000. This concern was incorporated by ten men who paid in only $lO apiece. The Southwestern company a few days after its corporation voted to defer the selling of stock fo’r a period of two years on account of th®, fact that G. J. Clymer apd Edward J. Tousey, to whom it proposed to award the contract for the selling of its stock, were tied up with another concern and would not be free from the previous contract until 1912. At the end of two years, or in March, 1912, the company went into court and secured permission to change the name of the concern to the Columbia Casualty company. The contract was then let to Clymer and Tousey and the offices were moved to this city. Handsome and luxurious offices opened and soon a large number of leading business men of Lafayette were induced to buy stock. Suddenly a few days after Easter Sunday they all moved to Indianapolis, leaving the offices here vacant. They consultea former Attorney General Bingham, of Indianapolis, who told them they could not possibly get a charter to do business, as the assets of the concern consisted of only notes and certificates of deposit, these certificates representing discounted notes given by stockholders in return for stock purchased. The whole amount on hand >at that time in notes and certificates was little more than SIOO,OOO, the remainder of the $232,000 collected having been dissipated in various ways. The men were living in luxury In the best rooms of the Claypool hotel and were entertaining lavishly there. Early in April of this year the men at the head of the concern made their master stroke. It was after steps had been taken to have a receiver appointed. Haynes negotiated with a Dr. Hqtchens, of Indianapolis, for the purchase of a piece of Indianapolis real estate for $34,000, paying for it with certificates of deposit issued by various Indiana banks with which the promoters of the concern did business. This real estate, after, its purchase, was deeded over to the Columbia Casualty company and was listed as an SBO,OOO asset. Haynes and his associates took the difference between SBO,OOO and $34,000, or $46,000, and fled from the state with it. In the meantime Horace Fletcher, who owned a small block of stock in the concern, applied for the appointment of a receiver and James Bingham was appointed. As to the present status of the criminal proceedings against the four men named Mr. McCabe says

It is uncertain although he is confident that before long all four will be brought back to Indianapolis for trial. "We are going to the very bottom of this case,” he said, “and every guilty man must suffer the consequences of his acts, no matter who he may be.”