Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1920 — OWE MCCRAY’S CO. $59,000 [ARTICLE]

OWE MCCRAY’S CO. $59,000

Allege It Is' a Gambling Debt and Raub Grain Co. Refuses to Pay. The Indianapolis News of Friday evening contained a lengthy article from W. H. Blodgett, its well-known staff correspondent, on the affairs of the Raub Grain company, of Raub, Benton county, whose manager, Lee W. Kelley, recently absconded, leaving the affairs of the company in a very tangled condition. The article states that while a complete audit hae not yet been made, enough has been learned to show that there is a shortage chargeable to Kelley of about $70,000, of which $39,000 In round numbers is due the Sawyer Grain Co., of Chicago and Indianapolis (Warren T. McCray of Kentland, vice-president), and $6,000 in round numbers to McCardle & Black of Indianapolis. The balance is due farmers who sold their grain to the Raub Grain company through Kelley as managerj but they will not lose anything because the members of the company are all financially responsible, and though they can not be called on to pay more than $15,000, the capital stock of the Raub Grain company, they have announced that they will pay the farmers in full for their grajn and already have paid many bills.

The company will refuse to pay the $39,000 due the Sawyer Grain company, also the $6,000 due McCardle & Black of Indianapolis, on the ground that these are gambling debts contracted by Kelley's speculations in margins and gambling on the grqin market by Kelley without the knowledge and consent of the board of directors or the individual stockholders. Mr. Fraser of Fraser & Isham, attorneys of Fowler, who have been employed by McCardle & Black to collect the $6,000, says the deal was a legitimate one and not gambling. E. G. Hall of Fowler, attorney for the Raub Grain Co., says that the claims of the Sawyer Co. and McCardle & Black are gambling debts, outlawed by statute, and he advised the Raub Grain Co. to refuse to pay them, according to Mr. Blodgett. If the concerns at Indianapolis and Chicago wished to force payment, Mr. Hall said, the matter would be thrashed out in the courts,, which, he said, have time and again held that margining on the board of trade was gambling and gambling debts are not collectible. So It was decided to notify the Sawyer Grain company of Chicago and Indianapolis and the McCardle & Black Grain company of Indianapolis that the Raub Grain company repudiated the deals made in Its name by Kelley and would not pay the losses he suffered. In addition to the $39,060 open account owed the Sawyer Grain Co., says Mr. Blodgett, there are two notes signed by the Raub Grain company, “per Lee W. Kelley, manager," for SIO,OOO each, making $59,000 the Raub Grain company owes the Sawyer Grain company. The Blodgett article goes on to state that William Simmons is presi•dent of the Sawyer Grain Co. of Chicago and Indianapolis, but a studied effort seems to have been made to refrain from mentioning the fact that Warren T. McCray, the Republican candidate for governor of Indiana, fa the vice-president of this same Sawyer Grain Co. This news fa of Interest to the people of Indiana generally, and the fact that both the correspondent and the News tailed to mention it is not to Its

credit as a newspaper. If, as Attorney Hall is quoted as saying, “the courts have time and again held that margining on the board of trade •was gambling,” are the officers con. nected with such a concern proprietors of a gambling house? Kelley left about June 28. Where he is no one about there seems to know. The Fidelity Surety company that, bonded him for SIO,OOO has detectives working on the case, but they have found no trace of him.