1903-10-16-New York Times-Attack Validity of Bethlehem Co. Sale
New York Times
16 October 1903, page 1
ATTACK VALIDITY OF BETHLEHEM CO. SALE
Shipyard Bondholders Allege Corporation Law Violation. " Temporary Directors" Admit They Voted Millions Without Knowing Why -- Hazy as to Location of Properties.
Even after one of the three one-time "dummy Directors" of the United States Shipbuilding Company had admitted on the witness stand that he thought the Bethlehem Steel Works were located in Homestead, the throng of listeners at the shipyard examination did not realize what Samuel Untermyer, lawyer for the complainants, was trying to accomplish. That the apparently humorous testimony of the "dummies" was the beginning of an attempt to attack the validity of the sale of the Bethlehem Steel Company stock to the Shipbuilding Trust became evident only at the close of yesterday's session of the hearing.
The library of Mr. Untermyer's office at 30 Broad Street was packed to the doors, and when the sitting space gave out there remained as many standing spectators as the room could hold. The witnesses who waited their turn included Lewis Nixon, ex-President of the trust; John W. Young, the promoter; Joseph E. Schwab, brother of Charles M. Schwab, and Oliver Wren, Schwab's secretary, who was the bearer of the $7,246,000 check loaned for ten minutes to Messrs. Dresser and Nixon for their use in paying J. P. Morgan & Co. for the Bethlehem Steel shares.
"Ex-Director" Seward, aged twenty-five, took the stand first, having started his testimony on Wednesday. He said he had been a lawyer for eight months, and previously for a short time an insurance agent and bill collector. Having become a "Director" of the shipyard trust on June 17, 1902, at the request of Charles C. Deming of Alexander & Green, lawyers, he was informed by President Wood of the Corporation Trust Company that the organizers of the trust were Alexander and Green. The witness said they were the only ones he heard mentioned as organizers, and he did not hear the name of John W. Young at that time. The embryonic trust, he said, was a source of continual conversation in the Corporation Trust Company's office.
