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BANK RECEIVER DECIDES TO SUE CALDWELL & CO.
Asheville, Buncombe County in Dire Straits.
BANK'S RECEIVER SAYS CITY'S FUNDS CONVERTED
Town Appeals to State for Aid, With $8,000,000 in School Money Tied Up in Suspended Banks.
Chattanooga Times Special ASHEVILLE, N. C., Dec. total debt of approximately $50,119,000 to be met, school funds in closed banks, and in need of to carry on present operations, Buncombe county and the city of Asheville must until tomorrow before officials and citizens will know whether or not help from the state of North Carolina can be had. Twice today Gov. O. Max Gardner and other state officials in Raleigh heard the petitions of Mayor Gallatin Roberts and Chairman Claude Felmet, of the county commissioners. for financial assistance but the answer of the state in full deferred until Friday The delegation was told that sound collateral would be necessary before financial help could be extended. and assurance offered that such surety could be had. It was intimated that Gov. Gardner and the state sinking fund commission would do all possible to prevent default in payment of principal and interest on city and county notes bonds. To continue operating the schools, Supt. C. said today $31.785 will be needed for January through March and probably $290.000 more, should all plans expectations to bolster up depleted funds fail to materialize top the complicated state of affairs. learned today that the North Carolina corporation, commission, receiver for the Central Bank and Trust company closed in Asheville will in an involuntary in bankruptcy against Caldwell & Co., of Nashville, Tenn It claimed by the North Carolina the Caldwell firm verted to its own use revenue anticipation notes of the city Asheville which Central Bank and Trust company had sent to the investment to paying for only $250,000 of the block Of these notes, was explained the charge $235 deposited by Caldwell with the Bank of Tennessee at Nashville and in turn sent by that institution to the Chase National bank in New York or the remaining batch of notes, $20,000 was or deposits bank at Bastrop and $40,000 to of Caldwell & Co. to Weakley county Tennessee Returning from Raleigh Friday. Mayor Roberts and others the delegation will confronted with public sentiment city has made itself since their departure Wednesday This sentiment chiefly crystalized resolutions adopted the Asheville Civitan club. representing the majority of the city's leading professional and men. and straight the point in its criticism of local Civitan meeting which tracted largest attendance months. "affirming unreservedly that those citizens of Asheville, regardless of party, who have spines and brains. guided by common honesty, should demand that the privileged interests which have for years dominated and strangled this city and community. be put down." brought and unanimously adopted The resolutions were drafted from report made by Civitan Lincoln L. Kellogg. and vigorously urged to adoption by Dr. Howard Bement, headmaster of the Asheville for Boys, an educational institution of which Harvey L. Firestone, Akron, O., rubber is director say plainly Dr. Bement declared in his address before the club while the Raleigh delegation was preparing leave, "that any man who prostitutes his political advantage for personal thief, any newspaper publisher who, for personal advantage or to protect those who dishonest, either presses or perverts the truth which gives his readers, is liar, and any lawyer who takes advantage of his profession to protect graft and dishonesty, is thief The resolutions, in part, follow "The situation in Asheville and Buncombe county demands thorough and drastic purgatives. A rotten lemon cannot be changed by clothing it with new rind: leopard cannot be made over by grafting on different skin. The star chamber that has disgraced, and this munity has shown not the slightest respect for mere forms of government. will use any form of government for its selfish "The statutes governing this city are honeycombed with vicious exceptions and exemptions from sound legislation. all furtively, deliberately brazenly chiseled out as part of the scheme concocted and directed by our present powers that be "Whatever new form or personnel of government we may seek to impose upon Asheville, these loopholes must be plugged. Drastic excision and revision affirm, furthermore, that the isconfronting us Shall these interests. the decent elements of the community, govern this city? Shall we pussyfoot or have faith that right makes might? Shall we dare to do our duty as we understand crying the headlines of which of the closing the First National bank in Charlotte this afternoon created wide excitement the city, while report from Hendersonville was that the State Trust company bank, which opened Thursday morning provide that city with banking facilities for the first time in three weeks, in deposits during five hours business Today three citizens appointed on the county-city advisory committee refused to leaving officials the task reorganizing the committee