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VAN NUYS AND EARL PETERS SPLIT OPENLY Senator Voices Protest on Choice of Ft. Way Bank Receiver. BY WALKER STONE Times Special Writer WASHINGTON. Nov. 3.-Senator Frederick Van Nuys today broke openly with R. Earl Peters, Indiana Democratic chairman, and National Chairman James A. Farley in a controversy over appointment of a receiver and attorneys for the old First National bank of Ft. Wayne. The controversy was brought into the open when Currency Comptroller J. F. T. O'Connor, apparently on advice of Mr. Peters and Mr. Farley, today appointed E. C. Miller, Ft. Wayne lumberman, to serve as receiver for the bank, said to be the largest in northern Indiana. Appointment of Mr. Miller as bank receiver, it is charged. was made with the understanding that the law firm of Peters & Leas of Ft. Wayne, of which Earl Peters is the senior member, would be named attorney for the receiver. Up until today, since closing its doors, the bank has been under the supervision of Frank Cutshall, president, who has been serving as conservator under authority of the comptroller. Served as Attorneys The law firm of Eggeman, Reed & Cleland, Ft. Wayne, has been serving as attorneys for the conservator. It is the charge of Senator Van Nuys that the comptroller ignored a standing rule by naming as receiver, a resident of the community in which the bank is located. Senator Van Nuys had recommended appointment of J. B. E. Laplante, Vincennes, a former bank president, who, according to the senator's office. now is serving as the federal government's liquidating agent for three banks in southern Indiana. From Los Angeles. where Senator Van Nuys has gone as a member of a senate subcommittee investigating federal court receivership practices, the senator today sent the following telegram to Posímaster-General Farley: Thousands Interested "I hereby desire to protest formally your appointments of receiver and attorneys for old First National bank of Ft. Wayne. Ind. This receivership involves more than thirty thousand depositors and fourteen hundred stockholders. The aggregate frozen deposits exceed $6,000,000. I continuously have demanded that the receiver and his attorney for this bank be selected solely upon the basis of efficiency and experience. You have ignored completely my recommendations on behalf of the business interests of the city of Ft. Wayne and the thousands of citizens of that city whose dearest interests are involved in this receivership. I am, as aforesaid, hereby filing my formal protest to what I believe to be repudiation of our repeated promise of a new and square deal to the citizenship of Indiana." It is understood that while Senator Van Nuys was in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago, State Chairman Peters came to Washington and wrangled out of Controller O Connor and Mr. Farley a promise to name Miller receiver for the Ft. Wayne bank. in order that Peters' law firm might become attorneys for the receiver. Charge Is Denied To Senator Van Nuys' protest, it is said. the comptroller and the postmaster-general replied that the comptroller therefore had dispensed all his Indiana patronage on the basis of the senator's recommendations. but that in the instance of the Ft. Wayne bank it was felt that Peters should be recognized. in as much as Ft. Wayne is Peters' home town. The feud between Senator Van Nuys and Mr. Peters became known early in the summer when Senator Van Nuys engineered the appointment of Stephen B. Fleming, one of Peters' enemies, as manager of the Ft. Wayne branch of the Federal Home Owners Loan Corporation. The senator's charge that the comptroller had disregarded a rule in the appointment of a resident receiver today was denied at the comptroller's office, where it was said that there is no rule as to the residence or non-residence of a bank receiver. Served as Postmasters Mr. Miller, a member of the Peters faction in Ft. Wayne Democratic circles, served as postmaster of that city during the administration of Woodrow Wilson. It is likely that in this controversy the Allen county Democratic organization will side against Peters, since Samuel Cleland of the firm of Eggeman, Reed & Cleland, attorneys for the conservator, is
