The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa Thursday, November 14, 1907 Some person, who does not know anything about it, writes the following in Monday's Register and Leader: Information comes from Chariton, Iowa, that FRANK R. CROCKER, who committed suicide the night before the government took charge of his First National Bank of that city, sunk between $1,000,000 and $1,500,000 in trying to bolster copper and Reading railroad stocks, in which he invested heavily. It is said in Chariton that all of the Modern Woodman funds, amounting to $300,000; his own estate, amounting to $400,000; all of the cash in the bank on hand and in other banks, which amounted to perhaps $200,000, and considerable more went into the maelstrom of speculation. It is estimated that the creditors of the Chariton Bank will get between 40 and 60 per cent of their claims. A receiver will be named for the institution within a short time, H.D. Copeland of Chariton will probably be appointed. CROCKER was a plunger and had been for a long time, it is the common report now. He drew down $125,000 in Japanese war loan bonds and had cleaned up immense sums at other times, losing freely also from time to time. He had an affection for Reading railroad stock and on this and copper he had loaded heavily when the Heinze crash came. It is said that for three weeks he tried to put up from $20,000 to $30,000 in margins each day. That was before he went to Chicago a week before he killed himself. WENT THE LIMIT. In Chicago it is assumed that he went to the limit to raise funds to meet his daily losses. And it is said that instead of taking his losses or putting up on margins to protect the stock he had, he kept buying in order to make back his money more rapidly if the market once turned. But the market did not turn and facing the crisis he took flight beyond the grave. The Modern Woodman Lodge is protected by a bond. The bank has on hand most, if not all, of the securities belonging to it which were secured as against loans made by the institution. It also has intact the legal reserve of cash. These assets, coupled with the stock liability of the bank, are thought to be sufficient to give the depositors from 40 to 60 per cent of their money. The deposits amounted to about $1,000,000. WILL TAKE THEIR LOSSES. It has been assumed in Chariton that the commission houses through which CROCKER conducted his speculations to the limit will take their own losses in his deals in which he may have discounted the future in any way. If, for instance, he issued checks against banks in which he did not at the instant have funds, and the market was so perverse as not to furnish him funds to deposit to cover the checks, it is thought probable that the commission houses will pocket these losses and say nothing about it. The developments in the Chariton Bank situation demonstrate that the speculation of the banker, and not the condition of finance or business of his bank, was responsible for his suicide and the loss his depositors will suffer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert October 18, 2004 [email protected]