$10 in Bank, He Bids $3,000,000 for Ships

1920
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"Marks the Lawyer" Outdone by 50-a-week Clerk.

NEW YORK, N.Y., May 20. -- With a bank account of $50 a week employee of a steamship firm, startled the congressional committee investigating the relations of the Morse interests with the United States shipping board, with a recital of how he negotiated with Charles W. Morse in an attempted purchase of four steamships valued at $750,000 each.

Moulton said he intended to purchase the steamers Huron, St. Paul, Binghamton and Minneapolis from the United States Steamship Company, and that he gave Charles W. Morse, head of this company, personal checks for $340,000 toward the purchase. The checks were dated in advance.

Reminded by Representative Tom Connally of Texas that he had previously admitted having only $10 in a New Rochelle bank, Moulton said he intended to put the money up to cover the checks if the deal had not collapsed when the United States Government refused to transfer the ships to Canadian registry.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 4.