The Power Company Reckoning
A legal fight over bondholder claims and allegations of conspiracy has left the Olympia Power company facing a federal receivership.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Application was made to the federal court here today for a receiver for the Olympia Power company and a restraining order preventing the company, C. W. Maynard, A. A. Phillips, and the Capital and Olympia National banks from doing anything to impair the assets of the concern until the cause of the Crane company, Western Iron works and Harold Sawyer, trustee for W. S. Dole Co., is heard. The plaintiffs declare that the Olympia Power company has issued $147,000 in corporation bonds. They hold many of these and by the terms of the issue the company could not transfer any of its property without satisfying them. It is stated the business has been transferred to Maynard and Phillips and that these with the Capital National bank and H. W. Smith of the Olympia National bank conspired with the original company manager to euchre bondholders out of their just dues.
“conspired with the original company manager to euchre bondholders out of their just dues.”
This dispute highlights the classic early 20th-century clash between institutional bondholders and local utility operators. It mirrors the ongoing regional tensions over public versus private control of power infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest.
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