A Fruit Co-op’s Creditors Step In as the Trains Stop Running

Creditors this week took charge of the business of the Wenatchee Valley Fruit Exchange. No receiver has been appointed, according to information available here, but the creditors have selected an executive committee from among themselves to handle the business and have retained S. H. Andrews, president of the company, as manager.

F. J. Bonn, local manager for the Exchange, says that the car shortage, followed by the embargo placed by the Great Northern on fruit shipments during the cold snap, held up shipments in the growing sections and prevented the company from liquidating its accounts. This caused the market to get panicky and brought about the present condition in the company’s affairs. Mr. Bonn says an inventory is now being made of the assets and that as soon as this is complete, a financial statement will be published. He also said he did not know what the final outcome would be, but believed the company would be able to weather the financial crisis and pay all of its accounts.

The Exchange owns warehouses at White Bluffs, Hanford, Dryden, Cashmere and Seattle. The following account of the company’s difficulties is taken from a Cashmere newspaper, where the head office is located:

“At a creditors’ meeting held this week, called by Pickett Andrews, doing business under the name of the Wenatchee Valley Fruit Exchange, a statement of assets and liabilities was submitted and the following committee was named to take care of the firm’s affairs temporarily: J. W. Maxwell of the National City Bank of Seattle; William Carr of Spokane; R. L. Lawrence of Nellis Co.; W. W. Jones and William Grieg of Cashmere.

“According to the statement submitted by the firm, its assets exceed its liabilities by $114,198.70, and a complete audit of the books is now being made in order to determine what steps should be taken to adjust the company’s affairs.

“It was the sentiment of the majority of the creditors who attended the meeting that S. H. Andrews be retained as manager. The inability of the firm to realize on its assets promptly made it impossible to meet its obligations, with the result that the creditors were called together to decide what course is best to pursue.

“Rumors have been current that Pickett Andrews were about to fail or go bankrupt, but this is far from the truth, according to the creditors committee, who feel confident that the difficulty will be cleared up so that they can resume business as in the past. Time will be required to straighten out the affairs and in order to do this, the above committee was appointed to act for all the creditors.”