Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Failure of Alfred Dolge & Son.
A RECEIVER APPOINTEp FOR THE FIRM AND ALFRED DOLGE TURNS OVER HIS PERSONAL FORTUNE
TO AN ASSIGNEE.—DISTURBED CONDITIONS OF THE MONEY MARKET MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE
TO MEET OBLIGATIONS. THE TROUBLE EXPECTED TO BE ONLY TEMPORARY.
The startling intelligence came from
Dolgeville last Monday morning that the
firm of Alfred Dolge & Son had passed
into the hands of a receiver, and that Alfred
Dolge had assigned his personal property as
well.
The news excited the greatest comment in
trade and commercial circles, and on every
hand was heard much sympathy for Mr.
Dolge in his present financial difficulties.
Mr Dolge is known to be a man of in-
domitable will power, resourceful and full of
energy, and it was believed that his superb
strength would be sufficient to tide him over
any temporary difficulties which might arise,
but it seems that the combination was too
strong against him, and he was compelled
by the exigencies brought about by the
squeeze in the money market to lay down his
arms temporarily. The long drawn out sus-
pense occasioned by the close proximity to
actual war with Spain has caused a large
curtailment in bank discounts, and conse-
quently commercial paper of all kinds has
been cut severely in the open market. The
inability to raise money on commercial paper
precipitated the Dolge crisis.
A despatch dated last Monday from
Herkimer says :
At 7 o'clock this morning Alfred Dolge, in
company with the Hon. George A. Hardin
of Little Falls, Justice of the Supreme Court,
and Mr. Dolge's attorney, Nelson L. Robin-
son of 39 Liberty street, New York city,
visited Herkimer, and as soon as the County
Clerk's office was opened a mortgage for
$300,000, executed by Alfred Dolge and wife
to George A. Hardin as trustee, was filed.
This mortgage was executed on June 16,
1893, and was given as collateral security for
the payment of three bonds of $100,000 each.
One bond is held by the American Exchange
National Bank of New York city, another by
Gustav Freygang of Hoboken, and the third
by the National Herkimer County Bank of
Little Falls, N. Y. This mortgage covers
the felt and lumber plant of Alfred Dolge &
Son in this village, together with all the
machinery connected with the plant. Several
smaller mortgages were also filed.
At 10 o'clock this morning Mr. Robinson
appeared before Justice Hiscok, holding a
term of the Supreme Court in the village of
Herkimer. and presented the papers in an
action commenced by Rudolf Dolge vs.
Alfred Dolge for a dissolution of the co-
partnership of Alfred Dolge & Son. He
also moved that a receiver be appointed, and
the Court made an order appointing the
Hon. A. M. Mills, an attorney of Little Falls,
the receiver of the firm. This afternoon the
individual assignment of Alfred Dolge to
Walter E. Kernan, nephew of the late
Hon. Francis Kernan of Utica, was also filed
in the Clerk's office. No preferences are
made by the assignment. Rudolf Dolge,
the plaintiff, is a son of Alfred Dolge, and the
summons and complaint in the action were
served on the elder Dolge in New York on
Saturday last. This copartnership between
the father and son was formed Jan. 1, 1893.
The complaint states that the assets of the
firm are of a nominal value—$1,150,000—
and that, owing to the present depressed
condition of the general business of the
country, it is impossible to meet maturing
obligations, and for that reason plaintiff and
defendant cannot realize as much for the
assets for the creditors as can be done by a
receiver appointed by the Court. This com-
plaint of Rudolf Dolge, it should be under-
stood, is merely in compliance with the legal
form necessary in such cases. The order
was granted by the Court, and the bonds of
the receiver, Mr. Mills, were fixed at $50,000.
Competent bondsmen qualified later.
According to Bradstreet's, the statement
of the firm on Jan. 1st last showed firm at-
sets of $1,298,999 ; firm liabilities, $331,205 ;
firm's surplus, $967,794 ; individual assets
of Alfred Dolge, $469,761 ; total net surplus,
$f>437,555-
It is hardly the proper time to recount
what Alfred Dolge has accomplished, or the
enterprises he has built up in Dolgeville. It
is hardly necessary to dwell upon the hun-
dreds of thousands which he has given in
the cause of education—of village improve-
ments—in insurance—in labor earnings—in
public gifts and charities. We can only
state, however, that in every cause which
has tended towards the advancement in any
way of his community, he has always held
an open purse. He has given with a gener-
ous and unstinted hand. Had he been a
selfish man and retained the vast money
which he has generously given, he would
not have felt the money pressure which was
forced upon him, and which resulted in his
assignment. He is credited in the press
with the following statement :
" I have been compelled to make a general
assignment individually, and to consent that
a receiver be appointed for the firm to pro-
tect all of our creditors and to prevent an
unnecessary sacrifice of the company's and
my individual assets. The present disturbed
and uncertain condition of the money market
has made it impossible for us promptly to
meet maturing obligations or to renew por-
tions thereof, as usual. Capital to-day
refuses to discount new paper or renew that
maturing. Our large investments in plants
and machinery at Dolgeville have always
necessitated our being large borrowers, and
since the present conditions prevent the
extension of credit to us or realization from
customers' paper or accounts, of which we
have to carry a large amount, we are com-
pelled to stop business at a tinje when our
business in all departments is large and
prosperous. I also see now that, in view of
the present conditions, I have been more
liberal in aiding others than was wise or
prudent. I am to-day where I began busi-
ness life, and have little desire or ambition
left except that our creditors may realize all
that is owing them. I hope my assignee
and the firm receiver will ascertain and
present our exact condition to the creditors
as soon as possible."
It is claimed by those who are in a posi-
tion to know that the assets of Alfred Dolge
approximate a million and a half over his
liabilities. Bankers assert that his placing
his personal fortune in the hands of an
assignee is one of the most generous and
self-sacrificing acts recorded in industrial
failures.
The assignment of the Daniel Greene Shoe
Co. of Dolgeville, the concern of which Mr.
Dolge was the principal stockholder, is also
filed. It is feared that other enterprises
which he founded in Dolgeville, and in which
he still held an interest, will be involved in
financial difficulties.
It is stated on the other hand, and believed
by many that the trouble will only be tem-
porary and that all the interests of Dolge-
ville will quickly resume.
Mr. Dolge for years has been gradually
withdrawing from personal ownership in the
various industries in Dolgeville. Most of
them have been incorporated, and are not as
yet affected by the Dolge failure. It is true
that he was a large borrower, as men of
great enterprises usually are, but he was a
great owner as well.
He owned over 40,000 acres of Adiron-
dack timber lands. The East Canada
Creek flows through the village of Dolge-
ville, and this gives a tremendous water
power. This spring the dam and plant of
the High Falls Power Company was com-
pleted at a cost of about $75,000. The plant
LOOK AND LISTEN.
Yes, look at it and see an organ artistically made of the best
materials and with the greatest skill of the most experienced work-
men. Look it all over, from pedals
to music rack, and
it's just the same,
But listen! Ah, if the
look pleased you,
how much more the
tone? And yet, it
isn't strange that
fifty years of voicing
reeds should result
in the sweet toned
Estey, ever sweeter
and clearer with each
new instrument that comes
from the factory, else what were the uses of experience?
SEND FOR CATALOGUE
ESTEY ORGAN CO.,
BRATTLEBORO, VT.