By the Associated Press
Wilmington, N.C., Feb. 11—The government is expected to rest its case tomorrow in the trial here in federal district court of Lieutenant Governor W.B. Cooper and Thomas E. Cooper after eight days occupied in the presentation of verbal and documentary evidence in support of the charge of conspiracy against the Cooper brothers in connection with the failure of the Commercial National Bank of Wilmington. Testimony by the defendants is expected to start tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning.
The laborious task of tracing the books of the bank, the records of transactions alleged by the government to have been part of the alleged conspiracy was begun this afternoon by H.R. Tull, agent of the federal department of justice, and District Attorney Irvin B. Tucker stated that the government would rest at the conclusion of his testimony. Other evidence offered today was mainly corroborative of what has already been introduced in the earlier days of the trial. Two series of letters read to the jury related to internal workings of the bank to its relations with the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank prior to the collapse.
With the books of the bank spread out before him, Federal Agent Tull pointed to entries in connection with charges in the indictments of alleged conversion of frauds and alleged falsification of records. Testimony of this nature relating to nine of the 16 offenses alleged in support of the conspiracy charge had been completed with the day’s session ended. Both the morning and afternoon sessions were prolonged by Judge Henry G. Connor in an effort to hasten the end of the trial, which today entered on its second week.
The defense admitted in cross examining the witness that the entries were correct and that the alleged transactions had occurred, but revealed the position they will take on the defense by maintaining that the transactions were not fraudulent and that no money was lost to the bank through them.
Tull is the government agent whose investigations of the affairs of the defunct bank resulted in the arrest and trial of the defendants, and his testimony bore out the technical details of the charges outlined in the indictment.
With the introduction today of the report of Roger E. Brooks, national bank examiner, on the condition of the bank in March, 1922, when its application for a national charter was pending, the prosecution rounded out the series of four reports by state, national and federal reserve examiners, all of which criticized the large amount of uncollectible or slow notes carried by the bank and the large loans to members of the Cooper family during the period from November, 1921, to December, 1922, when the bank was closed.
The Brooks report, which recommended that a national charter be refused the Cooper bank, declaring that “losses” from uncollectible loans were then nearly sufficient to absorb the entire capital stock and surplus of the bank.
The examiner also reported that dividends were paid by the bank in 1921, although the bank had shown an operating loss that year, and declared that loans to officers of the bank and their interests amounted to more than 70 per cent of the capital stock.
Evidence purporting to show that the bank was “entirely out of funds and unable to meet promptly its daily cash letter,” in July, 1922, was placed before the jury by the reading of a section of the report of Virgil D. Wall, examiner for the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank.
That a controversy between the Cooper bank and the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank continued almost up to the date of the closing of the local bank was revealed in a series of letters most of which have purported to have passed between T.E. Cooper and Charles A. Peple, deputy governor of the reserve bank. “You are laying a very poor foundation for any line of credit after January 1” and “day by day you are saving your skin by having the remittances made, frequently at the last minute,” are passages from letters signed by Mr. Peple. In letters signed by Cooper, the deputy governor’s statements were characterized as “blunt criticisms” and the reserve bank was charged with having “oppressed” the local bank.
The last letter in this series dated two days before the bank failed and signed by Lieutenant Governor Cooper was addressed to Colonel J.F. Bruton of Wilson, N.C., director of the Federal Reserve Bank, and urged him to use his influence to have the Cooper bank given credit to the amount of $400,000. It stated that the credit was needed because New York banks were pressing the bank here for payment of its obligations.
H.A. Lewis, vice-president of the Planters National Bank of Marion, S.C., Testified to additional loans to T.E. Cooper. He stated that Cooper owed his bank $6,500 and that he owed Cooper $5,000. W.C. Lassiter, co-defendant in another indictment, was also party to another note for $5,000 held by his bank, the witness testified.
E.W. Smith, formerly connected with the Wilmington Dispatch, a defunct newspaper here, testified concerning several notes give n by the publishing company and endorsed by himself and J. Cruikshank which figure in the indictment in connection with several of the alleged instances of conversion of funds. He denied that either of the Coopers was connected directly with the ownership of the paper and said the notes were given in place of notes held by the bank and given by another bankrupt company which had previously controlled the newspaper.
From the front page of the Durham Morning Herald, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1924
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