Friends of Insull

Nobody can say that quiet Samuel Insull of the froglike smile and secret methods was not generous. With millions at his control he was not apt to forget a past favor, or a possible future one. For some time Chicago tongues have wagged concerning the existence of an "Insull Christmas List," said to contain 1,600 names. Last week this list was not published, but a "syndicate list" of Insull Utility Investments was. It showed 205 favored persons and firms who had been allowed to buy 250,000 shares of the company's stock at $12 a share just before it was offered to the public at $27. People on the list had an immediate chance for a $15 a share profit, later for a $137 profit. But they had to promise not to sell for two and a half years without first offering it to the company. If they kept the stock, as many doubtless did rather than incur Samuel Insull's displeasure, they now are of course on the long, long Insull mourners' bench.

Notable names on the list, and their allotments, included:

Shares

Cuthbert C. Adams (Hill, Joiner &Co.) 500

Benjamin Alschuler (attorney, brother of Federal Judge Samuel Alschuler) 1,000

Britton Ihrie Budd (receiver of Chicago Rapid Transit) 2,195

Judge George Anderson Cooke (receiver of Insull Utility Investments) 3,000

Cyrus Stephen Eaton 500

Samuel A. Ettelson (Insull attorney) 250

Lieut.-General Milton J. Foreman (onetime National Commander, American Legion) 1,000

William A. Fox 500

John Foster Gilchrist (Commonwealth Edison) 2,000

Halsey, Stuart & Co. 43,000

Martin John Insull 10,000

Nelson Dean Jay (partner of Morgan et Cie., Paris) 2,000

Theodore E. Joiner (Hill, Joiner & Co.) 900

Patrick Joseph Lucey (receiver of Corporation Securities Co. until last week) 1,000

Shares George Franklin Mitchell (Peoples Gas) 2,000

Fred. W. Insull (nephew) 260

William Insull (nephew) 50

Joseph Edward Otis (vice chairman Central Republic [ "Dawcs"] Bank) 1,000

Thomas J. Peden (master in chancery) 200

Henry Bedinger Rust (Koppers Co.) 1,000

General James Augustine Ryan (vice president Middle West) 1,000

Mme Rosa Raisa Rimini (Chicago Civic Opera Company) 290

Boetius Henry Sullivan (son of the Lite Roger Sullivan, longtime head of Cook County Democrats) 5,000

Gerard Swope (General Electric) 2,000

South Trimble (clerk of the House of Representatives) 1,000

Owen D. Young 4,000

On the same day that the list was published, both Insull Utility Investments and Corporation Securities Co. were thrown into bankruptcy. The assets of the latter company, once valued at $153,000.000, were reported so low that the expenses of an inventory could not be met. Other developments followed quickly. At his home in Redfield, S. Dak., Senator Peter Norbeck announced that when Congress reassembles his Wall Street-lashing committee on banking & currency will investigate the Insull affair. In Chicago, U. S. District Attorney Dwight F. Green, whose office gathered the Capone-jailing evidence, started an inquiry. State's Attorney John A. Swanson demanded a $50,000 appropriation, to be used in weeding the Insull records for evidence of criminal acts. A committee of bondholders sought subpenas for Samuel Insull, now in Paris, and Martin John Insull, in Ontario. Samuel Insull Jr. suddenly sailed to join his father in Paris.

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