863 
1010 . 
THE RURAIi NEW-YORKER 
OTHER PEOPLE’S QUESTIONS. 
When E. G. Lewis first began to in¬ 
duce women to join his American 
Woman’s League about three years ago, 
he made the following promises: 
The League was to be incorporated. 
It was to have a clear title to University 
City. 
It was to own the Lewis Publishing Com¬ 
pany. 
It was to found and maintain a postal 
library for the free use of League members. 
It was to found a People's University 
with courses from the lowest grades to and 
including instruction in every branch of 
study and culture and the professions, this 
also* to be free to members and then- 
families. 
It was to own a trust company with a 
paid-up capital of .$5,000,000 and a surplus 
of $3,000,000. 
It was to provide a Retreat or Old 
People's Home. 
It was to provide an orphan asylum for 
the care of the children of members. 
A loan and relief fund was to be created 
from which members could borrow mone> 
at a low rate of interest or at no interest 
at all. 
A great woman’s exchange was also to 
be established. 
Justice, protection and assistance was to 
be provided to any women persecuted or 
oppressed. [.Lewis's victims were not spec¬ 
ified.] 
Definite schedules of University Heights 
real estate and Lewis's holding of stock in 
the Lewis Publishing Company was to be 
turned over to the League, with the simple 
proviso that the League assume the debts 
of both. It was claimed that there was 
000 cuuity and profit to the League 
fn these equities. I Besides this. Lew s 
claimed he would have half a million left 
for himself.] 
The Lewis Publishing Company was to 
have an endowment of $20,000 000 and the 
League itself an endowment of $20,000,000 
as a result of 1,000,000 membership of the 
League. As the League was to own the 
publishing company, it would really have 
the full $52,000,000 endowment and the 
total annual profits were to be $3,600,000. 
Whenever a certain number of member¬ 
ships were received in any town a chapter 
house was to be built and furnished as a 
meeting place for its members, and a rev¬ 
enue was to be provided for the support 
of the chapter home, and for such civic 
purposes as its public-spirited members 
might prescribe. All this without expense 
to the members. 
Later a little stimulant was adminis¬ 
tered to quicken the feminine pulse, and 
the Founders’ Chapter was launched. This 
was to be composed of the first 100.000 
members who sent him $52 each. The 
men might get in at $20 per. Mr. Lewis 
promised to endow this Chapter with 
$1,000,000 of the capital stock of the Lewis 
Publishing Company (characteristically for¬ 
getting that he had previously pledged the 
whole stock of this company to the league 
as a whole). This endowment he alleged 
would pay 100 per cent or $ 1 , 000,000 the 
first year, and several times that modest 
sum per year thereafter. He was also to 
endow this chapter with a million dollars 
of the capital stock of the trust company, 
which Mr. Lewis was to buy for cash 
(where he would get it is not stated), and 
donate to the League. The income from 
this was to equal the income from the pub¬ 
lishing company. 
This membership was to provide a reve¬ 
nue of SI00.000 a week, one-half of which 
was to go to the publishing company and 
the other half into the treasury of the 
League. 
Members of the Founders’ Chapter were 
to be the governing body of the League, 
and through it of the publishing company, 
of the trust company, and of the banking, 
real estate and other interests. The mem¬ 
bers of the Founders’ Chapter were to elect 
the officers and trustees of the League. 
One year was to be the time for complet¬ 
ing the Founders’ Chapter. In the mean¬ 
time Mr. Lewis was to assume the respon¬ 
sibility and appoint his own directing 
boards. When the time came for perma¬ 
nent organization a general election would 
be held, one delegate being sent from each 
State. These iron Id first constitute, an 
audit committee, Mr. Laris and his self- 
elected associates would render an account 
of their stewardship, and the delegates 
would then elect their officers. 
The Final Plan. 
Not a single one of the essential 
promises has been kept. The first 
convention has been held, but no one 
was allowed to audit the accounts 
and the election of officers was simply a 
hurried O. K. of the Lewis appointments. 
The few chapter houses built, for which 
lots must be donated, are deeded to a 
.trustee appointed by Lewis, and are his 
to do with as he pleases. The league is 
not to be incorporated, and even the 
treasurers of the local chapters are to be 
appointed by Lewis. Any member or 
any whole chapter may be expelled by 
Lewis for almost any reason he assigns, 
and threat of expulsion is held over 
them in case they neglect to send annual 
remittances to Lczvis. 
Instead of all the millions of endow¬ 
ments and annual profits, Lewis now ad¬ 
mits that he is hopelessly in debt, and 
the women are asked to loan him on the 
notes of a straw man over $3,000,000 with 
which, he says, he will pay the debts. 
This after nearly three years of the 
league work. The real estate that was 
to go to the league with a single mort¬ 
gage has since had two extra mortgages 
filed against it. In all Lewis and his 
wife and the companies he controls have 
real estate mortgages on record^ against 
the properties for $2,026,10S. Some of 
this is second and third mortgages. This 
property is assessed for $1,800,000 ap¬ 
proximately; the assessments seem to 
be at about 60 per cent of values, so 
that a fair estimate of the value of the 
property would be $3,000,000, and the 
equity on this basis would be only about 
$70,000, even if salable at this valuation. 
And of this Mrs. Lewis holds about $25,- 
000 worth of real estate in her own name 
which seems to be the only real estate 
in their control free from mortgages, re¬ 
ducing the estimate to $45,000, or less 
than three months’ interest on the mort¬ 
gage indebtedness. IIow much Lewis 
owes in accounts and notes- and certifi¬ 
cates and interim receipts besides this 
we have no means of knowing. We 
have $20,000 of claims against him. On 
this relative basis this form of indebt¬ 
edness would 2 l close to $ 4 , 000 , 000 , in 
addition to nearly $3,000,000 of real es¬ 
tate mortgages. 
Lewis says that a committee has 
worked several months to develop a plan 
to pay his debts; and developed the 
“debenture” or straw-man note scheme. 
Usually the first thing such a committee 
does is to make up a definite statement 
of the assets and liabilities, and de¬ 
velop their conclusions and plan from 
the result. But apparently Lewis went 
at it the other end first. He brought 
out a plan to get the money to pay 
the debts; but is not yet prepared to 
state the definite amount of indebtedness. 
When Mrs. Tener was invited to con¬ 
tribute to the “debentures” she wrote 
Mr. Lewis the following pertinent in¬ 
quiries: 
August 1, 1901. 
Mr. E. G. Lewis, 
University City, St. Louis, Mo. 
Dear Sir: 
Of course the ultimate value of the de¬ 
bentures and the per cent they will pay de¬ 
pends on their number, so I would like to 
ask a few questions. 
1. Exactly how many debentures »will 
ever be issued ? 
2. Exactly what real estate is listed 
among the assets of this Fund ? 
3. What is the legal nature of this 
Fund, aud where can 1 find any legal rec¬ 
ord of it? 
4. How many men formed the commit¬ 
tee who decided this plan? Please give 
their names. 
5. Will each member of the committee 
pay cash for his subscription? (It was al¬ 
leged that each member of the committee 
subscribed for $10,000 of the debentures.) 
6. Why should you add to the assets of 
the Fund, the stock you have so long prom¬ 
ised to the members of the Founders’ Chap¬ 
ter? Why not allow your original plan to 
stand for the benefit of those who are 
members now, instead of taking dividends 
promised them to pay old debts? 
7. Why not fund your other assets, and 
whenever their earnings should have paid 
off the accumulated debts, devote whatever 
portion of your estate you desire for the 
benefit of those who may be members of 
the Founders' Chapter then? 
8. You speak of a small reservation for 
yourself. Since the debts have been volun¬ 
tarily incurred by you. why do you keep a 
“Reservation” free from obligations? Why 
is it, too, not one of the assets of the Fund ? 
9. What proportion will be set aside for 
a sinking fund? 
10. What guarantee have we that this 
plan will be carried out, and that before, 
or at the end of 10 years, another will not 
be formulated to take its place? 
Please publish this letter in full and your 
answers in The National Daily. 
Yours respectfully, 
MBS. R. W. TENER, 
These proper questions have not been 
answered. We doubt if they ever will 
be outside of a court of bankruptcy. The 
farce is about ended. The curtain will 
drop in due time. Mrs. Tener is not the 
only woman of intelligence and brains 
who has been taken in by the league 
scheme, and who now begins to see 
through the plot. Women of twelve 
States who have been waiting the result 
of her inquiries, shared her suspicions and 
now agree with her conclusions. On his 
old schemes Lewis picked money from 
servant girls and washerwomen with im¬ 
punity. His fake league attracted many 
women of ability and culture. He can t 
fool all of such women all of the time. 
Mrs. Tener asks one question that par¬ 
ticularly interests us. Why should he 
reserve any property from the debts he 
voluntarily contracted? We would add, 
why have any reserved in his wife s 
name? Let her holdings and his re¬ 
serve be devoted to the payment of the 
$20,000 of claims we hold against him. 
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