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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 14, 1962)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE- MEDFORD, OREGON MONDAY. MAY U, 1962 A 3 agency Tanjtig said today. The news agency said two of the babies were boys and two girls. Mrs. Artukovic, 42, has four other children, two of, whom are twins, Tanjug said. Descent of Billie Sol Estes Comes Faster Than First Million Dollars Editor's note: This it the Ut in a series ot three dis patches on Billie Sol Estes end the collapse of his agri cultural empire in West Texas. By HARRY FERGUSON Pecos, Tex.-a?U-In the days wnen he was riding high as the executive head of a busi ness empire worth $150 mil lion Billie Sol Estes liked to tell interviewers, "I'm Just a little boy with an office by the side of the road." A sign on the front door of that office today reads: "The Billie Sol Estes Enterprises are under the jurisdiction of the United States District court and Harry Moore is the receiver. Nothing shall be re- --rt" 1 1 iim i r " m mm NEWBRY NAMED GOOD SENATOR On May 5, 1962, the Ore gen Voter said; "Lynn New bry. Republican encumbent, de lervci the nomination over Don lid L. Stathoi who in our opin ion ii trying te unieat Newbry for no objective purpose. New. bry wat a good Senator indeed." - Pd. Pol. Ad by Neighbors for Newbry Committee Chet Hubbard, Chm., Medford, moved from these premises without court authority." Estes is 37 years old. Seven years ago he was a routine millionaire in the sense that he was worth $1 million, and it must be true that the first million is the hardest. Once he got over the first hurdle, he began to pile up. money with incredible speed and controll ed or had an interest in 40 companies, from a funeral home to a grain storage or ganization. But his descent was even faster. In the last four months his business enterprises have been put into receivership and he is under indictment by the federal government on 57 charges of fraud. .There will be a meeting of Estes' credi tors in El Paso on May 23. You can get a fast idea of the sprawling nature of Estes' organization and the extent of the trouble he is in from the fact the federal district court has notified 564 creditors that they can appear and try to salvage some assets. ' Some Are Solvent There is an erroneous im pression that every enterprise in which Estes engaged now is on the rocks. Investigations still are under way, but so far some of his companies appear to be in good shape. Estes es timates his assets at $54 mil lion but that is subject to a court review. What got him into trouble is a metal cylinder about seven feet long and painted white. It is called an anhy drous ammonia fertilizer tank. When you feed its con tents into an irrigation ditch, it gives a terrific boost to growing cotton. The price of a tank is about $1,000. Using his credit, Estes be gan buying large orders of an hydrous ammonia from Com mercial Solvents Corp. Then he began slashing prices to west Texas farmers and un derselling competitors in an attempt to drive them out of business. Before the roof fell in, Estes had succeeded in be coming one of the world's largest distributors of anhy drous ammonia. He used some of the money derived from the farmers to get into the grain storage business expecting to r,i-)ir'W',"'"-".-vli.'.'; st - i 'If- ' S r BILLIE SOL ESTES get heavy government fees for storing crops. Into the picture now comes Alan Propp and Oscar Griffin, general manager and editor of the Pecos Independent, a newspaper published on Mon. day and Thursday with a cir culation of 3,450. There was a lot of talk going on around Pecos when the farmers came to town about "10 per cent," and all of it seemed to be con nected with Estes. Griffin be gan investigating. This is the story he finally uncovered: Estes, in partnership with a tank manufacturing con cern, Superior Manufacturing Co., would approach farmers and tell them his credit was over-extended, but that he needed some fertilizer tanks. The farmer was asked to buy some tanks from the Superior Manufacturing Co., on credit, sign a mortgage for them and then lease the tanks to Estes. The farmer was promised a cash bonus of 10 per cent of the purchase price and Estes agreed to make the lease pay ments precisely the same amount of money as the mort gage would cost. ' It sounded like a good deal. and the farmers in this area had great confidence in Estes. They began signing the mort gages, and some of them, it is said, without reading the doc uments. Estes took- the farmers' mortgages and sold them at a 1 discount to finance compa nies. "With the 10 per cent cash payments he was making to the farmers and the discount to the finance companies, he must have been paying close to 30 per cent for his money.V said a Pecos business execu tive. What the Pecos Independ ent's investigation disclosed was that there wcro 16,000 tank mortgages on file in Reeves county alone. The number in west Texas was in excess of 33,000, and that, said a business man, "was enough to fertilizer every thing from here to Califor nia." The inevitable conclusion was that Estes had been col lecting mortgages on tanks which didn't exist and there was testimony in one court action that he admitted that such was the case-"Those tanks just aren't there." The finance committee call ed a meeting in Dallas to de cide what to do, and some of them filed suit against Estes. The Federal Bureau of Inves. tigation moved, and the Texas attorney general's office got to work. Documents in con nection with the fertilizer tank transactions had been put in the mails, which placed the whole thing into inter state commerce and in the jurisdiction of the federal gov ernment. A federal grand jury brought in an indictment against Estes and a federal district court put his enter prises into receivership. At first Pecos seemed to be almost solidly behind Estes. Lately sentiment seems to be swinging against him. In the Brandon barber shop here, where an informal public opinion poll seems to be going on all the time, many persons are taking an I-told-you-so at titude and saying, "Don't see how Billie Sol can get out of this one." Local Student To Study in Japan Portland-Steve Eichelberg er. Medford. a senior at Lewis and Clark college, Portland, vTill be among the 125 stu dents from that college going to Japan and other countries in September on a foreign study junket, according to col lege officials. The land, people and cul ture of Japan will be the core of Eichelberger's program of independent stud; to increase international understanding. The studenus will live in na tive homes. They will study the language, history, govern ment, religions, art, music and drama and talk with indus trial and educational leaders. Eichelberger is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sharon S. Eichel berger, 3367 Forrest ave., Medford. New Veneer Plant Set at White City The Lawyer Veneer corn pan will be the 28th firm to locate in the White City in dustrial area, according to John Laden, White City Realty- The Lawyer Veneer com pany with an anticipated pro duction capacity of 6 million square feet of three-eighths veneer monthly plans to be gin operations at the new White City location in Sep tember. Shipments are ex pected to total 65 to 60 car loads per month. The plant will be installed at an estimated cost of $600, 000 and will use the latest and most modern equipment, ac cording to Laden. The 44 employees will man the operation in two shifts, he said. Plant supervisor will be Freeman Tollefson. The operation will be located ad jacent to the Olson-Lawyer gangmill at White City. Ben Day and Honry Padgham Jr. luggeit: Run Your Own Affairs HOME RULE-YES! Pd. Pol. Ad. County Citizens Comm. for Home Rule R. E. Collins, Chmn., 235 So. Oakdale, Medford Greater Choice Nofed By Army Recruiter A greater number of choice assignments are now available in the Army for high school graduates and non-graduates interested in the service, MSgt. Warren M. Long, lo cal Army recruiter, has announced. Among the courses avail able for high school graduates are electronic devises repair, airplane repair, diesel engine repair, drafting, stenography. photography and medical and dental procedure training. Non-high school graduates may select job vocational training. Additional information may be obtained at the Army re cruiting station in the post office building. Medford, or by telephoning SPring 2-5022. GIVES BIRTH TO QUADS Belgrade - il'Pll - Housewife Fatima Artukovic gave birth to healthy quadruplets Satur day in a hospital in Doboj, the official Yugoslav news (REPUBLICAN) FRED L. WALKER COUNTY COMMISSIONER 25 Yegrs Proven Business Success (X) Pd. Pol. Adv. Walker for County Comm. John Ross, Chm., 230 W. Main. Medford. havek-.u aw. a.lemii ill "WE MUST BUILD OREGON'S ECONOMY" Sua YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS An outstanding Republican State Representative for two terms. Carl Fisher will work and cooperate with people to get things done for Southern Oregon, the Coast and the Mid-Willamette Valley. Members of both parties respect his complete honestv and sound judgment. CARL FISHER SAYS: "The nrimarv job of your Congressman in Washington is to represent the people. Your Congressman must help develop more Oregon payrolls, encourage expansion of existing industries and agriculture. -k Outstanding State Representative ic Sound Judgment k Will Concentrate on Improving Oregon's Economy r Eu 1 fd, Adv. Ftther for Cangrm Commit tM, lit East lioadway, tuaene, Oregon Ralph F. Cobb. Chairman - IS GEO lLb.ew.as 9ifflDQ2ll3B )ll " ii j ii i Mi,. ,, Hi I i mm i i WE ARE NOT OPEN MONDAY EVENINGS!
