A financial debacle extending from the City, London’s Wall Street sector, to the corners of the Far East last week toppled the grain and commodity firm of Strauss and Company and cost Edward Anthony Strauss, its founder, his personal fortune.
Although almost wiped out by the collapse of the firm which he established in 1915, Mr. Strauss, who is seventy-three years old, voluntarily turned over to the trustees appointed to liquidate the concern such personal assets as remained to him. Last week he gave up his palatial apartment.
WAS IN PARLIAMENT
Mr. Strauss has been a member, of the House of Commons for more than twenty-three years. Although not figuring in the limelight in parliamentary debates, always preferring to work in the background, he became extremely well-liked and won the staunch support of his Southwark constituency.
He does not intend to stand for re-election. In recent years he had little to do with the functioning of Strauss and Company, leaving it in other hands.
The company’s failure is believed due to its heavy trading in “monkey” nuts from which can be extracted a substitute for animal #oils. The company had large commitments and a deficiency in the supply forced the concern to pay as high as eighty dollars a ton, although the normal price is less than fifty-five dollars.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.