The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 20, 1919, Page 7

: difiieult or impossible to raise money on this perfectly " the League. HE Leader will not blink at the fact that the closing of the Scandinavian-American bank at Fargo, N. D., is of tremen- dous importance. It is indeed worth the columns of space which the newspapers throughout the country have given it, but it is worth this space for far different reasons than those which prompted the black front-page headlines. The . event, but not the reports of it in the press, has revealed an amazing and diabolical conspiracy to wreck the Nonpartisan league and all its works. This story has been entirely suppressed, except in North Dakota. The American newspaper reading public generally has had no intimation of the real story. Elsewhere in this issue we give the facts—or rather, a part of them. More of even a more astonishing nature is to come. Time angl space prevent the presentment of the entire case in all its de- tails in this issue. = The reader is referred to the article on another page. Here the most important phase of the matter only will be discussed. * * %0 * so it is necessary for farmer organizations and farmer busi- ness enterprises to be financed. They must often borrow ; J UST as it is neceésary for the individual farmers to be financed, money. In the case of the League, large sums have had to be borrowed. League dues-are paid largely in post-dated checks, due after the harvest season, in lieu of cash. Money must be borrowed from time to time on these checks, to-keep the organization and its publications going. - - : At the very inception of the mévement, the League found it pd- se- curity, due to opposition by bankers to the reforms the League was. organized to get. In the course of time, many farmer banks, it. But the opposition of the big money kings to this farmers’ security for loans has never ceased.. Banks, not only in North Dakota but in several states, which have handled this paper and accommodated.the League in loans, have always been marked for destruction by the “big fellows.” Notwithstanding this, millions of dollars’ worth of League post-dated checks have been handled by banks, mostly farmer banks, in the last four years, ouT A CENT OF LOSS TO-ANYRBODY. N * IR N el ~ : 4 I \HE Scandinavian-American bank at Fargo was one of the farmer banks which handled this gilt-edge paper for the League. . It also did a big business with individual farmers, other farmer organizations and farmer co-operative business enter- prises. . It was the biggest farmer bank in North Dakota, doing a large -and profitable business. It was a thorn in the side of those who in the past had monopolized the money and credit in North Da- .kota, not only because it had broken that monopoly but because its handling of farmers’ post-dated checks FACILITATED THE OR- GANIZATION WORK OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE. And 80 it was decided to wreck the Scandinavian-American bank. . .The article elsewhere in this issue, previously referred to, discloses the tools whe were used in the attempt to wreck the bank and their mode of operation. It is necessary to discuss only one action of these bank wreck- ers to make perfectly clear the real purpose of the whole business, and to disclose the far-reaching importance of the case. -After the Scandinavian was declared insolvent and closed, chiefly because it had made loans on post-dated checks issued by farmers for League dues, a decree was issued to the effect that NO BANK IN NORTH DAKOTA COULD IN FUTURE HANDLE THESE CHECKS, AND THAT SUCH BANKS AS HELD THEM AS COLLATERAL FOR .LOANS MUST DISPOSE OF THEM AT ONCE. This was ex- pected by the plotters to cause similar action in other states. ' Get . the full significance of this. 'Perhaps a score of . North " Dakota banks, mostly farmer banks, had loaned the League money on farmers’ post-dated checks. The total sum was large. Under the decree, it was attempted to force all these banks TO CLOSE IN ON THE LEAGUE AT ONCE, demanding that the League im- mediately take up its loans. This threatened the solvency of practically all the farmer and independent banks of North Dakota, and was intended immediately to paralyze the League financially, and hence politically. Not only. that.. If the League could not borrow on post-dated checks, it was believed by the plotters that’ it could not finance itself and would have to quit all activity at once and for all time. Never was a more diabolical conspiracy framed to wreck a people’s movement. With the League it was intended to bring down in finapcial wreck and ruin practically __every independent bank in the state. e e T i : - -hard fighting for the farmers. Neither the League or the 4 THE plotters already have been checked, but there is still ~J& farmer banks in North Dakota are yet entirely out of the .. clutches of their enemies, but the supreme court has ousted Lang- . . er’s and Hall’s receiver of the bank and restored jurisdiction of the .~ matter to the state banking department until the case can be heard: by the court. . That the plot, like the hundreds against the League - not part of -the money. trust, consented to handle this paper for istration is now engaged in establishing the state industries and Later many old-line banks were persuaded to take - _any other sales of North Dakota bonds. *farmers ‘and ' common people of : America. - North Dakota were taken by surprise. The relentless, unprincipled || . PAGESEVEN that have gone before, will not only fail completely but in the end will bring disgrace if not prison cells to its framers, there can be Ifiof doubt. But it means that Leaguers MUST STICK as never efore. Like all past plots against the organized farmers, this was long studigd and carefully laid. The battleground was not-only to be in North Dakota. It was to be in every state where the League is organized, and so it has worked out. Before officers of the Scandinavian bank or officials of the League, taken utterly by surprise, could issue statements, the news service wires to every state in the Union were full of the closing of the bank and the UNDISPUTED CHARGES of the wreckers against the League. Columns were devoted to the “story” in every city, and editors of the big dailies everywhere pretended to wax wroth over the = alleged fact that “the League had swindled the farmers and brought = ruin on a bank and a whole state.” e - When statements were finally issued by the bank and League . officials, only parts of them were carried by the news agencies and they were either not printed or “played down” or buried in the newspapers. The plan to give the Léague an overwhelming deluge of adverse publicity in all states, before it could recover from the unexpected blow and even start'to come back with its side of the question and the actual facts, has succeeded to date. : = * * ., % * * ; ; THIS would be bad enough—a sufficiently important ‘object T for enemies of the farmers’ organization to gain. But we have only just begun to unfold the ramifications of the plot. The state of North Dakota has adopted, by overwhelming votes of the people at several elections, the program of the League, and the legislature has enacted laws to ‘carry it out. " The farmers’ admin- departments provided by the legislature’s laws. PROJECTS, TOO, MUST BE FINANCED. ; In the face of a nation-wide campaign of foes of the farmers to destroy confidence in the credit of the state of North Dakota; 51 in order to prevent the state from successfully floating the bond o _issues necessary to the industrial program, the Bank of- North Dakota, the people’s bank created by the farmers’ legislature, has | just entered into an agreement with eastern financiers whereby they = ! - will buy-the, first-installment of $3,000,000 of the state bonds. The situation was desperate for the opposition. Something had to be done. The farmers’ administration had done the seemingly im- possible. It had, in spite of the heavily financed propaganda to prevent the sale of the bonds, at last made good—at least made a - good start toward financing the state projects. e * * e * THE indirect but most importént‘obj ect of the bank Wreckers: THESE STATE of North Dakota was to block the financing by the state of i its industries, as well as to destroy the credit of the Nonparti- | san league. Throughout the country the closing of the Scandina- i1 vian-American bank at Fargo has been pictured as proving, not only alleged “wild-cat financing” by the League, but to create the impres- sion that the state itself, politically in control of the organized farm- 4 ers, is unsound or unstable financially. Immediately the papers of | the country had been filled with the closing of the bank and-the i false charges against the League in-that connection, the same tools. | of the interests who closed the bank PLACED AUDITORS IN THE | ‘BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA. These were promptly ousted by |7 officers of the bank and their right to examine the records will be |/ ,decided in court. The threat of examination of the state bank by, officials who have no right to do so under the law is purely to sway. . hesitating investors in the state’s bonds. - e The Bank of North Dakota is, of course, above suspicion of’ any wrongdoing or of any connection with the Scandinavian- | American bank. BUT THE PLOTTERS KNEW THIS MOVE | +AGAINST THE BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA WOULD FILL ‘THE PAPERS:WITH ‘ANOTHER SENSATION, WOULD.- CRE- . ATE SUSPICION OF THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE STATE ITSELF, FOLLOWING AS IT DID THE SENSATION- AL AND ONE-SIDED REPORTS OF THE CLOSING OF THE FARGO BANK AND THE CHARGES AGAINST THE LEAGUE. They hoped to secure the withdrawal of the offer of the eastern financial interests who have agreed to buy North Dakota bonds of ~the Bank of North Dakota. The sale has not actually been made, and they_hoped it could be blocked. They planned on preventing, - North Dakota faced a more damnable or colossal attempt to destroy the structure that five years of hard work and millions of dollars’ worth of hard-earned money have reared for the * * * * * : NEVER has the League and the farmers’ administration of The farmers, the League and the people’s administration of foes of justice and democracy—let us give them credit—have PLAYED THEIR TRUMP-CARD AND IT IS A GOOD ONE. But the fight has only just begun. It will not be easy to tear down and wreck the Nonpartisan league or to undo the progress already: ma by the state of North Dakota. WE’LLSTICK; WE'LL WIN