Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-05
STORY OF A BANK FAILURE
How the Cass County Institutions Collapse
Has Been Utilized.
PROFITS OF THE POLITICAL PULLERS
Every Aspiring odicc seeker Wns
"Agin" the Ring ana Coined
Votes by His Bonstcd
Opposition. .

In the case OF the state of Iowa against
Isaac Dickerson should be first paid by Pot
tawatamle county and that expert witness
fees at the rate of 81 per day each be allowed
to Theodore Steinke, w. L. Martin and A.
NJ. DuVal for their attendance during the
trial of the case.
That was all of the official record on the
case that has occupied the attention Of the
court and a jury for four weeks, cost Cass
county over $1,000 and interested all south
western Iowa. But there was plenty Of gos-
sip on the streets about the turn in the case
taken by the jury and gossip about the men
who we're connected with the case. The fact
that the jury stood nine for conviction was,
as has been said matter of general sur
prise and a great deal Of comment. Those
who had watched the case closely did not
expect that the jury would spend any great
amount Of time in finding verdict for the
defendant but that all goes to show how
uncertain juries are and is a side of the
case that isn't half as funny nor as interest
ing as some other facts that have not been
published.
The jury had lot of fun along with its
troubles In making sober deliberation on
the case Or" George Kter was one of
the juiymen and 1t took the combined efforts
of the other eleven men to keep him toned
down. His breaks made something of farce
of a most important case. DIR" George was
for conviction from start to finish and he did
not want any halfway measures, either.
After the jury had been out few minutes
he made a motion that the jury return
verdict of guilty against Isaac Dickerson, Joe
Yetzer, Smith Mcpherson and John Organ.
He was convinced that they were all legally
and morally guilty and it took part of one
evening to get it through his head that Isaac
Dcke.son was on trial alone and that no
indictment had been returned against the
attorneys for the defense.
FREE WITH HIS COMPLIMENTS.
Or" George was great admirer of Mr..
Bruce. He said Mr.. Bruce was great
man. He was banker and lawyer, too,
and that he had done good deal of de-
tective work of high order in getting all
the evidence In the case together as he
had. The doctor claims to be something
Of sleuth himself, and said he guessed he
would send his card to Mr. Bruce and see
IL he could not get an opportunity to help
him on some of his big cases. But the
climax of the farce came when DR." George
walked down into the Office of the clerk of
court and served official notice on
Clerk Reed not to pay any fees
to the three men who had stood out against
verdict of conviction He was in dead
earnest about the matter, and was only
satisfied when Mr.. Reed explained that the
law was all wrong and that a man who
voted for acquittal of an accused was en-
titled to his fees just as though he had
an enemy Of that provision of the law.
There is another phase of the case back
OF all this and that is the figure 1t has cut
In Cass county politics since the failure OF
the bank in 1893. At that time and imme
diately after it and up to the present lime
the death of candidate was to have the
charge made against him that he was in
the "Cass County bank ring" and the candi-
dates surest way to political preferment
was to denounce the ring and promise in
case Of his election to clean out the alleged
ring and put every man in the penitentiary
who had ever had anything to do with the
bank in any way. The condition of the pub
lie sentiment has been taken advantage of
until the theme has been worn more or less
threadbare and the taxpayers are not so
eager as they were to vote money for fur
ther litigation in the case
ONE REASON FOR THE WORK.
When Joe Yetzer testified on the stand
that Jim Bruce had told him that Il he
could only convict old Ike Dckerson lie
could get anything he wanted in Cass county
in a political way he only voiced the senti-
ment tnat has been the dominant force in
the political conventions in that county for
several years.
Jim Bruce, Attorney Swan and Mr.. Boor-
man, who conducted the case for the state
have all had an experience in Cass county
politics and all have political records that
are interesting, as they bear on the case that
has just been tried. Each Of them has served
term as county attorney, each has further
political ambitions and each has pledged
more than once to land all the Dickersons
in the pen. Swan was the first of the trio
to be county attorney. He was a democrat
and Cass is strong republican county, but
he pulled through. During the fight before
election the charge was sprung that Swan
had been the fusion candidate at one time
for speaker of the Maine legislature and
had afterwards been dropped from the roll
Of house members by the votes of his col
leagues. Swan met the charge and replied
that he had been tried in his absence on
charges trumped up by the corporation op-
ponents and that settled it. The good granger
vote in Cass county went to the democrat
and Swan was elected. He Immediately in
stalled as his deputy James e. Bruce, the
warmest republican in the county.
Well, two years later Bruce was nom
mated by the republicans and Swan by the
democrats. The fight was carried on
merrily until near election day, when some
of the workers discovered that written
agreement had been made between Swan and
Bruce that the defeated candidate should
be the deputy Of the successful man. That
rather chilled the interest in the fight on the
county attorney, and Mr.. Bruce was elected.
He promptly installed Swan as his deputy,
and the campaign bitterness was forgotten.
At the end of two years Bruce wanted
the nomination again, but Mr.. Boorman was
in the field. He had few delegates in
the county convention, just enough to pre-
vent the nomination from going to any one
else. and had the balance of power well in
hand, when a charge was sprung against
him. He was accused of having charged
about 75 per cent commission for the col
lection of note due man out in Tacoma,
who had been garnisheed in Atlantic.
Boorman had his explanation. He got up and
told those good honest farmers that he had
done what was charged, but that the Tacoma
man was a farmer, a good honest fellow,
who had paid the bills once, and that he
had taken the course he had in order to
keep lot of soulless corporations from
robbing the man the second time. The
speech settled 1t. The roof nearly went off
an dthe farmer delegates voted as a man for
the farmers friend, and Boorman was nom
mated and elected.
BUT 1T FAILED.
All OF the different candidates had been
anxious for chance to try case against
Isaac Dickerson Bruce had convicted Yet
ger and Boorman was expected to convict
Dickerson. The trial came on at Glenwood
last June before jury of business men, and
Mr.. Dickerson was acquitted. The prosecu-
tion had been conducted by Boorman and
Major Curtis OF Atlantic, 1t was thought
that the case would end there, but the polit-
ical ambition of certain Cass county men
was not satisfied, and the Cass county bank
was an issue In the election again last No