Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-03-25
j. L. Sutton Arrested at At
lantic on the Serious Charge
of Forgery
.LLEeE STOCK FOOD swlNDLE
Plan of the Agents is to Secure Order
for a Small Amount and Then, it
is Alleged, the Order is Raised to
Represent a Large sum-Prosecution
Will Follow.

Atlantic. March 25.-One of the
smoothest gratis for swindling the
farmers ever attempted in this county
has just been exposed by the arrest by
Sheriff Marshall of j. l.. Sutton. of AL
coma, Iowa, on h charge of forgery,
brought by l. Steffen. a prominent
farmer of Union township, Cass county.
The plan adopted by the grafters is
said to be as follows: An agent of the
Algona man visits the farmers and upon
the pretext of appointing them as
agents to handle the stock food gets
them to sign al order for a small
amount of goods, upon which they are
to pay the freight and which they are
to sell to their neighbours. In sixty days
a second agent of he oncer is sup
posed to call and collect 60 per cent OF
the cash the farmer has received for
the food sold and take up the balance,
thus leaving the farmer a profit of 40
per cent on his sales. If both parties
To the eal We're satisfied the farmer
could again order and & second INSTALL
ment of the stock food would be sent
him on the same terms. Instead of the
second agent appearing, however, the
farmer receives a notice from an attor-
ney at Algona that his account for q
certain sum owed to Mr.. Sutton for the
goods is now due, and that unless the
amount is sent at once suit will be
brought against him before a justice in
Algona. Nor are the promoters al
Ways content with the size of the or
der tbs farmer signs, 81 they raise the
figures and make the sua of a size they
think their victim will stand In the
case of MIR. Steffen the order is said to
have been raised from $3.50 to $1S5.b0.
and it is because of this raise OF the
amount of his order thai Mr.. Steffen
brings his charge of forgery, for which
crime Sutton is now under $500 bonds
to answer to the neXt session of the
Cass county grand jury.
While in Algona Sheriff Marshall took
some pains to look up Sutton's record
and while he found a considerable num-
Der of people hat We're not exactly
satisfied hat the business was being
conducted on a perfectly legitimate
plan, yet none could be found who We're
ilIeHctlGI u SLY llA aSSoA NtAS
crooked, as his dealings with the peo-
pie, of his home county .Kossuth) are
said TO have been dons in an entirely
different method. Sutton has built up
quite an industry at Algona. his BUSH
ness for last year having run close to
half a million dollars. He gives en-
ployment to a large number of work
ing1nen and does more toward bringing
foreign money into Algcna than all the
other industries of the county put to-
eether. He has one attorney who does
little else besides to look after the legal
end of his business, trying his various
suits in the local justice courts, which
business is said to keep two justices
reasonably busy, and in defending him
h has been some twenty or more times
curing the yea on various charges in
the several counties where his agents
have been doing business. Personally.
Sutton is considered by his %neighbors
TIC be a pretty good sort of a fellow. and
he is said to nave creait at the First
National Bank of Algona in an almost
unlimited amount, being rated as worth
about 100000.
Aside from Mr.. Steffen. who caused
Sutton's arrest, Frank krittenbrink and
j. P. Bigelow and several other we'll
known Cass county farmers are said
to have been caught in the skillful trap.
The local victims are sal! to be all in
terested in the arreS, caused by MIR.
= . - ccn,,