The Washington herald., 1910-02-13
Rv LANIEs D. MORROW.

unreachable category by itself-was one
Of the topics touched upon in my inter
view with Fountain L. Thompson, newly
sworn into the United States Senate from
CandO, a small village in North Dakota,
not far from the boundary line of Mani
toba. only to shock tradition by resigning
inside of two months.
Land and wheat have made Senator
Thompson wealthy man. He is a prac-
teal agriculturist, and has many farms
rented out TO tenants. Twenty-Five years
ago he left Illinois broken in health, a
sufferer from incipient consumption, the
doctors said He settled on 100 acres Of
virgin prairies and lived in a shack. More
land was purchased, broken and planted
to wheat
In three or four years he made a eau
tiOus experiment with farm mortgages.
The prairies, once bTeast-high in razor
edged grass. yielding abundantly under
the plOw, money seeking q safe and profit
able opportunity came dribbllng West
ward from the East. And thus Farmer
Thompson became Banker Thompson. and
Banker Thompson came to the Senate
strictly on his merits as sane Democrat
and a sound man of business.
Farms Pay Dividends.
Also. I asked him about land mort
cages as an investment for the savings
Of the diligent and the thrifty; and he
told me that farms. let on shares and
intelligently watched, paid a dividend OF
more than 10 per cent: that the agTicul-
turist OF the future will be a college man
living where he woTks-and that the
Democratic party must cease trying to
please and conciliate all the economic
and political riffraff in the country before
il can elect a President Of the United
States
Likewise, he took occasion to explain
how North Dakota happened to be repre-
scented in the Senate by a Democrat-the
only Democrat between South Bend, Ind,
or the east, the home Of Benjamin F.
Shively. and Denver. Colo. on the west,
the home OF Charles J. Hughes. and be-
tween jefferson City. No, on the south,
the home OF William ]. Stone. and the
Canadian frontier 10 the north; a great
reach Of territory either way, with p
10000 inhabitants. perhaps-the wheat
field, the gristmilL and the -four barrel,
ii might be said, Of the republic.
Tall, angular. and wide-shouldered.
Senator Thompson IS a plain mantle
kind that Abraham Lincoln used to talk
about He has large hands-plow-h handle
and pltchfork hands-a big chin, and an
oratoricaI mouth; and yet he rarely
talks. His eyes are gray, his voice is
low, and his manner is leisurely and
reserved.
Cash Payments Suspended.
Black rust got into the wheat during
the early summer of 1907. Interest money
But there was a financial panic, and
banks up and down and across the coun-
try had suspended cash payments. A
meTCenaTy man, keeping within the let
ter of all the canons Of business, might
have foreclosed and bought himself rich
at the cost of his delinquents. But the
Cando money-Iender, simply a factor for
II NelistsB ftA-NNNA LAAN
out of his own pocket and waited the
next harvest. a cheerful Incident. but
not mentioned to me by hlmself. nor
limited. SO Senator Thompson, large Of
hands, chin, and mouth, is also big
hearted
Without particle Of art or any of
the aummery Of self-complment or NOR
alistic speculation, Senator Thompson SOL
EMMY gave the reasons that influenced
him TO abandon the legal profession. His
father was a country merchant at Scots
vile, in Illinois
Il worked on farms and clerked in a
bank during my boyhood,' he said.
while in the employ Of my father I
read law with an uncle. I was admitted
TO the bar. but I made no effort to prac-
tice. Business suited me better. At the
age Of twenty-four, a specialist in St.
Louis ordered me out Of doors. saying
had bronchitis, and, possibly, tubercu-
losis.
Justice Mighty Uncertain.
7 rode the netghbornood, living mostly
in the air. and tried a case or two in
court. A man charged with DEMONSTRATING
confessed his guilt to me. conftdentially.
but I cleared him. The experience caused
me 10 give up all thought of the law as
an occupation. Justice, it seemed to me,
was mighty uncertain; neither did pur-
pose again to assume the responsibility OF
cheating the penitentiary and injuring the
public. About that time nv father sold
his property and moved to Kansas. I
remained in the town Of Girard, buying
a dry goods store with $500 that I had
saved, and giving notes for the balance.
Grating" Senator Thompson went on
to say. as thought TO be a method OF
stealing recently introduced into our poll
ties and government The evils We see
are always worse than any that have
ever existed. Reference TO my life IN
Illinois, calls up the case Of the Macou-
pin County courthouse. The three county
commissioners were authorized to spend
100000 on the structure; before they were
driven from Office they had issued
IS. 000, eco of bonds, which they sold all the
way from 50 cents 10 par. mainly in the
East, TO bankers and investors The tax
payers refused 10 pay the interest and
there was a long battle in the courts.
John NJ. Palmer. candidate of the Gold
Democrats, in 1896 for President, was the
attorney OF the bondholders.
Some Went TO Jail.
"One OF the county commissioners died,
one ran away, and one remained. but
was boycotted by the public The clerk
OF the courts. who Jointly signed the
bonds, committed suicide. Under a
scheme Of reorganization, twenty-four
were elected to run the busi-
ness of the county and TO fight the East
ern creditors. They were repeatedly
mandamused by Gen. Palmer and re-
sorted to all kinds of shifts TO defeat the
payment Of the repudiated interest Some
Of them fed fbA county and Soma want