The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1917-07-18
BERKELEY farm LOAN BANK
SUBJECT OF INVESTIGATION
Judge {. Il. Lobdell Sent Out From
Washington To Seek Truth of
Pres. Whites Charges

There have been no new develop
ments in the Berkeley Farm Loan
Bank situation in the past week, ex-
excepting that Judge Chas. e. Lob
dell, member of the National Farm
Loan Bureau at Washington has
been instructed to proceed at once
to Berkeley and hold an investiga-
ton. Judge Lobdell is expected to
arrive in California tomorrow fThurs
day. and the warning factions will
meet and give their version of the
trouble.
The interest of the people in this
section in the squabble centers
around the charges made by Presi-
dent White against r. L. Douglass.
who is accused of placing an exorbit-
ant valuation on lands in tia
Truckee-Carson project and endeay-
oring to secure loans from the bank
based on this excessive appraisement
This imputation is bitterly resented
by every land owner and resident Of
agricultural Churchill County. Nei-
ther is there any justification in the
public or private life of Mr.. Doug
lass that would warrant such a
charge being brought against him
Mr. Douglass has probably had
more banking experience than any
other member of the board. He es-
tablished the first bank in this
county the present Churchill
County Bank which at first was a
private concern conducted under the
name of X. L. Douglass, Banker, and
later incorporated and sold to local
stockholders. In partnership with
Joe Jarvis he later established
bank at Fairview under the name of
Douglass & Jarvis, Bankers. Dur
ing the panic of 1907 there were five
banks in Churchill county and 1t is
worthy of note that four of them
suspended payment during that
stressful period-some never to re
open-but the Douglass & Jarvis
bank at Fairview kept its doors open
and paid dollar for dollar to its de-
positors.
Bearing this in mind the people
of Churchill county will not readily
accept the unsupported statement of
President White that a man who has
the stamina of r. L. Douglass as
proven under the heavy financial
strain of those trying days would
lend himself and his reputation to SO
petty graft as that implied in
the charges in this case, and will
confidently look for his complete ex-
oneration.
Mr. Douglass has resided in this
County for fifteen years during which
time he served as Senator in the
Legislature from 1906 to 1910. He
cast the deciding vote to eliminate
gambling from the State and sup
ported every measure calculated to
advance the best interests of his
county and the State at large. He
was a delegate to the Baltimore con-
vention in 1912 and supported
Champ Clark to the end. At the last
election he was a Presidential cleo
tor on the Democratic ticket and re-
ceived the highest vote cast in the
State for any Office and was honored
with the appointment as messenger
to carry the electoral vote of the
State to Washington.
The Berkeley bank has the largest
number of applications for loans of
any one of the string of twelve Fed
eral land banks. The farmers in the
district covered by the bank have
to date received 500, 400 according to
figures made public by Treasurer
Thomas However. it is said that
the Federal Farm Loan Bank in
Washington has approved Berkeley
loans to the amount of 1886, 900. II
is also said that Directors Meade and
Douglass desired the loans be expe-
dited so that the funds would be-
come available to the farmers.
This was said to be one of the
causes of dissatisfaction which led
to their designations.