Grand Forks herald., 1919-06-25
HASTINGS TOLD How. FARMERS
INVESTMENTS COULD BE SPENT
UPON EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
Says Loan Was Offered by
Bank if Lernke Would
Drop Legal Proceedings;
Lernke Had Case Dismiss
ed But There Was No
'Put Up Job" on His Part.

Interesting sidelights on the financ-
ing of the Consumers Stores. the
commercial organization formed un-
der the aegis of a number of the Nom
partisan leag- leaders is revealed In
the testim any of John Hastings, one
Of the pro -onters In the organization
of the Ameli an Exchange Bank at
Valley City. during the probe of the
bank deal by the state banking board
the records Of which have been made
public by Attorney General William
LANCER.
In this connection Hastings testi-
fed that of the funds subscribed by
residents of any community for the
establishment of store there, only
part need be used for the establish
ment of the store. The balance can be
used for educational work" the buy
ing of bank stock or other purposes,
Mr.. Hastings, testified.
A few sidelights were also thrown
on the relation of the legal activities
of William Lemke to loans made to
Hastings and his cohorts. Hastings
Lemke could be persuaded to release
the bank from liability in an action
which he was conducting.
Stores Bought Stock.
BY Mr.. LANCER:
@. There is some stock owned By
the United Stores company?
q. g. How did they get mixed up with
it? A. They were one of the hrst pur-
chasers of the stock. =
@. 1t Is $4,000 worth? A. No. they
have a hundred shares of stock.
@. $4,000. worth? A. They have
one hundred shares. The principal
thing is we have control of the bank
through seven or eight people mostly
connected with the league. Our in
the stock. I was talking with Mr..
Townley in st. Paul and + told him
how far had got, and he said. you
are keeping part of it, and l said yes,
and he said to keep fifty per cent OF
he st;nS, and found there was 7s3
shar,~ sold out of 1000. We will
take as much stock right to the fifty
( per cent or more, If necessary.
o. Does the CONSUMERS Stores
company own any other stock In
: banks in the state? A., Fifty-nine
shares at Hatton and they. have pur-
chased ether stock /;
g. Well, OF eourse. sif the bank
failed, they spos.lda lAable for donslss ss
s,aaoIat ,',a 20 f afnd afs.eK t8r X ~ rsss
sSllEy WOuIu DS.> 6OONA( 1oA ~ tF4
@. Olson said that Grady would not
take thess Consumers, Stores COMPANY
notes until he endorsed them person
ally. "A. Grady would not - = /" NJ
..Bills Professional Ethics.
O. Yes. A. don't know any
thing about that. Grady has
never done any business with US
last year. You see, up until this
year, Grady always loaned us all
the money he had to loan. bOr-
rowed as high as $125,O00 In the
summer at one time, but he re-
fused to loan us any money last
spring, and he had plenty OF
money, because Bill Lenke had
sued him on some company, land
investment company, they had
and Bill was attorney for plain.
tiff and sued him and stood
chance of getting Judgment,
and guess he would; and they
nut it up to me that they had
plenty Of money to loan and
would loan IL could get them q
release: you see could not do
that because it was q matter OF :
professional ethics with Bill, but
Bill did release him himself on
the case and had it dismissed for
prejudice, consequently they fg-
ured it was put UP Job on my
part but it was not"
Mr.. Hall later in the hearing got
interested in the disposition OF the
: