The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-11-27
SHAM BATTLE
BY LANCER
CAUSES ARREST OF CORPORA.
TION EMPLOYEES WHO CAN
NOT BE CONVICTED
Attorney General

Of no one and deceive the public.
Said an employe who has been tour
ing the state making inspections:
II have enough evidence to convince
me that in spite of Langer's boastful
letters several months ago to the pub
lie in which he asked for the co-opera-
ton of the people in obtaining evi-
dence and flamboyantly boasted that
he was going to make a clean up OF
the violators Of the law, the attorney
general has not arrested in any in
stance any but employees Of the big
elevator companies. Since none OF
these can be convicted under the an
d-discriminatio law under which Lam
ger is operating and since not one real
culprit or member of the offending
corporations has been arrested, it is
easy to see through Langer's sham
political game. He. is bidding for the
support Of the people and trying to
make a name for himself under false
pretenses. He is trying to make the
people believe he is fighting discrim-
mating corporations, when he is not.
"Attorney Austinson told me recent
" that he had been requested by Lam
ger to arrest elevator managers at
Funston and Drake. They were en-
ployes Of the Occident Elevator COM
pany. He said: "Of course I will have
to have these men arrested, but / know
nothing about the grain business, or
49, thu
"Langer doesn't seem to trouble
himself much about evidence. He just
goes ahead and causes arrests. He has
caused the arrest of numerous mana
gers of the Occident Elevator COM
pany. The sham seems so transparent
!, ohat even the men who are arrested
Joke about it.
Manager ]. A. McGovern Of the
Mill & Elevator Association relates
he following conversation with the
manager Of an old line elevator cor
poration who had been arrested in
Drake.
"When does your hearing come
eff"
Oh h, it will never come off. Lam
ger got what he wanted when he got
the big headlines in the paper about
causing my arrest" a.-..
LANCER Fails To Prosecute
"Further evidence that LANCER does
not intend to prosecute, even if he
could, is found in the fact that with
all the arrests he has caused he hasn't
requested this department for any evil
dence Of any value. Evidence in cases
of discrimination consists of samples
taken at different points where the ac-
cused has been dealing. To date we've
received from LANCER only four or five
samples of grain. Part of them have
no names attached to them at all to
indicate where they are from and who
is the accused, and part of them have
only Langer's name on them.
"To show how LANCER "prosecutes"
when he is furnished with plenty Of
evidence and it is up to him to get
after the corporation members them
selves, instead of innocent employees,
I could cite you to my experience last
winter in trying to get the Northwest
ern Elevator company prosecuted. j
made three trips to Finley, Sharon and
Aneta where this company has eleva-
tors and obtained 80 samples throwing
light on discriminating practices. The
complaints in this case was an eleva-
tor the farmers had recently built at
: cost of $4,000. These farmers
charged that the Northwestern eleva-
tor company was cutting prices on
them below prices it was paying at
other points, and that it was trying
in this way to freeze them out. Plenty
Of evidence was furnished LANCER, but
to date nobody has heard Of him
starting any prosecution. His excuse
when tried to get the case pushed by
him was that he could not handle it
because he did not have enough help" !"
Law Is PLAIN On Subject
n. A. Paddock, formerly an attorney
for the Nonpartisan League and now
counsel for the Consumers United
Stores company, says that there is lit.
tie possibility Of LANCER convicting
the employees he has arrested.
"Mr. LANCER cannot punish these
men," said Mr.. Paddock, (" "simply be-
cause it is impossible to prove that an
employe knows anything about the
prices other employees Of the same
company are paying at other points.
He merely gets his orders from Mimi
eapolis Or where the company is lo-
Gated and has 70 obey them. Il isn't
possible that LANCER does not under
stand this. The law IS intended to
punish the members q, the corporation
or firm Of individual owners IS tia
elevators It Ii very plain On tliis
peint TAe proper course fsr Lanesf e.