Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-10-25

oEa1tu III C1 1NdH LII SdAAu -
vested in Florida. and one: of the con-
siderations for which I was to be paid
was to take care Of this shortage by
raising the money n replacing it in
the bank. Mr.. Brinton attended to
this for Mr.. Townley by borrowing
money from Townley's farmer friends
up in Walsh county. One OF the con-
siderations demanded by Townley was
that I should re6rganize the company
and get anti-league bankers into the.
company as additional protection to
the political boss. and this was
promptly done and large ads were in
serted in the a~nti-league papers to
cover Townley's tracks. as Townley
reasoned that it would be easy to
prove to the farmers hat he had
nothing to do with it if bitter anti
league bankers were shareholders.
Townley made arrangements with
'Lofthus, his new bank examiner. who
inspected the property, and a blue sky
bankers Of North Dakota bought
shares. The fact that these bankers
bought shares is proof that I did my
job of keeping Townln,'S interest
under cover. Incidentally I was
named president of the company, and
Townley's old employe, T. F. Harvey.
was continued as secretary.
That some may question my story
I have no doubt, as Mr.. Townley is
supposed to be poverty stricken I'm
spite Of the fact that l paid over
$2,5o0s taxes for him>in Dade county,
Florida, the 1918 taxes that were due
when l took charge of the enterprise.
But to those who doubt 1 will here
reproduce extracts from an affidavit
signed by ]. j. Hastings in June,
1919, after he had been fired and
when he was still in an angry frame
of mind, and long before Mr.. Town
ley and /, or Mr.. Brinton, became in
volved in a lawsuit owe the sisal
matter in the Cass county court at
Fargo, which will b. settled in due
time before a. jury. The Hastings
AFFIDAVIT contains the following state
ments:
Furthermore, A. c. Townley (
used the funds of the Nonpartisan
League Publishing company, to
Florida which later developed
into the United States Sinl trust,
same having been organized by
Thomas Allen Box n myself.
we having taken control Of the
project along in July, 1918, be-
cause of the inability of Mr..
Townley to give it the personal
attention keeping the
thing extremely quiet as the
farmers OF the state should not
now the truth about it until it
was time when the names of the
organizers and the conception Of
the project could be so camou-
tagged Is to make it appear that
Mr.. Townley had nothing to do
with it. Mr.. Box and
made two separate trips to Chi
cago and held a conference each
time with the n of a town.
ship of land south of Miami,
adapted for the growing of sisal.
X. After a great deal Of c%onsidera-
tion I purchased thirty-fve Sec
tfons Of land. l imn,e-
diately formed the common law
company known as. the United
States Sisal Trust with a capt
st~a1fxation sbf one million dollars. -
I also incorporated a South Da-
kota corporation. All
the preliminary papers were
properly signed and executed.
(Mr:> Brinton has the original
papers and the secretary Of
states office in South Dakota will
I. show the formation of the South
Dakota company MI.
Harvey Immediately commenced
the work Of preparing the land Of
the larger tract to receive the
plants from the nursery. :
II had never seen the planta-
Q and they Were continually
drawing funds which I did not
know were being j%udiciously
spent. A good many times I was