The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-07-14

oath that it would reveal privat
matters concerning the customers o
the bank. When pressed further b.
the court she refused to testify an,
gave the humiliating excuse that i
might incriminate herself. Thru tw,
hours of grilling, she continued to re
fuse to give up the information
standing on her one right, that o
protecting herself. Thereupon tn
court summoned another witness an,
brought out the exact information
she had refused to give, and it in
dicated that the bank had committed
criminal acts time and again, ant
that the cashier of the Rigby branch
had resigned because they refused
to make small loans to the Beet
growers Sugar company that were
legal and supported by ample secur
ity, while at the same time making
stupendous loans to others, that were
in violation of the law and not sup.
ported by any security at all.
Remember James Steele Jr.
In following thru the history OF
the alleged conspiracy to crush the
Independent sugar company estab-
lished by the farmers and beetgrow-
ers at Rigby, remember the name of
James H. Steele, cashier of the
Anderson Bank of Rigby for sixteen
years, the friend of Rigby factory,
the man who resigned because
he was not allowed by his superiors
to befriend it, the man who was
called on mission and sent out Of
the country by men in the Mormon
church and the Utah-Idaho Sugar
company who were shown to be NOV
ing heaven and earth to obstruct the
program of financing and construct
ing the Rigby factory, the man whom
Uncle Sam called back from his mis-
sion and placed on the witness stand
to tell the whole and absolute truth,
and to give the names and figures
in unsecured loans made by the
Anderson Bank of Idaho Falls that
Minnie Hit refused to utter because
it might incriminate herself. These
dangerous and illegal loans W ere
made under the administration of
cashier whose suicide last month
sealed his lips forever and placed his
form beneath the sod.
Where Blackfooters Cut In
Three years ago when the Parkin-
sons at Blackfoot were writing con-
tracts for the Eccles people for rails
ing beets in the Blackfoot, Rockford,
Springfield, Sterling and Aberdeen
country in Bingham county, the local
representatives. of the UtahIIdaho
Sugar company were rushing around
writing contracts in the same terri
tory for their own company and
promising beet dumps and factories
galore. The men of the commercial
club of Blackfoot were induced t.
go out and urge farmers to increase
their beet acreage in 1918 to help
win the war, and up at Rigby the
men who were approachable were
being asked to go out and tell farm
ers not to raise beets for the indie, |
pendent company because things
would be manipulated in such way
that those same beets would rot in !!
the ground.
Connecting Broken Links
The federal trade commission now
sitting in New York is still taking
testimony to connect up the broken
links as tCld by Minnie Hit and
James Steele and many others who
testified al Rigby when the same
was in session there, and
as scores of others testified when it
was sitting in San Francisco, Salt
Lake and Washington, D. c.
When Ira Hicks of Pocatello
brought that. suit to throw the Rigby
independent sugar company known
as the Beetgrowers, into bank
'uptcy last February, to protect his
little pinch of stock that he had
bought day or two before, he was
acting from perfectly pure and holy
motives, we know, because he said
under oath that he was.
We know now, that the Utah
Idaho Sugar company has been per-
Fectly sincere all these years when
t was telling the farmers that it was
paying them all the money it could
afford to, because they said so them
selves, and they had their represen-
:atives in this county saying so, and
hey had this little sheet passing the
message along, and this is a per-
'ectly good truthful little Sheet.
Further on I will tell you the
story OF how George Hill pinched
lis thumb.
Arorsro - d