The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1924-10-24

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besides the fact of the il
legal deposit of unsecured money to
the amount of hundreds of thousands
of dollars in the bank of the King Bee
of the gang, Chester Beiseker, but 1t
disclosed a partnership between COun-
ty Treasurer Movius, Commissioners /
MatBin and TimmOns, and Chester
by which the farmer and
taxpayer were defrauded of thousands |
of dollars. L. J. Onstad was their
The records disclosed upon examip- /
alton that in the spring Of 1920, after
the second seed grain bond had been
issued, that Rex Movius deposited
$4,000 in the Sheridan County bank,
taking a Cashiers check for the same,
and carrying it in his cash as a cash
item The money was deposited in
the bank to the credit of Beiseker &
Movius, and was used by Beiseker &
Movius to buy seed grain to furnish
the drOuth srickened farmers. Chester
Beiseker bought this seed wheat for
say $3.50 per bushel, and sold it to
the county for $3.50 per bushel. The
Commissioners accepted this offer and
no other, and farmers having seed for
sale had to sell it to Beiseker, MOvius
being a silent partner. Money was
tight in the spring of 1920, and Bets
eker offered to handle the County Seed
Relief Warrants on a discount
basis of Is per cent. This was ac-
copied by the County Commissioners
and when seed grain was delivered by
Beiseker, he billed the county for
price of seed, which was always a
third more than he paid for it, plus
Is per cent of the total amount of the
claim. These warrants were then
cashed by the Sheridan County State
Bank with the county money illegally
deposited therein by Cashiers checks
by County Treasurer Rex MOvius to
the credit of Beiseker & MOvius.
There was no interest paid on this
money deposited by Cashiers checks
to the county, nor did the county
have bonds for the same. Briefly, the
private seed grain dealing of Beiseker
& MOvius were financed by money
taken out of the county treasury.
The farmers having seed grain to
sell were compelled to sell to Beisek-
er & Movius for going market price,
instead of seed grain prices. Beisek-
er & MOvius sold same to county for
at least so per cent profit, on which
was added Is per cent for alleged
discount on seed grain warrants,
which was false, for the whole of
these warrants were sold for per
cent discount or we're disposed of at
par, as was afterwards disclosed.
County money bought the seed grain
and county money cashed and handled
the warrants. The profits on the grain
and discounts went to the secret &C
count of Beiseker and Movius. The
profit was huge. One time when a
bunch of flax seed bought for S5.75
per bushel and sold to the county for
$3.50 per bushel, was found to be
short upon delivery to Beiseker &
Movius by a couple of hundred BUSH
els, the loss was made up at the Pro
gressive Farmers Elevator at Plenty
wood by the mixing into the flax of
that amount of weed seed and sold
to the farmers by the county. The
! elevator man was well paid for this
and when this was disclosed by the
| Producers News, he fed the country.
ENTER MATKIN AND TIMMONS
The reader is curious to know of
the connection of Watkins and Tim
mons by this time. 1t is plain to ev-
eryOne that the above deal could not
have been pulled off without their CO.
operation. Well they co-operated
They gave the contract to furnish the
grain to Beiseker. They paid all
claims for grain and added discounts
without question. They bought more
grain than needed at high price, and
afterwards sold it back for market
price. In reward for this they took
split on the profits. The. records
showed that on numerous occasions
both men drew sums like $500, 81, 900
and 81 800 by means of checks on the
Beiseker & MOvius accounts, and on
the same day these checks were de
posted to the account of Matkin's
wife, and Timmons' wife. This same
fact occurred on several occasions
The failure of the Sheridan County
State bank and the placing of it into
the hands of a receiver, made the
books of the bank available for in
spectiOn. The report of the examiner
disclosed these facts. On January 1st
1921, Commissioner Timmons went
out of Office and Commissioner Tbser
went into Office, breaking for a while
the Timmons and Watkins control OF
the Board. On March 1st, 1921, Rex
Movius went out of the Treasurer's Of
flee and Dan Olson went in, calling
for an examination as he took over
the office.
The report of the Public Examiner
was bomb. The County Commits
sioneTs broke away from the infu-
ence of Judge Conner, and hired the
law firms of Wheeler & Baldwin and
Atty. Alfred Vollun, and put an ex-
pert accountant in the person of Grant
Hoage of Butte onto the. records to
check them in detail. These .attor-
neys secured access to the defunct
Sheridan County State Bank records,
and found the records of the above
story: they found the endorsed can
celled checks. They got the accounts
of Beiseker & Movius and the &C
counts Of Mrs. Matkin and Mrs. Tim
mons, giving the damning proof of
the looting Of the county. The evil
dence was complete, careful cOpies