The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-06-15
The Story of the Promotion
Of Brotherhood Banking
By JOHN GABRIEL SOLTLS
By JOHN GABRIEL SOLTLS

nature of this fraud must know that the postdated
checks which he farmers made out to the Nonpartlsan
League were in payment for newspapers that they
were to receive from the organization Both of them
were weekiies; national, and state paper.
However, owing to the demise of the League, no such
papers were published for long time. They died
natural death with the ramshacke League. Therefore,
the farmers quite rightly refused to pay those checks
since they got nothing in return. Many thousands OF
dollars Of such checks remained unpaid
Mr.. Paddock with his keen legal mind, together with
the elusive Mr. Merrck former secretary OF
the Pacific Brotherhood Investment Company, saw IN
these unhonored postdated checks golden opportunity
to rake in the cash of the farmers, by employing pro-
per legal methods to force payment.
They hired crew of professional budozing and
"hardboiled" collectors to visit the farmers and ntim
dat ethem into paying those checks or face legal
action Many farmers thus fleeced by these two
opponents of labor banking, to whom the term Glass
Collaboration cannot apply simply because it would de-
scribe nothing in their This operation a
high handed fraud smackng of plain unadorned rob
berry.
Fresh from his triumph as a "hard-boled collector;
of getting something for nothing, find Mr. H. A.
Paddock departing for Cleveland Ohio, there to func-
ton as general-counsel of the Brotherhood Financial
Institution. How does that come to pass?
Well, Mr.. Geo. T. Webb, whose rise in the world of
ings and Paddock ct al, found himself in position
not only repay for past services rendered him by
the "wrecking crew., but also to place whose
qualities he knew only too WELL where he could do the
greatest good to the smallest number that is say
the original staff of the Townley Hastings crowd,
shall have occasion to note beyond an!
shadow of doubt. That's how Paddock got there.
MR. HENRY E. CAss
Cass was president of the Pacific Brotherhood In
vestment Company of Seattle, Washington. Also wa
president vice president of the Spokane, Tacoma
Seattle and Portland Brotherhood Banks. He is ais
product of the League machine being one of its late
productions
He was employed for about ten years in the North
western National Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota
the capacity of clerk in the transit department.
was for short time cashier of the Capital Securit
Bank of Bismarck, North Dakota However, due
rather embarrassing entanglements into which he 81
himself at Bismarck not related to the banking bushes
at all, he constrained to abandon the post.
He became organizer of the Nonpartisan LeagJ
about 1920 going into the state of aKnsas with IL
Townley organization in the winter of 192O-1921. +
a very close friend of H. A. Merrick, who did a
he could to advance Mr.. Cass. But the League VIZ
entering definitely into its eclipse, that Cass had
move to other fields for easy money.
Later he became promoter of "Mary Murphys Sc
Soaping Wash Board. This did not go over Follov
then went to Spokane, Washington, and became cas-
Ter of the Brotherhood Bank there Soon afterward
became the president of the Pacific Brotherhood
vestment Company followed by his presidency of pra
tically all of the Brotherhood banks on the Pact
Coast.
When one asks what the ladder that Cass elm
ed to ascend his former height of financial eminent
ne is puzzled for an answer unless he knows the wa
CT the game played by the Webbs and Paddocks
From the standpoint of a successful man. a practic
banker as they under Capitalism Mr. Cass
positively no record On the contrary all of his We
lures were dismal failures Therefore his oualif
lions from this point of view are non-exstant
has ne been loaded down with all of the responsiE
1ty which he carries because of his superior lnowed
OF the world of labor? Not at ALL 1t is doubt
whether Mr. Cass knew that the real workers were
canned into sixteen different craft unions before
got placed In the bank at Spokane. He is not a meml
OF labor union. He was for that matter
him labor organizations are all Greek Moreover
Is not at all interested in them as labor oroanzatio
AS fields for the getting of easy money that of cou
is horse of another color
What, then, his shining qualifications that
duced somebody at Cleveland to place Cass at the h
of the Brotherhood institutions on the Pacific Goa
Simply that Webb and Paddock the master minds
hind the organization of the Pacific Brotherhood
vestment Company, knew that Mr. Cass could b.
trusted soldier who would carry out the orders impi
ly, and without murmur, transmitted to him bv
two master minds at Cleveland, Ohio In other wo
they knew their man as the graduate of the Town
Hastings school of fast workers. Hence the selec
of Henry E. Cass for the strategic post Of presden
the Pacific Brotherhood Investment Companv of
attic, Washington, and officer of the string of Brot
hood Banks on the Pacific coast
Continued next weekly